Selling a junk or dead car in Hurst

Hurst's definition, in three parts

The 2016 rewrite of Hurst's code (the ordinance of Nov. 8, 2016 repealed the old sections 10-84 and 10-85) made the junked-vehicle test wide. Section 10-121 needs only one of these:

• its plate is expired, or it has no current valid plate
• it is a wreck, stripped in whole or in part, or thrown away
• it hasn't run for more than three days straight (72 hours) on public ground, or a full month (30 days straight) on private ground

"Inoperative" is defined too: a car, motor home, boat or trailer that can't lawfully be driven or towed on a Texas street because a part is missing, damaged or broken, or a motor vehicle unable to move on its own.

Section 10-122 brands that car a nuisance whenever someone can spot it, in any month, from a street, a right-of-way, or a private place. That last word matters. A neighbor's upstairs window counts.

The cover rule, and other defenses

Hurst is specific about screening. Section 10-123 lets you defend a charge if the car was hidden from the street or the next lot by a solid opaque fence, inside a building, or under "an un-torn cover material that was fitted for the specific vehicle." A generic blue tarp is not on that list. The article does not reach a car fully enclosed in a building that nobody on the street or a neighboring property can see.

Repair shops get a narrow allowance: no more than five junked vehicles on the property, and none of them wrecked, dismantled, with broken glass or sitting on a flat tire. Car lots must keep wrecks off display.

Another rule people miss: section 27-22 forbids parking a car that is broken down, unlicensed or unregistered so that it works as an advertisement.

What happens after the city notices

The director must give at least ten days' written notice, delivered in person, sent certified (return receipt within five days), or mailed through USPS with a signature required. The recipients are the registered owner on record, every lienholder of record, and the property's owner or occupant, with one placed on the car when no owner address is known. The notice orders the car "abated and removed" by the tenth day after delivery. A hearing request goes to the city secretary inside ten days.

The city can also skip that letter and issue a notice of violation instead. If an official asks you to show the car runs and you can't, the code presumes it doesn't. Fines go as high as $200, and Hurst charges each day anew. Once convicted, you have ten days to clear the car. Ignore that and the municipal judge can send city crews onto the property.

Towing the car to a friend's house in Hurst doesn't reset anything; section 10-126 says the case continues wherever in the city the car remains a nuisance. Once the city removes a car it goes to scrap or a demolisher, TxDOT is notified within five days, and it can never be put back on the road.

Tarrant County paperwork

Hurst is in Tarrant County, whose tax assessor-collector works from 100 E Weatherford St downtown in Fort Worth. That is roughly 10 miles to the southwest, as the crow flies; the number is (817) 884-1100.

Selling takes three signatures' worth of work: the title (with mileage and sale date), Form 130-U for the buyer (price filled in), and nothing notarized. Next comes TxDMV's Vehicle Transfer Notification, due within 30 days; that keeps future tickets and tolls on the buyer. Plates are yours to unscrew and reuse on a similar vehicle. The sticker does not go with them. Tarrant still requires emissions testing.

Lapsed less than a year, with no ticket for it yet? TxDMV allows an online renewal for up to 12 months past the expiration date. Selling it whole is usually simpler; see sitting for years.

Request an offer

Send the details through the form or call (877) 421-6008. Name the car (year, make, model), read us its mileage, say whether the motor still turns over, and the title's whereabouts. Our truck can load the car where it sits in Hurst, or at a shop in Bedford or North Richland Hills. For rules statewide, see Texas.