Selling a junk or dead car in Minot

The Minot nuisance list

Section 22-2 names "junked, abandoned, disassembled, inoperative or unregistered vehicles" as nuisances. The exclusion is for vehicles that are "currently licensed, registered, and operable." All three have to be true. A car that starts every morning but has lapsed registration does not get the exclusion.

The city's Code Enforcement page says such vehicles "can be reported." Businesses that handle wrecks face a stricter rule. Auto wreckers, junk yards, scrap processors, used-parts dealers and repair shops must keep all storage inside "a completely enclosed building" or behind "a reasonably opaque fence at least eight (8) feet" high.

If a city letter is what brought you here, see notice to remove a car.

Minot's street clocks

Section 20-22 sets two separate limits:

1. 24 hours on any street, "unless the vehicle is legally parked in the closest possible proximity to the property at which the owner or principal operator of the vehicle has established his residence."
2. 48 hours on any street, with no exception.

So even a dead car parked right outside your own house has 48 hours at most. A 2009 amendment changed the section's title from "ninety-six-hour" to "forty-eight-hour" parking restrictions. Downtown, the Central Business District adds overnight limits of its own.

Private lots

Under Section 20-23, the owner of a private no-parking or restricted-parking area can have an offending vehicle removed "without prior notice to the owner thereof," if the vehicle is kept safe, for example through a licensed towing and storage service. The same landowner may also "request the city to remove and to impound a junked or abandoned vehicle located on his property." If the city believes it was left without the landowner's consent, it impounds it as though it had been abandoned on public property.

Impound and the 30-day window

Section 20-76 lets the city tow with its own equipment or a contractor, and it "may enter upon private property in order to accomplish an impoundment." That requires prior notice to the landowner under Section 20-74(c). If the city does the towing or storage itself, it inventories and secures what is inside.

To get the car back, Section 20-77 gives you "thirty (30) days of the impoundment." You pay "the costs of impoundment, storage, publication and mailing of notices," plus "an additional fixed fee to cover the salaries of the staff and overhead expenses." When a car is worth less than that bill, selling it may make more sense. Our towed or impounded guide walks through both choices.

Title and plates

North Dakota keeps a titled sale simple. The seller fills in the assignment and warranty with the buyer's name and price, then gets the title to the buyer within 30 days. There is no notary step. The buyer must title it within 30 days and pay a $5 transfer fee. Without a title, the seller uses SFN 2888, signed in front of a notary, and states why no title can be furnished.

Titles are issued by NDDOT Motor Vehicle, which lists 608 E Boulevard Ave, Bismarck, on its forms. The plates are yours to remove, and leftover registration rides over to a single replacement vehicle at a $5 charge. No refunds are given, and a lost plate costs $5 to replace.

Nearby

Mandan is 98.9 miles away as the crow flies, Bismarck 101.1 and Williston 109.2. Statewide rules are on the North Dakota page.

Getting an offer

Fill in the form or dial (877) 421-6008: which car, what year, how far it has gone, dead or running, title or none. Pickup is possible behind a fence, at a curb, in a shop lot or at the city impound.