Junk and dead cars in Delaware: the seller's side

One state DMV handles every title

Delaware titles come from the Division of Motor Vehicles, part of DelDOT, and not from counties. It runs four facilities: Delaware City and Greater Wilmington in New Castle County, plus Dover and Georgetown.

On the title's reverse, Section 1 is the Assignment of Certificate of Title. As seller, you fill in:

• who is buying, with their address
• the day of the sale
• what the car sold for
• current mileage on the odometer

Joint owners should check the word linking their names on the front. With "AND", everyone named signs. With "AND/OR", one of you can sign alone. The statute also asks you to swear to every lien, under penalty of perjury, as part of the assignment and warranty of title. Then the title goes with the car.

DMV suggests a seller visit the DMV together with an in-state buyer. From the sale, a 30-day clock runs for the buyer to get a new title. A late fee follows if it runs out.

Report the sale to end your part

The seller sends DMV the Seller's Report of Sale. On newer titles it is a strip you tear off the bottom. The back of the registration card works too.

The statute's word for timing is "immediately." Mail goes to the Vehicle Services Help Desk at DMV. Its box is P.O. Box 698, and the city line reads Dover, DE 19903. Put these on it:

• the buyer's name and address
• the date and the hour you sold
• your signature

Your plates, your choice

Unbolt the plates before pickup. DMV will hold the number for you: $35 with no lien, $55 with one, and $20 when you take it back out. It stays on file 365 days past expiration. Without that step, the number is lost.

Selling to someone from out of state? Return that plate to a DMV office; any one will do. Unreturned plates risk red-light, toll or parking violations landing on you.

Lost title: two ways forward

Most sellers fix this with a duplicate. File the Application for Duplicate Title, form MV213, signed by every owner. The fee is $50.00.

Old wrecks get a shortcut. Say the title is lost or destroyed, and the car is past 8 years of age and either lacks an engine or is totally inoperable. Then DMV forms let you transfer it to a licensed automotive recycler with no title. Before going further, the recycler writes by certified mail to the most recent owner and any lienholder, and allows 10 days.

Outside that route, a recycler needs the title, a salvage certificate or other acceptable proof of ownership. A scrap processor that takes a car with no title must report the VIN to NMVTIS by the next business day, and State Police auto theft must clear it before it is crushed. More in selling with no title.

Brands on Delaware titles

There is no damage percentage. A salvage certificate follows a total loss insurance settlement. Dealers must disclose four brands: "reconstructed", "flood damaged", "salvage" and "taxi".

An owner who keeps a salvage car has to leave it parked until four things happen: a rebuild, a State Police check, a safety inspection and a new title. See our salvage title guide.

What the abandoned-vehicle law covers

Delaware's rule sits in Title 21, Chapter 44. On private property, a car that looks abandoned counts when it is inoperable, dismantled or wrecked, or when its plates are 30 or more days expired, or missing.

The steps run like this:

1. A certified letter goes to the owner, allowing 7 days for removal.
2. Next comes a sticker, which allows 24 hours.
3. Then the car is towed to storage.

The law leaves alone a car on private land hidden from street view, unless it is a nuisance or a hazard some other way. Enforcement falls to State Police, county code enforcement constables or municipal police.

Towed or stored cars

Police mail the owner and lienholders within 5 days of a removal. If 30 days pass with tow and storage costs unpaid, a lien sale under Title 25, Chapter 39 can follow. Any surplus can be claimed by the owner for 1 year.

Tow operators have their own clock for cars 8 or more model years old. They notify the owner within 10 days of getting DMV records. The owner then has 5 days to answer before a sale, and if no owner can be traced, the operator gets title after 30 days.

Inspection is statewide and free

All of Delaware has safety plus exhaust emissions inspection, done at the four DMV facilities with no fee. It is required to renew a registration. Cars from the newest seven model years, 10,000 pounds or under, getting their first Delaware title may need just a VIN check.

Before a buyer drives the car under a new registration, it has to pass inspection. A dead car that can't pass simply goes on a truck. Missed a renewal? The late fee is a single $20, none if the registration expired over 12 months ago, and back years are not billed.

A short checklist

1. Find the title, or file MV213 for a duplicate.
2. Complete the assignment on the back: buyer, price, mileage, date.
3. Pull the plates and decide whether to retain the number.
4. Send the Report of Sale to DMV right away.

Delaware's largest towns

Pickup costs nothing in any of them. Head counts come from Census estimates.

Every Delaware town page

Four towns, four pages, each quoting its local junk-vehicle rule: Wilmington, Dover, Newark and Middletown.

Free pickup anywhere in the US. Call (877) 421-6008 with the town, the car and whether it starts.

Cities and towns in Delaware

• Dover
• Middletown
• Newark
• Wilmington