Selling a dead or junk car in Fort Worth

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and pickup is free anywhere in the US, Fort Worth and the rest of Tarrant County included. You sell the whole car as it sits.

Visible from next door is enough

Fort Worth's junk-vehicle page counts a car as junked when it can be seen from a property other than the one it sits on. Section 22-303 says junked vehicles tend "to reduce the value of private property, to invite vandalism, to create fire hazards," and it adopts the state's abatement steps from Transportation Code chapter 683, subchapter E.

Keeping one in Fort Worth is a misdemeanor carrying as much as a $200 fine, and Fort Worth may bring a criminal complaint without warning. After a conviction the court orders the owner to remove the car. If they don't, the city removes it and bills the reasonable cost to the guilty party.

The ten-day notice and what silence means

Before removing a junked vehicle, Section 22-304 requires "not less than ten days' notice." Fort Worth must notify the registered owner, any Fort Worth lienholder, and the lot's owner or occupant, and it says the nuisance must be gone "not later than the tenth day after the date on which the notice was personally delivered or mailed."

Read the waiver clause twice. Section 22-304 says that failing to remove the car, or skipping the hearing, "constitutes a waiver by the owner and lienholders of all right, title and interest in the vehicle and their consent to disposal."

• Hearing: write to the municipal court clerk; your request has to land by 5:00 p.m. on day ten. The judge treats the car as inoperable until the owner proves it runs.
• Undelivered mail: "official action to abate the nuisance shall be continued to a date not earlier than the eleventh day after the date of the return of the notice."
• No hearing, or an order: under Section 22-306 the city or its agent removes and disposes of the car under state law.
• Moving it: Section 22-304.1 says relocating the car within the city "has no effect on the proceeding."

Once Fort Worth removes a junked car, the car may never be rebuilt or made drivable again, and within five days the city has to tell TxDOT. The city's page warns that junked cars on private property may be towed and destroyed once a formal hearing is held.

Report one to Code Compliance at 817-392-1234, through the MyFW app, or by email to 1234@fortworthtexas.gov. Police non-emergency: 817-392-4222.

The five-day street rule

Fort Worth forbids storing a vehicle on a street, alley, sidewalk or parkway, and five straight days parked in one place counts as storing it. Rolling it a few houses down does not help: moving it less than a tenth of a mile does not reset the count.

A separate abandoned-vehicle test applies after more than 48 hours, and on public property it covers an inoperable vehicle over eight years old. Section 22-222 lets the city tow and impound any abandoned or junked vehicle. For an abandoned car in police custody, Section 22-302 gives the owner an administrative hearing within 72 hours on request, and 20 days from the notice to reclaim it after paying impoundment, preservation and storage charges.

Titles and plates in Tarrant County

Fort Worth sellers mostly deal with Tarrant County (tax office: 100 E Weatherford St, phone (817) 884-1100), about 2 miles southeast of central Fort Worth as the crow flies. For the city's western and southern edges, TxDMV also lists Parker County at 1112 Santa Fe Dr, Weatherford, (817) 598-6139, about 25 miles west, and Johnson County at 2 North Mill Street, Cleburne, (817) 558-0122, about 30 miles south.

On the Fort Worth title, write the sale date and odometer number before you sign it over, and hand the buyer Form 130-U, "Application for Texas Title and/or Registration," signed and showing the price. No notary. Within 30 days, send TxDMV a transfer notice (the TxDMV.gov/VTN page, or paper VTR-346); after that, tolls and tickets run up by the new owner are theirs, not yours. You may keep the plates; the registration sticker does not go with them.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or start online. Share the year, make, model and mileage, and say whether you have the title in hand. A crash car? See wrecked or totaled. Haltom City is 5.1 miles away and Saginaw 5.9; statewide rules are on Texas.