Selling your junk or dead car in St. Joseph

The ten-day line for unlicensed cars

Section 15-29 deals with prohibited vehicles and private parking. Among the vehicles it describes are "unlicensed vehicles in a residential neighborhood which have remained unlicensed for more than ten days." The section then says that parking a vehicle "in a manner that would cause it to become a prohibited vehicle for which no exception under this section applies shall constitute a nuisance and a violation of this section."

Two exceptions in the text matter for a dead car:

• a licensed vehicle parked for "a reasonable amount of time" while you move belongings or finish a construction or similar project
• any vehicle on the premises of a licensed motor vehicle junk business or junkyard

Before the city tows a prohibited vehicle, the code says the owner of the property, if present, "must be notified of the prohibited vehicle and its potential removal."

Streets and alleys: the 48-hour tag

Section 2-1247 lets police tow abandoned property from a public street or alley once it has been left "unattended for a period of 48 hours or more" and carries an official 48-hour notice from the department. That covers a car with no current license tag, or one that looks "inoperable, dismantled" or too run-down to drive lawfully. A car blocking traffic can be removed without the wait when nobody seems to be arranging to move it.

The owner pays. Getting the car back means showing the towing company proof of ownership and paying "all reasonable charges for the towing and storage." The tower keeps a lien on it till you do. Towed or impounded walks through the rest.

What a scrap buyer in St. Joseph has to wait for

St. Joseph's Section 23-91 says a junk or salvage dealer who buys a car on a bill of sale can't crush, shred, melt or resell it "until 48 hours after the time and date of its purchase." When police tell the dealer they suspect theft, there's another 30 days to wait, skipping weekends and federal holidays. During the hold, police and city staff may inspect the vehicle. So a car sold to a local yard on a bill of sale sits whole for at least two days after it leaves you.

Missouri paperwork for a Buchanan County seller

No emissions test for Buchanan County sellers. In Missouri it covers sales in St. Charles, St. Louis and Jefferson counties, plus St. Louis City. What you do provide:

• the assigned title. Missouri does not require notarized title signatures.
• the odometer reading and sale date, written in with no erasures or correction fluid
• a St. Joseph safety inspection done within the past 60 days. A car below 150,000 miles is exempt for ten years past its model year.
• a notarized Lien Release (Form 4809), if there was a loan

The plates are yours. Pull them, current or expired, before the buyer gets the car. Then a St. Joseph sellers have 30 days to file a report with the Department of Revenue. St. Joseph sellers can file either form: DOR-1957 for a Bill of Sale or DOR-5049 for a Notice of Sale. Recent titles have a tear-off DOR-5049A.

The state issues Missouri titles, not Buchanan County. Apply at any Missouri license office or through the Motor Vehicle Bureau in Jefferson City. Replacing a lost title costs $8.50 plus a $9 processing fee.

No title on an older car

Under Section 301.227, a St. Joseph car aged ten or more model years that won't run may be sold for scrap without a title. First comes a lien search online, and then the St. Joseph operator mails the Department a copy of your state ID with the bill of sale. Cars 20 model years old skip the lien search. By signing that bill of sale you swear four things. The car is at least ten model years old, it doesn't run, it has no liens, and it's yours to sell.

Cars 26 or more model years old get an extra option. For a St. Joseph car, a bill of sale alone can be enough for the Director to grant a junking certificate, once the highway patrol confirms it was not stolen. Junk car with no title has the details.

When an insurer called it salvage

Missouri law calls a car a "salvage vehicle" if, within six years of its model year, damage makes repair cost over eighty percent of fair market value. It also counts if the owner, a secured party or an insurer calls it salvage. A St. Joseph titles can carry a Missouri brand. In St. Joseph car might carry a title brand of "Flood Damaged", "Salvage", "Previously Damaged", "Rebuilt", "Rebuilt Salvage" or "Damaged". See Salvage title for how each brand affects selling the car.

Getting an offer

Send the form or ring (877) 421-6008. Say which car it is, its miles, if it will start, and how the paperwork looks. We pick up from a driveway, a side street near downtown or a shop lot. St. Joseph stands apart from the Kansas City pages: Gladstone is 40.3 miles away and Kansas City 46.1, both as the crow flies. The Missouri page has the statewide rules.