Selling a dead or junk car in Watauga

The inoperative-vehicle article

Chapter 26, Article V picks the label "inoperative vehicle." It means a self-propelled vehicle that fails any one of three checks: there's no current plate or valid inspection certificate on it; it's a wreck, it's been dismantled or junked; or it has stayed broken past the time allowed.

Section 26-266 sets that time once the city spots the car. The owner "has up to 72 consecutive hours if on public property or 30 consecutive days if on private property to remove or correct the potential violation." After that, a car visible from a public place turns into a public nuisance if it's unsafe, hurts property values, draws vandals, could catch fire, endangers kids, or produces urban blight.

Article V leaves alone any car locked away inside a building out of view. It also skips a dealer's or junkyard's lawful stock, and a collector's antique that is tidy, healthy and screened.

Notice and the municipal court

Watauga's Section 26-267 calls for "not less than ten days' notice to abate or remove the public nuisance." The registered owner, any lienholders, and the lot's owner or renter get it by hand, certified mail or postal signature confirmation. "If written notice is given in accordance with this article, it shall be presumed that the notice was received no later than five days after it was sent."

Want a hearing? Send the request by certified mail before the ten days are up. The municipal court won't sit on it before the 11th day, and the judge treats the car as inoperable unless you prove otherwise. You can skip all that by giving city crews written permission to haul the car within the ten days, which the code treats as compliance. Whatever the city removes is scrapped or salvaged and can never be made to run again.

Article V names no fine. The general penalty in section 1-7 caps fines at $500 in general, and at $2,000 where the violation involves fire safety, zoning, public health or sanitation; each day is a separate offense.

Yards and streets

Section 40-262 keeps every standard or special interest vehicle off the front yard. A side or back yard works only with a hard-surfaced driveway, pad or parking area, or screening from view. Section 40-177 makes storing a car on a street, alley, sidewalk or parkway unlawful. Leave one at or near the same spot more than five days and it is removed and disposed of as abandoned.

Code Enforcement works from 7101 Whitley Road, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the supervisor's line is 817.514.5842. The police non-emergency number, staffed around the clock, is 817.281.1000.

Texas title steps from Watauga

Watauga title work is done by the Tarrant County tax assessor-collector. The office is at 100 E Weatherford St in Fort Worth, and the phone is (817) 884-1100. Measured as the crow flies, it lies about 9 miles southwest of the city's center. The buyer files there for a new title; you don't have to go.

Your part is short. No notary is needed. Hand over the signed title, its sale-date and mileage lines filled in, plus Form 130-U, which you sign after the sales price is filled in. Then send TxDMV a transfer notice before 30 days pass, on TxDMV's VTN page or a paper VTR-346. For a Watauga seller, filing that notice on time means the buyer's tolls and parking tickets stay the buyer's. Keep the plates if you like; the registration sticker, though, never moves to another car.

Tarrant County still tests for emissions, so the buyer may want your latest Vehicle Inspection Report. If the car was stripped while it sat, see missing parts.

Getting an offer

Start online or call (877) 421-6008. We'll ask what the car is, its year and miles, if it starts, and whether you've got the title. The truck can meet it on a back-yard pad, in a parking lot, or at a shop in North Richland Hills or Haltom City. Statewide rules are on the Texas page.