Selling a dead or junk car in Anna

30 days in the driveway, 72 hours on the street

Anna puts its junked-vehicle rule in the property maintenance code. Sec. 4.04.015 covers a self-propelled car with no current plate or registration sticker that is wrecked or dismantled, or "inoperable and has remained inoperable for more than" 72 consecutive hours on public property or "30 consecutive days, if the vehicle is on private property."

Sec. Under Section 4.04.053, an Anna car in view of a public place or right-of-way is a nuisance, and the code official can abate it and haul it off private or public land. Under part (n), a car is exempt if the owner shows it is kept entirely inside a building where the street and other property cannot see it. Nothing in the code mentions a cover or tarp.

From notice to lien

• Notice, parts (f)-(g). Hand delivered or sent certified to the registered owner, lienholders and the property owner or occupant, with at least 10 days. Remove the car by the 10th day, and ask for a hearing before that.
• Hearing, parts (h)-(j). Held at least 11 days after notice, before the board of adjustment or the municipal court. The car is presumed inoperable, and the owner must prove it is not junked.
• Order, parts (k)-(l). Once the car is found junked, an order gives 10 days to remove it. If that is ignored, the city removes it and takes a lien on the real property for its costs.
• After removal, parts (b) and (m). The car is taken to a city or county site, a demolisher or a scrap yard. Nobody may ever rebuild it or get it running, and the state is notified within five days.

Sec. 4.04.017 sets fines for the property maintenance article of up to $2,000, or the legal maximum if lower, with each day a separate offense.

Anna's Code Compliance page lists junked motor vehicles among its common violations, saying they lower property values, and counts car parts as illegal outside storage. Complaints go through SeeClickFix; the only phone on that page is the city's main number, 972-924-3325.

Parked on an Anna street

Sec. Section 11.03.017 says you can't leave a vehicle alone on an Anna street, alley or other public place past 24 straight hours. A vehicle left past that is a nuisance and is towed. Getting it back means paying the fee-schedule amount (Appendix A, A4.018) plus removal and storage costs, and unredeemed property is disposed of after five days. The phone listed on the Anna Police Department page is 972-924-2848.

Collin County title and plates

Collin County's tax office at 2300 Bloomdale Rd, Ste 2302, McKinney, (972) 547-5014, is one we checked; it is about 9 miles southwest of the middle of Anna as the crow flies. The buyer takes the title application there.

An Anna seller hands over two things for TxDMV: the signed title with the sale date and odometer reading, and Form 130-U signed with the price. A notary is not needed. Write down the buyer's name and contact, the date and the VIN, then send a Vehicle Transfer Notification within 30 days. Take the plates off, since they are yours. At no charge, the county office will switch them over to your next car and hand you a fresh sticker.

If the title went missing, a certified copy on Form VTR-34 is $5.45 in person. In Anna, a parts recycler can buy a car with no title if it is 13 or more years old and has gone seven years unregistered. See junk car with no title. Collin is among the 17 Texas counties that test emissions every year. That matters to a buyer who wants to register the car, and failed emissions explains it.

Getting an offer

To price it, we just need a quick rundown: which car and model year, the miles showing, if it runs, and the title's story. Send it online or call (877) 421-6008. We pick up in Anna and close by, such as Melissa, 4.1 miles away, or McKinney. Texas explains the statewide rules.