Selling a junk car in Colorado

County offices do the title work

The state's Division of Motor Vehicles writes the rules. The counter work, though, happens at county motor vehicle offices that answer to each county's elected clerk and recorder, so hours, local taxes and fees change from county to county. Use the office where you live; a neighboring county's office can't help with most things. One state-run title desk exists, Westgate in Lakewood, and it works by appointment.

Signing the title over:

• On the back, in the Seller section, sign, then print your name, spelled the way it appears on the front.
• Each owner listed on the front has to sign too.
• Write in the sale price and date, then fill out the odometer statement. Model year 2011 and newer cars need the mileage recorded at every sale through their 20th year.
• Hand the buyer a bill of sale. The DMV calls it best practice, and it is mandatory only if the title doesn't show a price. Its secure DR 2173 form has room for the odometer statement as well.

A notary is nowhere in the DMV's seller checklist.

Late fees reach the buyer only after day 60 past the purchase: $25 a month, with a $100 ceiling. At the county office, the buyer's transfer fee for the title is $7.20.

Plates belong to the owner

Colorado plates stay yours. Pull them off yourself while the car is still in your driveway. Ordinary plates go back to the county office, or to a scrap metal recycler. A personalized set can follow you to your next vehicle; the county office handles that.

Report Release of Liability within 5 days

You have 5 days after the sale to file a "Report Release of Liability." That is a myDMV online service rather than a numbered form; county motor vehicle offices take it too. Have your plate number handy, along with the VIN (or the code shown on your registration card).

Once it's filed, what the buyer does with the car afterward is no longer tied to you.

Missing title: duplicate or bond

Colorado has no way around a title. Two ways to get one back:

A duplicate. It costs $8.20 (C.R.S. 42-6-137(5)), on form DR 2539A. Applicants are limited to the listed owner, a lienholder, or an agent with authority. Apply on myDMV, at the county office, at Westgate by appointment, or by mail if your address is outside Colorado. Where a lien is recorded, only the lender or its agent can ask.

Bonding for Title. If the title is lost or flawed, your county can issue a new one backed by a surety bond worth twice the appraised value, once a VIN inspection and a records search are done. Cars older than 25 years skip the bond.

A bill of sale marked "parts only" is not a fix. Colorado won't title a car bought that way; its only use is supplying parts to repair some other vehicle. See selling with no title.

Colorado title brands

Six brands can appear on a Colorado title: Salvage, Rebuilt from salvage, Nonrepairable, Flood damaged, Odometer tampered with, and another state's brand.

• Salvage. Collision, fire, flood, accident, trespass or a similar event (not hail or theft) left the car an insurer total loss, or the fix would cost more than its retail value right before the damage.
• Flood damaged. Flooding alone makes a car salvage under the statute, and it carries a flood brand of its own.
• Nonrepairable. Unsafe to operate and worth something only as scrap or parts, or labeled that way by its owner.

Before selling a salvage car, an owner may apply for a salvage certificate of title (DR 2410); the buyer must get it into a salvage title within 60 days. It can't be driven until it is fixed, passes a P.O.S.T.-certified inspection, and is retitled "rebuilt from salvage." Brands must be disclosed before any sale on form DR 2710. Under the statute, collector's items, horseless carriages and street rods don't count as salvage. More in the salvage title guide.

When a car becomes "junk"

Colorado's statute calls a vehicle "junk" when destruction, dismantling or alteration has ended its life on the road. No title can be issued for it; the old one is surrendered and the VIN is cancelled.

That makes it permanent. Once a titled car is destroyed or taken apart, the owner turns in the title or sends the DMV a notice, and the car is classed as junk. Colorado won't title it again, even where another state's rules would allow a rebuild.

Keeping a dead car at home has its own rule. Under HB 22-1388, a non-running car that's being fixed or restored can remain on private land, as long as its owner keeps paying the annual specific ownership tax and shows the DR 2910 decal. Public roads stay off-limits until a P.O.S.T.-certified inspection is passed and the car is registered.

Leave a car on someone else's land and it is a different story. C.R.S. 42-4-2101 treats a car left 24 hours or longer on private property, without the landowner's consent, as abandoned, though a city or county can set a different time by ordinance. The property owner can have it towed and impounded; the DMV points them to a tow company rather than the DMV or the police. See car abandoned on your property.

Towing, impound and sale

On public property, a car left unattended for 48 hours, or past a different limit set by a city or county, is abandoned. In a law-enforcement impound lot, it's abandoned if nobody claims it within 72 hours of notice. Pulled off private land at the landowner's request, a car turns abandoned after 48 unclaimed hours. Cities and counties may write their own procedures for public-property cars.

After a tow:

1. Within 10 days, the tow operator mails owners and lienholders a certified notice. State law caps the charge for that notice at $75.
2. The window to sell or dispose of the car opens 30 days after the notice's postmark and closes at 60.
3. An appraisal of $350 or less limits the buyer to scrapping, crushing or dismantling it, and no Colorado title comes with it.

Repair shops get a shorter fuse under C.R.S. 38-20-116: five working days after their last good-faith attempt to contact the owner.

Emissions tests at sale

Testing happens across metro Denver plus the North Front Range. A gas car skips testing for seven model years (a diesel, four), then gets tested every other year. The gas test costs $35.

At a sale, the seller must hand over a passing result that hasn't already gone toward a registration or renewal. Per the DMV checklist, that duty applies once the car is past 7 model years and the buyer's home county is a testing county. Selling during a car's final exempt year also brings on a test.

A car that won't run may still be sold in the emissions area if certain criteria are met. The DMV asks those sellers to phone 303-205-5603. See failed emissions.

Waiting has a cost too. A month of grace follows expiry, then late registration adds $25 for each month or part of one (no more than $100 total), plus prorated registration taxes. Past 13 months expired, renewal has to happen in person at the county office.

The short version

1. Find the title. Order an $8.20 duplicate if it's lost.
2. Ask for our offer. Tell us whether it cranks and what's been pulled.
3. Sign as printed. Your signature has to match the name on the front.
4. Take off the plates, then report the release of liability within 5 days.

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