Selling a junk or dead car in Mauldin

How Section 18-65 works

Mauldin's junk-vehicle section starts with a notice. It can go to the person responsible, the landowner, or the registered owner of the car, telling them "to remove and dispose of such vehicle and/or motor accessories at his own expense."

What follows depends on where the car is parked:

• Public property. If nobody acts within the notice period, the city may haul it "to a storage area for safekeeping."
• Private land. City crews need written permission from whoever owns the car or occupies the lot, unless an officer has declared it a hazard "after due notice and hearing."

A removed car comes back to you "by exhibiting reasonable proof of ownership and paying all reasonable costs incident to its removal, storage and administrative expenses." The clock that matters: an unclaimed one "may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of in summary manner after 20 days." Mauldin then tells the SCDMV it went out as junk.

Rolling it to the curb does not help

Once notice is given, Section 18-65 makes it unlawful to move a junk car "onto any public highway or other public property for purposes of storage." Section 38-90 closes the same door from the traffic side: no parking on a street "except when such parking is incidental to the use and operation of the vehicle." A Mauldin car with a dead starter is not being used. Under state law, two days unattended on a highway is enough to call it abandoned, and city code officers may tag it.

Two dead cars on a business lot

Zoning section 3:3 has a rule aimed at shops and commercial land. Two or more cars on a nonresidential parcel that sit idle for over 45 days, unable to run "under their own power," are "evidence of an automobile salvage-wrecking yard." That is a zoning use of its own, so a Mauldin business holding broken customer cars has a reason to clear them.

Saluda Dam Road and the paperwork

Mauldin owners deal with the state SCDMV for titles. We checked the branch at number 15 Saluda Dam Road, Greenville (864-241-1147). It is about 10 miles northwest of central Mauldin in a straight line.

Signing over a South Carolina title means completing its first assignment: who is buying and where they live, any lien, the mileage reading, the sale price and date, then two signatures. Report the sale to the SCDMV on Form 416. Your plate stays yours; bolt it onto another car in your name, or send it back with Form 452 and end the policy.

Lost the title? Mauldin owners pay $15 for a duplicate. Very old cars with no engine and no live plate may skip the title entirely; junk car with no title explains that route.

Near Mauldin

Simpsonville is 4.5 miles away and Greenville 5.1, and each has its own junk-car rules. Statewide steps are on the South Carolina page.

Getting an offer

Selling a car in Mauldin? Ring (877) 421-6008 or fill in our offer form. Our tow driver can load it off a covered Mauldin driveway, or from a Greenville County garage where it gave out.