Selling a junk or dead car in Texas City

The junked-vehicle clocks

Section 94.025 also has the familiar limits, and it reaches trailers as well as cars. A Texas City vehicle counts as junked if its plate is expired or missing, or it has no valid inspection certificate, and it is also wrecked, dismantled, discarded, or inoperable too long. Too long means over 72 straight hours if it sits on public property; on private property, over 30 straight days. The city's Violations page repeats those numbers and lists car parts among things that may not sit outside.

In the code's words, a junked car in public view "invites vandalism, creates fire hazards." Having one is an offense, and in Texas City every day it stays counts as a separate one. Exempt are a car garaged so completely that nobody can see it, dealer and junkyard stock, and collector antiques screened from view by fencing or planted greenery.

How a removal actually happens

In Texas City the Fire Marshal runs the process. When the junk car sits on private land, Section 94.025 requires "not less than a ten-day notice," mailed certified to the occupant, the registered owner and each lienholder. The letter tells them the car must go within ten days and any hearing request must reach the Municipal Court of Record in that time.

When requested, that court holds the hearing before removal, no sooner than the 11th day after the notice. When nobody asks, the court "shall enter an order requiring the removal" as soon as the ten days are up. The city adds that, hearing or not, a judge must sign an Abatement Order before a junk vehicle leaves private property. It also warns that a complaint can take three to four weeks.

Moving a noticed car to another spot where it still breaks the rule counts as an unlawful continuance; the case goes on. A car Texas City removes is sent to a scrap yard or demolisher, can never be rebuilt, and goes on a state report within five days.

Streets and the impound lot

Section 72.02 lets the Chief of Police order a car on a Texas City street or other public place into storage. One allowed reason is an officer's reasonable belief that the car was abandoned. To reclaim it, bring proof of ownership or right to possession no later than 30 days after storage began; you also pay any fine and the storage and removal bill. The police department phone in the city directory is 409-643-5720. If the car is already on a lot, read towed or impounded.

Galveston County title office and Texas rules

Texas City lies in Galveston and Chambers counties. Galveston County's tax office is about 11 miles southeast of Texas City as the crow flies, at 722 21st St; phone (409) 766-2284. The Chambers County office in Anahuac, (409) 267-2763, is about 27 miles northeast as the crow flies.

According to TxDMV, Texas sales need no notary, whether for the title assignment, the sales paperwork or the odometer disclosure. On the title, enter the sale date and current mileage and sign. Hand over a Form 130-U too, signed, with the price written in. The buyer then has a 30-day window to get the car titled. Protect yourself with a Vehicle Transfer Notification sent to TxDMV within 30 days; TxDMV records the sale from it, yet ownership only moves when the buyer titles the car. A car branded nonrepairable can only ever be a parts or scrap-metal source. Missing the title? Start at selling with no title.

Getting an offer

Phone (877) 421-6008 or send the online form with the year, make, model, approximate mileage, whether it runs, and whose title it is. Pickup can be from a yard, the curb or a repair shop in Texas City. Close by are La Marque, Dickinson and Galveston; state rules live on the Texas page.