Selling a junk or dead car in Del Rio

The definition, word for word

Section 17-321 opens: "Junked vehicle means a vehicle that is self-propelled and:" Then come the tests. It "is wrecked, dismantled or partially dismantled, or discarded; or" it "does not have lawfully attached to it a motor vehicle registration sticker, or has attached to it a motor vehicle registration sticker that is expired by one (1) year or more." Or it has stayed inoperable past the clocks above.

Section 17-322 declares a junked vehicle a public nuisance if it shows from any public place or public right-of-way. Section 17-324 makes keeping it an offense: a misdemeanor, a fine reaching $200 for each day the violation is allowed to exist, and a court order to abate it.

What is exempt, and what is not

Section 17-323 lists the exceptions. A car closed up inside a building, hidden from the road and from other lots, is one. Dealers, junkyards and collectors may keep cars outdoors behind a fence, trees or shrubbery, as long as the area stays tidy and healthy. A car stored for its owner while that owner serves on active-duty assignment is another. You won't find a cover or tarp clause anywhere in the list.

Notice, hearing and disposal

At least ten days before abating anything, the code officer serves written notice. It can go by hand, certified mail or signature-confirmed delivery to three parties: the plate's registered owner, each lien holder of record, and the landowner or the tenant. By the tenth day the car has to be gone, and a hearing must be requested before that date. The eleventh day after service is the earliest hearing date, and the hearing starts from the presumption that the car is a junked vehicle.

Section 17-330 treats written permission to haul the car, given inside the ten days by the car's owner or the land's owner, as compliance. Section 17-325 says a car removed this way "may not be reconstructed or made operable after removal," and TxDOT hears about it within five days.

Streets and towed cars

Section 17-126 bars a car from a public street, alley or public place "for a continuous period of more than forty-eight (48) hours unless such vehicle shall be in currently operable condition and in a state of good repair." Operable means plates on and registered, inspected, and able to run without repairs as small as inflating a tire. The city's parking guide lists the order: someone reports it, an officer leaves a documented warning, a citation follows, and after 48 hours unmoved it can be towed as abandoned.

Police who impound a car must mail a certified letter within ten days. Section 17-335 gives the owner until day twenty, counted from the letter's date, to cover towing, preservation and storage charges and drive it away. If no one claims it, the code treats that as consent to a public auction.

Neighborhood Services runs code enforcement from 1505 E. Gibbs Street, 830-774-7250. Police reports and questions go to 830-774-2711.

Title work on Mill Street

Val Verde County's tax office is close by: 309 Mill Street, (830) 774-7532, roughly a mile southwest of the center of town if you could fly straight there. The buyer applies for the new title at that counter.

No notary is needed here. Fill the sale date and odometer number into the title and sign; then give the buyer the 130-U application, signed by you, agreed price included. After that, file a transfer notice with TxDMV within 30 days (online, or with paper form VTR-346); that way the buyer's tolls and tickets are the buyer's problem. Keep the plates for your next car of the same class, or deface them. Emissions testing isn't required in Val Verde, which is not on the state's 17-county list. Title lost? Form VTR-34 is how you request a certified copy.

Getting an offer

Online or at (877) 421-6008, describe the car: make, model, year, miles, whether it will start, and where the title stands now. Our truck can pull up to a house, a ranch gate or a shop, here or in Eagle Pass. For statewide rules, see Texas.