Selling a junk or dead car in Manor

Article 8.07 in plain words

Under Manor's code, a self-propelled car is junked if it is a wreck, dismantled or thrown out, or has been out of service too long, meaning a stretch of 72 straight hours parked on public property or 30 straight days on private property. Add the plate condition above, then visibility: a car Manor residents can spot from the street, a right-of-way or any public place, in any month, is a public nuisance, and Manor makes keeping one unlawful.

It is a misdemeanor, and each day is a separate violation. The article sends fines to the city's general penalty, which caps them at $500, or $2,000 for the categories it names: fire safety, zoning, and public health or sanitation. Convicted owners get a court order to have the car taken away.

Section 8.07.063 sets the steps. The notice says the car "must be removed and abated within ten days of the date the letter was mailed or personally delivered," and adds that anyone wanting a hearing must ask before that window closes. Manor delivers it one of three ways (certified mail, by hand, or with signature confirmation) naming as recipients the last registered owner, lienholders of record, and the Manor lot's owner or tenant. A car still sitting there can go to a hearing, where Manor assumes it is inoperable until you prove it runs.

Hauling it to another address is no escape. Section 8.07.065 says relocating a junked vehicle after a notice "shall have no effect on the proceeding if the junked vehicle constitutes a public nuisance at the new location." Once the city removes one, Manor's code routes it to a demolisher or scrap yard, and no one may rebuild it.

Streets, repairs and storage fees

Section 12.03.002 lets a noncommercial vehicle sit on a residential street only if it does "not remain parked or standing for more than 48 hours." Once police have given a prior notice or citation, they can have it towed, with towing and storage billed to the owner.

The city's code page also lists repairing a motor vehicle on a street as a violation. The same goes for private property, unless the work is inside a structure or behind a 6-foot fence.

Abandoned, in Manor, means a car parked illegally on public property for over 48 hours, or one left that long on private land whose owner never agreed. Police may bill storage on abandoned and junked vehicles from the first day of custody, reaching back as far as ten days before the notice goes out. An abandoned car nobody reclaims within 20 days of notice can be auctioned.

Code Enforcement is part of Development Services at 416 Gregg Street, 512-272-5555 Ext. 4. The police dispatch non-emergency line is 512-974-0845, option 3.

Travis County title office

The Travis County tax office is at 2433 Ridgepoint Drive in Austin, phone (512) 854-9473, some 7 miles due west of central Manor as the crow flies.

Your buyer brings the title application to that office. The Vehicle Transfer Notification you owe within 30 days is not itself a transfer of ownership; it puts the sale on record so the buyer's parking tickets and tolls are not charged to you. Selling to a licensed dealer has a catch: Texas does not make the dealer retitle the car, so your name stays on it until it is resold, and TxDMV says to send in the notice anyway.

No title in hand? Start with Form VTR-34 for a certified copy; it is $5.45 at the counter. Our guide to selling with no title covers the rest. Emissions testing still applies in Travis, one of 17 Texas counties on the list.

Getting started

Have the year, make, model and mileage handy, say whether it starts, and give us the title story, online or at (877) 421-6008. The pickup can be at your house, an apartment lot or a shop. Manor lies near Pflugerville, Austin and Hutto; the Texas page has the statewide rules.