Sell your junk or dead car in Houston

A dead car here does not need a repair to be sold. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, from a house driveway to an apartment lot. You sell the whole car as it sits, with free pickup anywhere in the US.

Houston borrows the state's definition

Houston never wrote its own test. Article XIII-A of Chapter 10 points to Transportation Code 683.071 for the meaning of a junked vehicle. A July 2022 council committee slide gives the time rule in short form: past 72 straight hours if the dead car is on public land, past 30 straight days if it is on private land.

Section 10-532 then makes a junked vehicle that is a nuisance under state law a nuisance under city law too. The slide says it more simply: a car anyone can spot from a sidewalk, road or other public spot, any month of the year, is a nuisance. Houston also adopts the state offense, and municipal courts may hand out the state's punishment. No dollar figure appears in the city code.

The slide lists three ways a case closes: the car leaves, it goes into enclosed storage away from public view, or the owner proves it runs. Park it within four walls and a roof, out of the street's view, and it is exempt.

From placard to removal

On private property, the Department of Neighborhoods inspection division handles these cases. The 2022 slide lays out the sequence:

1. Inspectors placard the car and send a 30-day certified notice.
2. They come back to look again.
3. A citation or an extension comes next.
4. A 10-day certified final notice precedes any hearing.

Under Section 10-534, an official who finds a violation may write a criminal citation, write an administrative citation, or haul the car away. At the hearing, Section 10-536 says "the junked motor vehicle is presumed to be inoperable, unless demonstrated otherwise by its registered owner." Rolling it to a different Houston lot does not reset anything if it is still a nuisance there. Once the hearing officer sustains the case, a written order authorizes removal or disposal.

There is no second life after that. Section 10-538 makes it "unlawful for any person to reconstruct or to make operable a junked vehicle" once the city has taken it. The city's contractor then has one year to report it gone as scrap or salvage.

Streets, yards and the city compound

• One day at the curb. Section 26-93 makes it a violation to knowingly park on city streets or other public ground "for a longer continuous period of time than 24 hours."
• Yard parking, in some neighborhoods. Where council has approved a neighborhood's request, parking on a front or side lawn instead of a paved or improved surface is an offense. Fines reach $150, counted per day.
• Getting a car out of a city compound. Section 45-206 asks the owner to prove ownership and post security matching the tow charge plus storage so far. The city keeps a lien for those charges. Old unpaid parking tickets on the same car can mean posting an appearance bond for each one.

Junk vehicle complaints go to 311, any hour; from some mobile phones or outside the city, dial 713.837.0311. Police take non-emergency calls inside city limits at (713) 884-3131. Our towed or impounded guide covers the lot side.

Three county tax offices

Houston crosses into Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Waller counties. Retitling is the buyer's errand, handled at a county tax assessor-collector. Until that new title prints, state records still list you as the owner.

Selling it: Texas paperwork

• No notary. None of the sale papers, title assignment included, needs a notary stamp in Texas.
• What the buyer gets. A Texas title you have signed and dated, mileage written in, along with your signed Form 130-U stating the price.
• Your notice. File a Vehicle Transfer Notification no later than day 30 after the sale, on the website or on paper Form VTR-346. File on time and later parking or toll violations by the buyer are not yours. The notice alone does not move ownership.
• Plates. They are yours to remove, sticker too. Reuse them on another vehicle of that class, hold on to them, or deface them before they hit the trash.
• Dealers. Texas lets a licensed dealer skip titling the car in its own name, which can leave it under yours until resale. Send the notice regardless.
• Emissions. Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery are among the 17 counties where emissions testing still applies. Safety inspection ended January 1, 2025.

Old and long unregistered? A parts recycler may take a car 13 years or older, unregistered for seven years or more, with no title at all, but only for parts or scrap. And when repair costs would top what the car was worth just before it was damaged, state law calls it a salvage motor vehicle; see flood damage and salvage title.

Getting an offer

Have the odometer number handy, plus the year, make and model. Say if it cranks, and say if the title is in hand, lost, or held by a lender. Then go online or call (877) 421-6008. Our truck comes to the car, whether that is a home garage, a shop lot or a parking lot at work. Nearby: Pearland, Pasadena, Sugar Land and the Texas page.