Sell your dead or junk car in Dallas

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, from a house driveway to a garage downtown. You sell the whole car as it sits.

When a car on private property becomes "junked"

Dallas calls an inoperative car junked on any one of three grounds:

• it is missing an unexpired license plate or a valid inspection certificate
• wrecked, dismantled or discarded
• inoperable in Dallas for over 45 straight days

"Inoperative" here means a car that can't move itself. Under the city's nuisance section, a junked car sitting on a private lot, or on a right-of-way, is a nuisance under Dallas law. A person commits an offense by letting one be parked, left or kept on their real property.

Code Compliance's own advice is to put an inoperable car in a garage so it doesn't get towed. The code agrees: a Dallas car kept wholly inside a building, with no view of it from the street or neighboring property, is outside the article. Nor does the article reach a stored car that belongs to a service member on active duty assignment.

The ten-day order under Section 18-22

The director orders the owner or occupant to remove the car. Section 18-22 says the order "shall be served upon the last known registered owner of the junked vehicle and any lienholder of record and to the owner or, if the premises are occupied, the occupant of the premises," sent "by sending the order by certified mail, five-day return receipt." If the owner's address is unknown, "the order to that person may be placed on the junked vehicle."

From service, everyone has 10 days. What can happen inside that window:

• Comply. Remove or garage the car.
• Give written permission. Section 18-26 says that if, within 10 days, the owner or occupant "gives written permission to the director for removal of the junked vehicle," that counts as compliance.
• Ask for a hearing. If a hearing is requested within 10 days, "the director shall not order the removal of the junked vehicle until ordered to do so by the judge of the municipal court."

If the owner, the lienholder and the occupant all fail to act within the 10 days, the director may take the car and file a complaint in municipal court. At trial the Dallas judge assumes the car is inoperable unless the defendant proves it runs. A Dallas conviction is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of no more than $200, plus an order to clear the nuisance within 10 days.

Where nobody can be found or the mail comes back undelivered, Section 18-27 lets the court order removal 10 days after the return. A removed car "shall not be reconstructed or made operable," and Section 18-28 says "Notice shall be given to the Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation within five days after the date of removal." Code Compliance says an uncured junk vehicle is towed and sold for salvage.

Street cars, the pound, and the fees

A Dallas peace officer or parking enforcement officer can tow a car off a Dallas street when there are reasonable grounds to think it was left for good. It is held at the designated place until the owner or an authorized agent applies for redemption. To get it out you pay the immobilization, towing, notification, impoundment and storage costs.

The code text lists the city's charges as storage of $20.77 a day for a vehicle up to 25 feet, an impoundment fee of $22.85 and a notification fee of $50, on top of towing. The owner or an agent must pay those costs before the car is released. See towed or impounded.

To report a junk car, email dallas311@dallas.gov or call 311 (214-670-3111).

Title work: three county offices

Texas titles go through county tax assessor-collectors. Dallas spreads into five counties; these are offices TxDMV lists, with distances from the center of Dallas as the crow flies:

The seller's job is short. Sign the Dallas title, writing in the sale date and odometer figure, and pass the buyer Form 130-U, "Application for Texas Title and/or Registration," signed with your price. TxDMV does not require a notary on any of it. The buyer must title the car within 30 days.

Next comes TxDMV's transfer notice, due inside 30 days: Dallas sellers can file at TxDMV.gov/VTN or mail in Form VTR-346. Sent on time, it keeps the buyer's toll violations and parking tickets from landing on you.

Emissions in every Dallas county

All five counties Dallas spans are on TxDMV's list of 17 where emissions inspection is still required. Someone registering the car has to show a passing emissions result when none is on record, so TxDMV suggests a Dallas buyer get the seller's most current Vehicle Inspection Report before the sale. If yours failed, our failed inspection guide covers selling it as is. Under state law, a car whose only remaining value is in parts or scrap metal gets a nonrepairable title.

Nearby towns

University Park is 4.2 miles away, Mesquite 10.8, Garland 11.3 and Irving 12.6. Statewide rules are on Texas.

Getting an offer

Go online or call (877) 421-6008. Have the Dallas car's details handy: year, make, model, odometer, whether it fires up, and the name printed on the Dallas title. In Dallas we load cars from driveways, apartment garages and shops that gave up on the repair.