Selling a dead or junk car in Red Oak

The city article and the state law behind it

Red Oak pulls Texas Transportation Code chapter 683 into its code by reference, and where the two disagree, the state text wins. A vehicle that runs on its own power is junked once it's wrecked, stripped, half taken apart or abandoned, or once it has been dead on public land beyond 72 consecutive hours, or on private land beyond 30 consecutive days. For a motor vehicle, it applies when there's no unexpired license or no plate showing.

A car shut up in a building, invisible from outside, is exempt. If the car wears a cover, the city asks one question: would someone on a public right-of-way, or on the land next door, see the car or its tarp?

The order and the clock

Red Oak's code-services director starts things with a written order, sent certified, and the city wants the receipt back within five days. Four people get a copy: whoever owns the premises, whoever occupies them, the car's owner and any lienholder. From the day it's served you get ten days to comply, and those same ten days to demand a hearing.

Ask for a hearing and nothing gets towed until it's held. If the municipal judge rules the car junked, it has five days from the court's order to disappear. Still there ten days after the order? The judge may send the director to take possession. A guilty finding is a misdemeanor under the general penalty, fined no more than $500, and each day the car stays is a separate occurrence.

Another route: after the notice, write the director a note giving permission to haul it, and the code counts that as compliance. The city never lets a car it removes be rebuilt. Within five days it notifies the state and asks for the title to be cancelled.

Streets, pavement and the pound

Street parking has a cap: 72 consecutive hours on the roadway surface, for any vehicle. Street parking is a police matter; for calls about a car parked there right now, the city points to the Northern Ellis Emergency Dispatch Center at 972-775-3333. On private lots, the common-violations page wants every car entirely on paved concrete or asphalt.

A dead car older than five years that's been left on public property, unattended, for over 48 hours is treated as abandoned, and the police chief has it moved to the city pound. Within ten days the chief writes to the owner and any lienholder. They have 21 days from that notice to pay for towing, preservation and storage and recover the car. Miss it and they give up their rights, and the car is sold at public auction.

Code Enforcement keeps weekday hours, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, at 411 W. Red Oak Rd., 972-576-3414, and takes reports through an online form.

Title and plates in Ellis County

Ellis County's tax office is in Waxahachie at 302 N Monroe St, (972) 825-5150. Measured as the crow flies from central Red Oak, that's about 9 miles to the southwest. The buyer brings the title application there, and until a new title comes out, state records keep your name on the car.

Here's what goes to the buyer: your title, signed, with the date sold and the odometer number on it, and the buyer's 130-U, priced and signed by you. Nothing needs a notary. Before 30 days run out, file TxDMV's transfer notice, on the web or with VTR-346, which keeps later tolls and parking tickets from being charged to you. The plates stay yours to keep or to move to another car; the county does the transfer free.

And a car with no title isn't stuck: once it's 13 years old or more and has gone seven years without registration, a parts recycler may take it.

Getting an offer

Go online or call (877) 421-6008. Share its year, make and model, roughly how far it's gone, whether it runs, and what you know about the title. Pickup is wherever the car sits: a paved driveway, a fenced yard or a shop in Lancaster or Waxahachie. Statewide rules are on the Texas page.