Sell your dead or junk car in Grapevine

Grapevine's three tests

An inoperative motor vehicle is junked in Grapevine if any one applies:

• it has no current license plate or valid inspection certificate
• it is wrecked, dismantled or discarded
• it has not run for over 45 continuous days

Visibility counts broadly here. Section 12-123 calls a junked car a nuisance whenever someone standing in a public place, on a right-of-way, or even on private property can see it. Section 12-128 exempts only a car enclosed indoors where no one can see it, and repeats that tarps and covers are not screening. A collector's unlicensed antique gets a pass if tidy, harmless to health, and hidden by a fence, trees or shrubs. Grapevine defines antique as built in 1925 or earlier, or 35 years old or more.

Grapevine's notice and the city manager

Section 12-124 requires a minimum ten-day notice, sent certified or registered with a five-day return requested. Grapevine sends it to the car's last registered owner, any lien holder of record, and the Grapevine lot's owner or occupant. Where the owner's address is unknown, notice "may be placed on the motor vehicle" or handed over in person. A letter returned undelivered pushes city action back ten days or more from the return.

Grapevine's ten-day window covers both removal and any hearing request. Appeals go to the city manager under Section 12-126, not to a judge. If the manager affirms, you have "24 hours from the notification of the city manager's decision, or the remainder of the initial ten-day notice period (whichever is greater)" to fix it.

Section 12-131 allows fines up to $500 per offense for most violations, rising to $2,000 for violations involving fire safety, zoning or public health. Each day is its own offense. Grapevine police may impound a junked or abandoned car from public or private land. Once removed, neither the city nor anyone acting for it may rebuild it into a running car. Disposal goes through a demolisher, a scrapyard or a Grapevine-run site.

Grapevine streets: 48 hours

Section 12-94 makes it unlawful to leave a vehicle or trailer on public property "for a period in excess of 48 hours" when it is missing a wheel or "apparently inoperative for any reason." A car lacking current registration or inspection "may be deemed inoperative." Those cars are towed to Grapevine's pound, and getting one out takes proof you own it plus the towing fee and storage costs. Section 23-90 draws the same 48-hour line for anything left on a street, alley, sidewalk or park.

For an abandoned car in police hands, owners and lienholders may reclaim it until day 20 after notice; the price is the towing, preservation and storage bill. Cars nobody claims go to public auction, where the buyer gets title free of liens.

Grapevine contacts

Code Enforcement: 817.410.3159, or codeenforcement@grapevinetexas.gov. Grapevine's online Report a (Non-Emergency) Issue form also accepts code problems, answered in business hours. For suspected illegal activity, the code FAQ gives 817.410.8127 for the police department. Boats, RVs and trailers may stay in a driveway only with a Building Inspection permit.

Three counties, no nearby tax office

Grapevine spreads into Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties, and every tax office is a drive. As the crow flies from central Grapevine:

• Dallas (Dallas County), 500 Elm Street, Suite 1200: roughly 19 miles southeast. (214) 653-7811.
• Tarrant's office (100 E Weatherford St, Fort Worth): roughly 19 miles southwest. (817) 884-1100.
• Denton (Denton County), 1505 E. McKinney: roughly 20 miles north. (940) 349-3500.

Your buyer makes that trip. Your job: sign and date the title and note the odometer number (Texas has no notary step), and hand the buyer a signed 130-U showing the price. Then, inside 30 days, the transfer notice goes to TxDMV from you (TxDMV.gov/VTN or paper VTR-346). Keep a note of who bought it, on what date, and the VIN, for your files. Plates may move, free, to the next car you own of the same class.

Getting an offer

Online or at (877) 421-6008, tell us which car it is, its mileage, whether it still runs, and who holds the title. Pickup can be from a Grapevine driveway, a garage, or a shop off Main Street. Neighbors: Southlake, Colleyville, Euless. Statewide: Texas.