Sell a dead or junk car in Texarkana, Texas

Ten days in "ordinary public view"

The city wrote its own junked-vehicle definition in Sec. 22-38. A self-propelled vehicle, or a part of one, becomes junked when it stays inoperable for 10 continuous days in ordinary public view. Inoperable means it can no longer be used for its purpose, whether or not it could be fixed. A wrecked or dismantled car is presumed inoperable from the start.

Ordinary public view is wider than the street. It covers sight lines from the right-of-way, from land next door, and even from a neighbor's first-floor level. A tarp or car cover does not hide the vehicle.

Sec. 22-39 then declares "a junked vehicle, including a part of a junked vehicle, that is visible from a public place or public right-of-way" a public nuisance, and keeping one is an offense. Only a car inside a lawful building in Texarkana, hidden from the street and the neighbors alike, falls outside the article. Fences, fast-growing trees and shrubbery count as screening only for dealers, junkyards and collectors.

The notice, the hearing and the $200 fine

Under Sec. 22-42, the city hands notice over in person or mails it, certified or with USPS signature confirmation. It goes to the last registered owner on file, each lienholder, and whoever owns or occupies the lot. If the car is on a right-of-way, the adjoining property gets it. An owner with no known address can find the notice left on the car itself.

The notice must say the nuisance "must be abated and removed not later than the tenth day after the date on which the notice was mailed." A hearing request has to come before those 10 days end. A municipal court judge then hears the case no earlier than the 11th day. At that hearing, Texarkana need not show the car is dead; proving it runs falls to the owner.

Three more points shape the outcome:

• Permission settles it. Sec. 22-44 says written permission to remove the car, given to the city within ten days of the notice, "shall be considered compliance."
• Moving it does not. Dragging the car to another address inside the city after notice changes nothing if it is a nuisance there too.
• The penalty. A violation is a municipal court misdemeanor carrying a fine as high as $200; the court can also order the car abated and removed.

If the city does haul it away, Sec. 22-45 lists three destinations: a scrap yard, a demolisher, or any suitable city-operated site. After that, "it shall not be reconstructed or made operable by any person," and the state is told within five days of removal. The article also authorizes code inspectors to enter private property to look a vehicle over and identify it.

Cars on the street, and how tows work

On public property, the police impound order (Directive 7.03.2) uses a 48-hour wait. An officer puts an orange sticker on the windshield, comes back 48 hours later, and calls for a tow if the car is still there. Move it before the wrecker takes it and the officer releases it. Once the wrecker has hooked on, the fee is one-half of the regular charge.

Two narrower rules apply as well. Sec. 34-27 limits a car that cannot run on its own power, or is wrecked, to 12 hours on any street or right-of-way next to a motor vehicle junk yard. And when police tow for a street hazard, an arrest, evidence or missing insurance, they use the one towing company under contract with the city, as a nonconsent tow.

Police do not chase junked cars on private land unless Code Enforcement or a superior asks; they hand those complaints to Code Enforcement. Reports go through the MyGOV TXK portal. The Code Enforcement page lists 220 Texas Boulevard and 903-798-3900, and the office itself sits on City Hall's 3rd floor. Police dispatch for non-emergencies is 903-798-3876. The department is on the 3rd floor of the Bi-State Justice Building, 100 N. State Line Ave.

Title paperwork goes to New Boston

The Bowie County tax assessor-collector is at 710 James Bowie Dr, New Boston, about 19 miles west of the middle of Texarkana as the crow flies. Call (903) 628-6730.

A few Texas rules matter most for a seller here:

• The transfer notice. Give TxDMV a Vehicle Transfer Notification within 30 days; the web form lives at TxDMV.gov/VTN and the paper one is VTR-346. Sent in time, the buyer's later parking and toll violations stop being your problem. It does not transfer ownership; the buyer still has to apply for title with the county.
• A missing title. Ask TxDMV for a certified copy using Form VTR-34. The fee is $5.45 at a counter; by mail it is $2, paid by check or money order. Every recorded owner signs, and a second copy has to wait 30 days from the last one.
• Plates. They can come off with you. Moving them to your next car is free at the county tax office, which issues a new sticker, because the old registration sticker does not move with the plates.

More detail is on the Texas page and in junk car with no title.

Other towns in the region

Texarkana is the Texas half of a metro area that crosses into Arkansas; the rules above are the Texas city's. The nearest Texas towns with pages are Marshall at 64.8 miles, Longview at 75.2, Paris at 85.5 and Tyler at 105.5, all measured straight-line.

Getting an offer

Start online or call (877) 421-6008. Say which car it is and what year, an estimate of the miles, whether it will crank, and what is going on with the title. Our truck comes to it: a residential drive, a repair shop, or wherever it stopped.