Selling a junk car in Katy

How a Katy car becomes "junked"

Article 8.06 of the city code starts with a self-propelled car wearing a stale plate or inspection sticker, or none. Add one more thing and it qualifies: it is crashed, stripped or junked, or it has stayed dead past a deadline. Katy sets that deadline at three days (72 hours) without a break on public ground, and a month (30 days) without a break on private ground.

Every owner or occupant in Katy must keep a lot "free of" junked vehicles. Once a junked car is visible from a street, park or other public place, it is a public nuisance. Rolling it all the way into a garage, hidden from passersby and neighbors alike, takes it outside the rules. The code mentions no exception for a tarp or a car cover.

Forty-five days and three notices

Katy's code turns everyday observations into evidence. If a car in public view "has not been driven under its own power for a period of forty-five (45) days or more", that alone is prima facie proof it was inoperative that long. A missing inspection certificate or an expired plate also counts toward a finding.

Shuffling the car around does not reset anything. Section 8.06.067 forbids moving a junked car from one place visible from public property to another such place. Three notices to the same person within a year are prima facie proof the moves were to dodge a hearing. And "It is no defense" that the car is later made to run or sold to someone else.

The letter and the hearing

Katy's certified letter has three addressees. The registered owner gets one, as does every lienholder, and so does the household or landlord where the car is parked. A bright notice gets taped to the car too. You get at least 10 days. Asking the municipal court clerk for a hearing must happen inside that window, or the car is "conclusively presumed" junked.

A municipal judge holds a hearing before anything is towed. The car is assumed not to run unless you prove it does, and a finding against you means 10 more days to clear it. If you send the police a signed note agreeing to the removal within those first 10 days, the city treats that as compliance. Whatever the city hauls is scrapped or salvaged through a yard, demolisher or city site and may never be rebuilt. Fines come from section 1.01.009: a $500 ceiling for most violations, rising to $2,000 where fire, safety, zoning, health or sanitation is involved, with every day counted on its own.

Towed as abandoned

Katy calls a car abandoned when it is inoperable, older than 5 years and unattended on public property past 48 hours, or left illegally on public land or private land past 48 hours. Katy police get 10 days to mail a notice after impounding it. The owner then has until day 20 after that letter to settle the towing, preservation and storage charges and drive or haul it home. Past that, the police sell it at public auction.

Three counties, three title offices

Katy spreads across Fort Bend, Harris and Waller counties, and Texas handles titles through each county's tax assessor-collector. Straight-line distances, as the crow flies, from Katy's center:

• Fort Bend: 1317 Eugene Heimann Circle, Richmond, about 16 miles south, (281) 341-3710
• Waller: 836 Austin St, Ste 1400, Hempstead, about 26 miles northwest, (979) 826-7620
• Harris: 1001 Preston, Houston, about 29 miles east, (713) 274-8000

Applying for the new title is the buyer's errand. Your handoff is two papers. The title gets your signature, the date and the odometer number; the 130-U application gets your signature plus the agreed price. No notary is involved. Then report the sale to TxDMV through its transfer notice before 30 days run out, and the buyer's tolls never reach you. Plates and the sticker are yours to remove, but only the plates can move to a later car, and the county does that move for free. After you sell has the full list.

Getting an offer

Ring (877) 421-6008 or start on the web. Expect questions about the model, the odometer, if it cranks, and who is listed as owner on the title. You sell the whole car as it sits. Nearby: Fulshear and Sugar Land. See Texas for statewide rules.