Selling a dead or junk car in Great Falls

What Great Falls calls a junk vehicle

The definition in section 10.1.010 has a location test and a condition test. It covers a vehicle "located on public property or illegally parked on private property within the incorporated City limits" that "does not properly display license plates or stickers indicating current registration" or has one or more listed defects. Section 10.12.030 then makes it a nuisance to keep one on public property.

A car parked legally in your own driveway falls outside that wording. Montana law reaches Great Falls too. MCA 75-10-505 covers even a single junk vehicle. A Great Falls owner must screen it from public view or haul it to a licensed wrecking facility or a county motor vehicle graveyard.

The ten-day count, and why to count it the short way

The notice gives "ten (10) days, (exclusive of weekends and federally mandated holidays)" to fix the problem. Section 10.12.070, though, says the responsible party "shall abate the Nuisance within ten (10) calendar days." The two sections count differently. Ten calendar days is the shorter reading, so plan around that one.

The code accepts four fixes:

• current registration, with the plate or sticker on the car
• repairs to every condition that made it a nuisance
• all the required equipment and parts named in the notice
• moving the car "to a legally authorized location"

If none happens, the city "may abate such Nuisance by causing the junk vehicle(s) to be removed, impounded and sold, or disposed of" under state law for abandoned vehicles. If the owner is unknown, a notice taped on or near the car counts as served on the day it goes up. Notice to remove a car walks through answering one.

48 hours on someone else's ground

Section 10.1.010 calls a vehicle abandoned if it has been "left unattended on public property for more than forty-eight (48) hours and is rendered inoperable". The same two-day line applies on someone else's land when the landowner never agreed. A car the police impounded and nobody reclaims "for a period of five (5) days" is abandoned too. Section 10.12.080 bars parking on a private lot without the okay of the "owner, lessee, or person in charge". A car that quit in a store lot is on a short clock. If it has already been towed, see towed or impounded.

Snow routes

Section 12.12.010 gives the City Manager, or a designated representative, the power to call a snow emergency. While one is in force, section 12.12.030 makes it unlawful "to stop, stand, park or leave unattended any motor vehicle upon a designated snow route" where signs are up. The wording makes no exception for a car that won't start. Parking returns street by street as the plows clear them.

Cascade County title office

A county office we checked handles titles at 325 2nd Ave North, Great Falls, MT 59401. Measured directly, the spot sits under a mile north of downtown Great Falls. Cascade County could have more locations. Your buyer, not you, does the titling there if they live in Cascade County.

Montana title and plate rules for the seller

In Great Falls, the seller signs the title to the buyer and passes it along. No notary has been needed since Oct. 1, 2025. Use blue or black ink, since white-out voids the title, and print the buyer's name and address. Complete the odometer part on any car newer than nine years.

Then take the plates off. MCA 61-3-334 makes that the seller's job, right away. You can move them onto another vehicle you own, and the old registration expires. Montana has no sale report to send, so a Great Falls seller keeps the plates and copies both sides of the signed title as proof.

The state also lets an individual take a junk car to a county motor vehicle graveyard with the title or a written release. Selling it whole is the other choice.

Nearby

Helena is 71.2 miles away in a straight line, Bozeman 126.2, Missoula 135.2 and Kalispell 148.8. For everything statewide, see Montana.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or through the online form. Send the offer form for your Great Falls car. We collect it from your street, a lot, or wherever that notice landed.