Selling a junk or dead car in Myrtle Beach

What Section 10-22 reaches

The nuisance list covers four kinds of car, and any one is enough: unregistered, inoperable, derelict, or abandoned. It applies on "any highway or right-of-way, or other public or private property." So a Myrtle Beach car with lapsed registration that still runs is caught like one with a seized engine. The two ways to comply are a building or a full cover. Selling the car is a third.

Three ways a parked car becomes a nuisance

Myrtle Beach's impound section, 12-146, is aimed at cars left on public streets and in metered spaces. It names three triggers:

• Parked against the parking article or the state's stopping and parking rules. The code calls that "an unreasonable interference with the rights of the traveling public."
• Left at a meter. A car "parked continuously in any metered parking space" for "48 or more hours with an accumulation of two or more citations" is a public nuisance.
• Unpaid tickets. Under the parking article, a Myrtle Beach car parked on public property that owes over $100 in "past due outstanding bonds" is a public nuisance "and subject to impoundment".

Once a car is a nuisance, an officer or parking enforcement can boot it, or have a commercial tow service take it "and store it in a safe place until claimed by the owner." The owner gets it back "only upon payment of fines, fees and cost of impounding." Each impound is reported to the police department, which keeps the records.

The street is not a garage

Section 12-100 says "no vehicle shall be parked on any street except when such parking is incidental to the use and operation of the vehicle." It names "garages, dealers or other persons" storing cars on the street as banned. If a car does break down at the curb, Section 12-95 also keeps it back from corners: 30 feet from an intersection or driveway where the speed limit is over 30 miles per hour, 20 feet at 30, and 15 feet at 25 or less.

State law on top

Around Myrtle Beach, a car counts as abandoned under state law after two days on a highway, or a week on land where the owner never gave permission. Police and Myrtle Beach code staff may mark it with a colored tag first. After any tow, the wrecker and the lot each owe the last registered owner and each lienholder a letter sent registered or certified, return receipt requested. A car left unclaimed can be auctioned off, the high bidder taking it with no liens attached.

If an insurer settled after a storm, keep in mind the state salvage law: it applies when repairs would reach three quarters of fair market value or more, and it skips antiques and cars valued at $2,000 or less. Hail or storm damage goes through that path.

The Conway office and your paperwork

Horry County titles go through the SCDMV. We checked the Conway branch at 4103 Highway 701 North (843-365-4781). Measured straight, it sits about 17 miles northwest of downtown Myrtle Beach. Horry County may have other offices too.

The seller's half of a Myrtle Beach sale:

1. Confirm the title is in your name. The SCDMV tells buyers to check exactly that.
2. Complete the first assignment. Buyer's full name and street address, lender if there is one, odometer, price, sale date, and two signatures. If your Myrtle Beach title has nowhere to write the price, add a bill of sale.
3. Mail or drop off Form 416, the Notice of Vehicle Sold.
4. Hold back the plate. South Carolina will not let a plate move to a new owner who is not on your title. Myrtle Beach owners can shift it to another car or send it back with Form 452.
5. Cancel the liability policy.

A replacement title runs $15, and $20 more buys same-day service in person. With an open lien, the duplicate is mailed to the lender. Owners of cars twelve or more model years old that lack a valid plate and either have no engine or cannot run at all may use a signed affirming form, not a title, at a demolisher or metals recycler. The no-title guide walks through it.

Horry County also mails the property tax bill that a buyer must have to register, and from the day of purchase the buyer gets 45 days to get that done.

Up and down the Grand Strand

Conway is 12.7 miles inland and North Myrtle Beach 12.9 miles up the coast. Florence is 61.2 miles west. The South Carolina page has the statewide rules.

Getting an offer

Got a dead car in Myrtle Beach? Call (877) 421-6008 or send the offer form, and mention any tickets. The tow can come to a covered driveway off Kings Highway's side streets, a condo garage, or the impound lot.