Sell your car in Burlington: running, wrecked or out of inspection
Selling your car in Burlington, VT starts with a fast offer online and ends with free pickup anywhere in Chittenden County. In between sit a few city rules worth knowing: how long a car that no longer runs may stay on your property, what a snow ban does to a car left on the street, and where to go if you need the DMV first.
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Selling from a Burlington driveway, lot or street
- Describe it as it is. Year, make, mileage and condition, inspection-sticker month included. The offer is firm as long as the car matches.
- Book the pickup. We schedule pickup anywhere from the Old North End to Williston.
- Hand over the keys. The paperwork at pickup takes minutes, and payment happens on the spot. Leave the plates on until then. On a Burlington street, city code counts a car without valid plates as unregistered.
Where we pick up around Burlington
Free pickup covers all of Chittenden County. Inside Burlington (05401 and 05408), a campus street, an apartment lot or a park-and-ride all work as the pickup spot; just tell us where the car is. South Burlington (05403) next door is covered, and so are Winooski, Colchester, Williston, Shelburne, the Town of Essex and the City of Essex Junction, north to Milton. Pickup usually happens within a few days of an accepted offer, sometimes sooner. If you're working around a move-out date or a lease turn-in, tell us and we'll schedule around it.
Keeping a car at UVM. UVM doesn't offer car storage as a regular option. Transportation and Parking Services considers it case by case, at $8 a day or $40 a week, and only with a contact person who has the keys. A car that won't run can't be parked or stored on campus at all, and first-year students in the residence halls can't register a car for campus parking without an approved work or medical waiver. A car titled in your home state can be sold here too; see selling with an out-of-state title.
Cash for your car in Burlington
City code sets a short clock for junk cars in Burlington. Under Section 20-157, a car that is partly taken apart, not running, wrecked, junked or unregistered may stay on private property for five days, unless it's inside an enclosed building. It may not be left on a city street at all. Police can have it towed and impounded. When it's taken from private property, the impound and storage costs go to whoever is in charge of that property, owner or tenant, and a car nobody claims within 30 days is disposed of as found property. Nor can it wait on the grass: in a residential district, city code bans parking on a lawn or yard, though a driveway approved for cars is fine. Any of those cars, or one with an expired inspection sticker, can still get an offer, and one beyond repair can go through our junk car page.
When a blown head gasket, or a transmission that slips or won't reverse, takes the car off the road, selling a car with engine problems and selling a car with a failing transmission help you decide whether to fix it first. For a wreck, see selling a car after an accident.
A car parked on a Burlington street in winter
Apart from a few streets with seasonal limits, Burlington doesn't ban street parking for the whole winter. Public Works calls a ban storm by storm, by 3 p.m., and the overhead parking lights around the city are the official notice. The ban runs 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., or midnight to 6 a.m. in the downtown zone. A car left on the street can get a $75 ticket and be towed to another spot in the city, with a towing fee on top. The Snow Ban Line is 802-658-SNOW, and VT-Alert can text you when a ban is called.
On a ban night, the Marketplace, Downtown and Lakeview garages are free from 7 p.m.; move the car out by 9 a.m. or pay the day rate. While a ban is declared, the lawn-parking rule is lifted, but city-owned lots are closed to parking from 2:30 to 6 a.m. every night from December 1 to March 15. The city's snow and ice plan counts on about 80 inches of snow in an average year and uses about 4,000 tons of road salt, so look under the doors and along the brake lines before you describe the car.
Before a trip to the DMV office
- •The Vermont DMV office nearest Burlington is at 4 Market Street, South Burlington, open Monday to Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Vermont DMV)
- •You can book a visit online through myDMV (mydmv.vermont.gov) or by phone at 888-970-0357 (Vermont DMV)
Asked by Burlington sellers
I'm a UVM student. How does selling affect my campus parking permit?
UVM parking permits are virtual: the license plate you registered is the permit, read by license plate recognition. Once the plates come off, the car has no permit, and UVM can tow a car left three or more days without valid state registration. Plan the pickup while the plates are still on, then manage the permit through Transportation and Parking Services at 31 Spear Street (Marsh Hall), 802-656-8686.
The city towed my car before pickup. How do I get it back?
Parking Services, at 645 Pine Street (802-540-2380), notifies the registered owner by registered mail within seven days of an impound. To get the car back, you show ID and proof you own it. Then you pay all outstanding Burlington parking tickets plus the towing and storage charges, set up a payment plan if you qualify, or post a bond. City rates are $75 for the tow, $20 at impound and $30 a day in storage. If the owner never responds, the towing contractor can seek an abandoned-vehicle title. Once your unpaid Burlington tickets reach $275, any new violation on a city street or at the airport can get the car towed.
Can a car with a For Sale sign sit on a Burlington street?
Only if it's your own car. Section 20-60 of city code bans parking a vehicle on a street to show it for sale, but it exempts a person selling their own private vehicle. The three-day rule still applies: once police or a parking officer notes the car, it has to move within three days, at least 25 feet and for 36 hours, or it can be towed.
My car is in Winooski. Are the winter rules the same?
No. Winooski has a ban season every year from December 1 to March 31. Downtown, overnight street parking from 2:30 to 6 a.m. isn't allowed all season, whatever the weather. In the rest of Winooski, street parking is off from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on nights the city sends a winter weather or snow-removal alert. Pickup covers Winooski either way.
Title, bill of sale, plates and inspection are statewide matters, and our Vermont page has them.