Selling a junk or dead car in Farmers Branch

From inoperable to junked in 30 days

Farmers Branch runs two tracks.

Inoperable vehicles (section 56-100). This covers a car that is wrecked, dismantled or partly dismantled, or sitting on a flat. Once the city sends its first notice, the car is presumed inoperable until you prove to the enforcement authority that it runs. Leave it unfixed for "30 calendar days beginning from the date of the first notice" and the city declares it a junked vehicle.

Junked vehicles (sections 56-10 and 56-98). The junked label fits a self-propelled car that carries a stale plate or none, and is either smashed, stripped or abandoned, or has not run for a month on private ground. On public ground, 72 hours does it. It is an offense to keep one, or allow one, where the public or a neighbor can see it.

There is no hiding it under a cover. Section 56-102 is titled for exactly that: a tarp or "cover of any kind" is no defense. The abatement steps do not apply to a car lawfully enclosed in a building out of view, or to stock kept on the business lots of dealers and junkyards that have a license.

Notice, hearing and fines

When a junked car sits on private land, the city owes you at least ten days' notice, with a demand that the car be gone by the end of them. It is mailed certified, return receipt in five days. One copy goes to the car's most recent registered owner, one to any lender on record, and one to whoever owns or lives at the address. If the post office sends it back, the city waits ten days or more after the return before moving ahead.

Ask for a hearing before those ten days end. Here it is fast: section 56-99 has the Municipal Court judge hold it within ten days after service, and the judge treats the car as dead until the owner demonstrates otherwise. Enforcement orders come from Municipal Court No. 1, and city staff may enter the property to inspect, identify and remove the car.

Convicted owners face fines as high as $200, counted per day or even part of a day, and the court will also order the car removed. Anything the city ends up hauling away is barred from being rebuilt, and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is told within five days.

Abandoned cars and the street

The abandoned label kicks in after 48 hours: a car parked unlawfully on public land, a car left on someone else's lot without permission, or an inoperable car over five years old abandoned on public land. Police may tow abandoned cars from public or private land, and a car blocking traffic can go right away. Within ten days, police send the notice that Texas Transportation Code 683.012 requires; the city adopts that section by reference. Storage fees accrue until the car leaves, and cars nobody claims are auctioned. See towed or impounded.

Farmers Branch takes code complaints through FBTX Connect, online or in the app.

Dallas County title steps

For Farmers Branch, the title office is Dallas County's tax assessor-collector on Elm Street in downtown Dallas (Suite 1200, number 500), about 11 miles south as the crow flies, reachable at (214) 653-7811. Filing there is the buyer's errand.

You sign the title over with the mileage and date, and you sign the 130-U application the buyer needs, showing the price. Texas doesn't require notarization. Then file the Vehicle Transfer Notification; TxDMV gives you 30 days from the sale. A loan still on the car? Read still owe on the loan first, since the lienholder appears on the title. Plates can stay with you and move to a similar car at no cost, though the sticker does not follow them. Dallas is an emissions county.

Getting an offer

Through the form or at (877) 421-6008, share the year and model, the odometer, whether the car runs, and where the title is. The tow truck can meet it at a Farmers Branch apartment lot, a driveway, or a shop near Carrollton. For rules that apply across the state, see Texas.