Selling a junk or dead car in Bristol, Tennessee

If repairs don't appeal and you just want it gone, We buy whole non-running and junk cars. You sell the whole car as it sits, and pickup is free anywhere in the US.

Section 38-5 and the seven-day clock

The section reaches further than cars. It bans keeping "automobile parts, tires or any other items which are in a wholly or partially rusted, wrecked, junked, dismantled, or inoperative condition" outdoors. The only shelter it accepts is being "completely enclosed within a building or dwelling." A car on blocks beside the house, a pile of old tires, or a stripped engine on a pallet all fall under the same rule.

The clock starts when the designated official gives notice. From then, failing to remove or correct the condition "within seven days after appropriate notice" is a violation of the chapter.

At the curb: 72 hours and 16 feet

Pushing the car into the street does not solve it. Bristol's Section 70-198 covers vehicles and trailers parked in a public street, an alley or a right-of-way. None may sit there "for longer than 72 consecutive hours," and any that do "are subject to towing and impounding at the owner's expense."

Width matters too. Section 70-197 bars parking that leaves "less than 16 feet of the width of the roadway" for traffic and emergency vehicles. On a narrow residential street, one stalled car can be enough to break that rule.

For a broken work truck, the rules are even stricter. Commercial vehicles may not park on residential streets from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and the rest of the day they are held to two hours.

When Bristol police tow it

Section 70-74 lets officers remove a car that is disabled and blocking traffic when the driver cannot arrange its removal, or one left unattended and parked as a hazard. When registration papers in the car point to the owner, the code calls for written notice "of the fact of such removal and the reasons therefor and of the place to which such vehicle has been removed." If no owner turns up and nobody takes the car back inside three days, the officer sends the state a report by mail.

When a private tow firm holds the car, Tennessee's procedure applies. Inside 3 business days the tow company sends the Department of Revenue a Request for Verification of Ownership. In Bristol, storage charges stop at 60 days unless the owner or lienholder consents. More on this in towed or impounded.

Title and plates on the Tennessee side

In Bristol, Tennessee, the Sullivan County clerk handles titles, following rules set by the Department of Revenue's Vehicle Services Division. Tennessee titles skip the notary. Your signed and printed name in the assignment spot should mirror the front. Owners joined by "and," must both sign; owners joined by "or," need just one signature.

Keep the plates. In Tennessee your plates follow you, not the car, and moving one to another vehicle is $1. The Revenue Department's title pages offer Bristol sellers no release or notice-of-sale form that we could find. A lost title can be replaced for $14 plus any county fees. Read selling with no title.

Nearby towns

In a straight line, Johnson City sits 17.5 miles off and Kingsport 18.3 miles. State rules are on the Tennessee page.

Getting an offer

Fill in the form or call (877) 421-6008. In Bristol we pick up on side streets off State Street, in Sullivan County driveways, or at downtown garage lots.