Angleton's junk-car rules, and selling yours whole

Two Angleton tests, not one

Chapter 12 works on two levels. Section 12-17 is the broad 30-day rule above. It does not reach a car kept indoors, or one at a commercial garage, a used car lot or a junk yard with its license in order.

Section 12-16 then defines a "junked vehicle" more narrowly: an inoperative motor vehicle missing its unexpired plate and its valid safety inspection certificate alike, which is also wrecked, dismantled, partly dismantled, abandoned or discarded. Under Section 12-18, one of those anywhere in the city is a public nuisance. It is unlawful to cause or keep one, whether you dumped it on someone else's land or let it rot on your own.

The exemptions are short. A car or part "completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street" is out, and so are vehicles kept as part of a dealer's or junkyard's business. No fence or cover exception exists for an ordinary owner.

The notice and the council hearing

The chief of police or the health officer mails written notice, certified or registered, to the property owner or occupant. That letter allows ten days for the car to go and warns that a hearing has to be requested within the same ten days.

A hearing in Angleton goes before the city council, or a board or official the council picks, rather than a judge. It happens before the car is moved, as long as the request arrives within ten days of the certified-mail receipt. Disobey the removal order and Section 1-14 kicks in. Its ceiling is $2,000 for fire safety, zoning, or health and sanitation rules and $500 for everything else, with each day charged again.

There is a quieter way out. Under Section 12-21, written permission to the chief to haul the car away, handed over inside the ten-day window, "shall be considered compliance."

If the city does take it, the car is sent off for scrap or salvage (scrapyard, demolisher, or city-run site), and "it shall not be reconstructed or made operable by any person." Texas transportation officials get word within five days. The chief, or someone acting for the chief, may step onto private land to inspect the car and confirm what it is, and the municipal court issues the orders.

Who to call

Angleton Code Enforcement is part of Development Services. Its duties include abandoned and junk vehicles along with trash, rubbish and open storage; the permit department line is 979-849-4364 ext. 2105. Police non-emergency dispatch is 979-849-2383. The city also adopted the Texas Vehicle Storage Facility Act as an ordinance, so tow storage lots inside Angleton run under it.

Title, plates and registration

The Brazoria County tax assessor-collector keeps its office at 237 E. Locust St., Suite 104, a short hop south of downtown (under a mile as the crow flies). The phone is (979) 864-1320. Angleton buyers file their title paperwork there; sellers do not have to.

On the title, write the date you sold and the miles showing, then sign. Do the same with Form 130-U, adding the price. There is no notary step in Texas. The state wants a Vehicle Transfer Notification from you within 30 days, filed online or on Form VTR-346. Send it on time and Angleton buyers' toll bills and parking citations cannot be pinned on you. Pull the plates if you want them for a replacement vehicle or to deface; the sticker does not go along. If you are keeping the car a while, TxDMV allows an online renewal of a lapsed registration for a year after it expires, provided nobody has written you a ticket for it. A car whose title is in another name is covered in car not in your name.

Getting an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or online. Tell us the car, its mileage, whether it will start, and what papers you hold. Pickup happens at your house, a repair shop or beside a county road, wherever the car is parked. Close by: Lake Jackson, 8.5 miles away, and Alvin. For state rules, see Texas.