Selling a dead or junk car in Ennis

The rule that catches the most Ennis yards

Sec. 5-272 is a property maintenance rule, not a junked-car rule, so it needs no notice clock to apply. It covers things visible from a public street or the neighbors' property, outside an enclosed structure, even under a carport or covered patio. On its list:

• a car or truck with axles that is not currently licensed or registered
• a vehicle jacked up for repairs longer than 48 hours
• loose car parts in view, such as body panels, tires, wheels, batteries, seats, engines and drive train pieces
• "Unlicensed and/or inoperable trailers"

It also says no vehicle may "at any time be in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled." Parting a car out in an Ennis driveway runs straight into that line.

Two dead cars can make you a junkyard

Ennis licenses junkyards, and its definition reaches further than most people expect. Two or more inoperable or junk motor vehicles, kept on one lot beyond 60 days, turn that lot into a junkyard under that division. One car waiting on a repair is one problem. A second one parked beside it for two months is a different category.

When the city calls a car junked

Sec. 13-116 uses the state's older wording. A junked vehicle is one "that does not have lawfully affixed to it either an unexpired license plate or a valid motor vehicle safety inspection certificate, that is wrecked, dismantled, partially dismantled, or discarded, or that remains inoperable for a continuous period of more than forty-five (45) days." Sec. 13-122 adds the sightline test: seen from a street, park or other public right-of-way, Ennis deems the car a public nuisance, and an owner who keeps it commits an offense with a $200 maximum fine. "On conviction, the court shall order removal and abatement of the nuisance."

For a car on private property the steps run like this:

1. Notice. Ennis mails it certified, "with a five-day return requested," and allows ten days or more. Copies go to the car's last known registered owner, any lender holding a lien of record, plus the Ennis lot's owner or tenant. The notice says the nuisance "must be removed and abated within ten (10) days, and that a request for a hearing must be made before expiration of the ten-day period."
2. Hearing. Asked for in time, a public hearing is held before removal, in front of the city commission or its designee.
3. Disposal. The code allows "removal to a scrapyard, demolisher, or any suitable site operated by the city for processing as scrap or salvage." A car hauled off this way stays dead; the code forbids rebuilding it or making it operable. Ennis reports it within five days, and that report ends with the state canceling its title.

None of this reaches a car locked inside a garage or barn where no passer-by or neighbor can see it.

Abandoned and impounded cars

Ennis treats three kinds of car as abandoned. First, a non-running car past its fifth year, left by itself on public ground beyond 48 hours. Second, any car sitting illegally on public ground beyond those 48 hours. The third is a car left on someone else's private property without consent for more than 48 hours.

An impounded owner can get the car back before the city assigns its lien or sells it. That takes proof and an indemnity "approved by the chief of police" and paying "all costs, charges and damages due to the city." Cars that drew no bid at auction, and junked cars, may be sold or disposed of as junk.

Ellis County title paperwork

All of Ennis is in Ellis County, and the county seat holds the title counter:

Your buyer is the one who walks the title application in.

From the seller's side:

• No notary stamp. TxDMV says neither the signed-over title, the bill of sale nor the mileage statement needs one.
• Your name stays on the Texas title record until the buyer's new title is issued. To close that gap, send a transfer notice to TxDMV before 30 days pass, either through TxDMV.gov/VTN or on mailed form VTR-346. The notice only records the sale; the ownership itself moves with the buyer's application.
• A buyer who waits past 30 days to title the car can face delinquent transfer penalties. That is the buyer's problem, but your notice protects you meanwhile.

Ellis County still requires emissions tests for registration. That concerns a buyer planning to drive the car, not one loading it onto a flatbed.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or ask online. Our questions: what car it is, how many miles, does the engine turn over, and is the title yours. The truck can reach a farm lot on the edge of the city's 32.649 square miles as easily as a street near downtown. Nearby pages: Waxahachie, Red Oak, Corsicana and Lancaster. Statewide rules are on Texas.