Selling a junk or dead car in Draper

The fence-or-garage exception

In a residential or agricultural zone, the code lets "two (2) or less such vehicles or parts thereof" stay past 72 hours, but only if they are "stored within a building or be completely screened by a six foot (6') high opaque, sight obscuring fence." A tarp is not on that list, and see-through chain link fails the opaque test. A third dead car, or parts beyond the limit, makes the property a nuisance under the code.

The same section says who has to act: the owner of the car, or the lessee or "other person in possession of private property" where it sits. A renter in Draper with a roommate's wreck in the driveway can be on the hook too.

Mobile home parks and impound yards

Draper's standards for manufactured and mobile home parks say "abandoned and junk vehicles and vehicle parts and other junk shall be removed promptly." And the city's rules for impound lots allow "no long term storage of salvaged, dismantled or inoperable vehicles" on those sites, so a Draper impound yard is not a place for a wreck to sit for years either.

Utah law stacked on Draper's 72 hours

The state adds definitions of its own. Two days unattended on a highway, meaning past 48 hours, makes a car abandoned. On someone's land, the statute's bar is "a period in excess of seven days without express or implied consent of the owner or person in control of the property." Abandoning a car that way is an infraction. Impound brings a separate clock for cars at least eight model years old: when nobody reclaims it in the 30 days after the first notice, Utah can hand the tow operator a certificate of sale.

Title offices for a two-county town

Draper straddles Salt Lake County and Utah County, and we checked two state DMV offices. Taylorsville, at 4315 S 2700 W, Suite 1200 (801-297-7780), is about 13 miles north of central Draper as the crow flies. Provo, at 150 East Center #1400 (1-800-DMV-UTAH), is roughly 21 miles to the southeast by the same measure. Others may exist.

Utah paperwork for a Draper seller

• No notary. Sign the title. AND between two names means two signatures; OR means one.
• 48 hours. That is how long Utah gives a Draper seller to produce the title. Add the registration certificate, and a current emission certificate if one applies.
• Plates. Unscrew them, unless the buyer is getting them too. A plate left behind can pull you into someone else's parking tickets or traffic violations.
• Tell the DMV, by phone (1-800-DMV-UTAH), on the Motor Vehicle Portal, or with form TC-502 in the mail.
• Lost title. Form TC-123 lets a Draper seller sign ownership over without ordering a duplicate first. A duplicate runs $6.00. See junk car with no title.

Getting an offer

Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Our questions cover the year, make and model, a rough mileage, if the car runs at all, and who is listed on the title. Pickup is free anywhere in the US, so the truck can reach a car parked behind a Draper fence or one stuck at a repair shop. Sandy and Riverton have pages of their own, and Utah covers the statewide rules.