Selling a dead or junk car in Brookings

Three ways a car lands on the nuisance list

Section 42-142 reaches a dead car from three directions.

• Accumulation. The opening clause above names automobiles and their parts outright.
• Derelict property. The section covers "deteriorated, wrecked or derelict property in unusable condition, having no value other than nominal scrap or junk value," left out in the weather, that "constitutes a fire, health, or safety hazard."
• Abandoned property. This one "includes, without being so restricted, deteriorated, wrecked, inoperative or partially dismantled motor vehicles," along with trailers and boats.

The lines from 42-142 quoted here set no number of days, so a Brookings owner should not assume there is a grace period.

What the zoning code assumes

The city's zoning definitions in 94-1 are written around cars that work. A parking area is a place where "licensed and operable motor vehicles are temporarily parked." Minor auto repair, as a land use, does not include "storage of wrecked or junked vehicles." And an automobile wrecking junkyard, as the code defines it, "does not include uses established entirely within enclosed buildings."

Seventy-two hours at the curb

The street clock is the same number in two sections. Section 82-432 makes it unlawful to leave a vehicle, trailer or implement on any street, avenue or alley "for a continuous period of 72 hours or longer," and the same limit holds on boulevard areas signed for no parking.

Section 82-91 adds the abandonment test: a vehicle left on a public street, alley or parking lot longer than 72 hours "without notification to the police department" is abandoned. Telling the police keeps a stalled car out of that definition, but it does not change the 72-hour parking limit in 82-432.

If the car is hauled away

South Dakota law sets the paper trail after a removal. Within 45 days the removal agency must send the registered owner and any lienholders notice by certified mail, and it can't charge storage past 10 days until that notice goes out. Thirty days after the notice is sent, title passes to the agency unless the owner reclaims the car first.

Selling it through the Brookings County treasurer

Titles and registration in South Dakota run through the county treasurer's office, here the Brookings County treasurer. The seller's part is short but it is the law:

• Print a free 45-day seller's permit, online or at the treasurer's kiosk, and give it to the buyer. You then have 45 days to deliver the title.
• When the sale happens, send in your report of sale listing the buyer's name and address.
• Brookings sellers can get both an odometer disclosure and a bill of sale from the Department of Revenue too. Its seller steps list no notary.

Missing the permit or the report is a Class 2 misdemeanor. Your plates come off and stay yours; the state gives credit for unexpired months when they go on another vehicle, and its manual lists a $5.00 plate reassignment fee. A lost title costs $10 to replace.

Getting an offer

(877) 421-6008 reaches us, or use the form. A short note on the form gets a Brookings offer started. We load it from a side street near Main, a driveway or a repair bay. Watertown is 45.6 miles away and Sioux Falls 52.8, as the crow flies; see Watertown, Sioux Falls or the South Dakota page.