Sell your dead or junk car in Beaumont, Texas

If you would rather decide what happens to the car yourself, we buy whole non-running and junk cars across Beaumont. Sell the whole car as it sits, flat tires and all, with free pickup anywhere in the US.

What Article 12.06 counts as junked

Beaumont's code describes a junked motor vehicle as self-propelled and lacking an unexpired license plate, and then one of two things: it is a wreck, it was discarded, it is fully or partly dismantled, or it has sat inoperable beyond Beaumont's limits. Section 12.06.001 sets those limits: "inoperable and has remained inoperable for more than seventy-two (72) consecutive hours, if the vehicle is on public property," or 30 consecutive days on private property.

Section 12.06.002 brands the car, down to any loose piece of it, a public nuisance once Beaumont passersby can spot it from a sidewalk, street or right-of-way.

Three exceptions apply:

• a vehicle or part "completely enclosed within a building in a lawful manner where it is not visible from the street or other public or private property"
• a vehicle kept lawfully on the premises of a licensed dealer or junkyard
• an unlicensed antique or special interest car owned by a collector, kept free of health hazards and screened by a fence, a row of fast-growing trees or shrubbery, so ordinary passersby cannot see them

The notice and the hearing

Section 12.06.003 requires a notice saying the car must be "removed and abated within ten (10) days," and that a hearing request is due before the ten days are up. It "must be mailed, by certified mail with a five-day return requested, to the last known registered owner of the junked motor vehicle, any lienholder of record, and the owner or occupant of the private property, public property, or public right-of-way on which the public nuisance exists."

Beaumont's municipal magistrate takes up a requested hearing no sooner than the 11th day after notice; until it happens, the city leaves the car alone. After a ruling, the magistrate orders the nuisance removed within 10 days. If that does not happen, the city takes the car, disposes of it, and tells the state within five days. It cannot be rebuilt or made operable.

There is a shortcut in the code. If, inside those first 10 days, either owner signs a note letting the city haul it away, "the giving of such permission shall be considered compliance."

Violators commit a misdemeanor. Fines come from Section 1.01.009, Beaumont's general penalty: as much as $500, or $2,000 when a fire-safety, zoning, health or sanitation rule is broken, with every extra day counted as a new offense.

The two-block street rule

Beaumont does not let a car hide on the street by inching forward. A vehicle left within the same two blocks of a public street, or on city property, for 48 or more continuous hours is illegally parked, even if it was moved within those blocks. After 48 more continuous hours it is a nuisance per se, and any police officer can have it taken to a police storage area, where it is held until redeemed or sold.

The police non-emergency line is (409) 832-1234; the department also lists 311. Code Enforcement takes junk vehicle reports at 311 or (409) 880-3719, from its office at 801 Main St., Suite 200.

Texas title and plates from Beaumont

The Jefferson County tax office is at 1149 Pearl St, phone (409) 835-8516, about 3 miles east of downtown's center, measured as the crow flies.

What TxDMV asks of you as the seller:

1. Sign the title over. Date it, and copy the odometer miles onto it. Beaumont sellers need no notary for any of this paperwork, per TxDMV.
2. Sign Form 130-U too, with the price filled in.
3. Keep a record of who the buyer is and how to reach them, plus the VIN and the date.
4. Report the sale to TxDMV through the Vehicle Transfer Notification, by day 30, online through TxDMV.gov/VTN or on a paper VTR-346. After that, a Beaumont buyer's unpaid tolls and parking tickets are not your problem.
5. Decide on the plates. Texas leaves plates and sticker to you. Bolt the plates onto a replacement vehicle in the same class, store them, or deface them first if they are headed for the trash.

Missing the title? Order a certified copy with Form VTR-34 before you sell. See selling with no title.

Storm and flood cars raise title questions. Texas calls a damaged car salvage once the repair bill, leaving out paint and sales tax, tops what the car was worth right before the damage. If the damage leaves only parts or scrap value, the state issues a nonrepairable vehicle title instead, and that car is limited to use as parts or scrap metal. Either kind can be sold whole; see salvage title and flood damage.

Emissions testing skips Jefferson County, which is absent from the 17-county list, and since January 1, 2025, Beaumont drivers no longer need the annual safety inspection on noncommercial cars.

Asking for an offer

Reach us at (877) 421-6008 or online with the car's year, make, model and miles, a word on whether it starts, and where its title is. Pickup happens wherever it is parked: a home driveway, a parking lot near work, or the repair bay where it gave out.

Around Beaumont

Pickup is free in every one of these towns too.

For the rules that apply everywhere in the state, see Texas.