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State guide

Selling a dead or junk car in Florida

A Florida junk car sale comes down to the title, a Notice of Sale within 30 days, and keeping your tag. Florida has no emissions test to worry about. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, with free pickup anywhere in the US.

Updated · 24 sources

The Jacksonville, Florida skyline
Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Florida rules at a glance

Notary
Not required in the seller's section
Notice of Sale
HSMV 82050, within 30 days
Tag
Stays with the seller
Duplicate title
$75.25 on HSMV 82101; Fast Title adds $10.00
No-title route
Derelict certificate: 10+ model years, under $1,000
Emissions test
None for private cars since 2000
Total loss
Repairs at 80 percent or more of replacement
Buyer's deadline
30 calendar days to apply for title

Signing over a Florida title

FLHSMV, the state's highway safety and motor vehicles agency, oversees titles, and its counters go by the name motor vehicle service centers. The seller's block sits on the front of the title. Write in:

  • who bought it, and their address
  • the mileage
  • what they paid
  • the day it sold

Skip the notary. The agency's procedure manual says that block needs no notarization.

Two snags can stop a sale. A loan on the car must be paid and the lienholder must report it as satisfied first. And with an electronic title, buyer and seller both bring photo ID to a service center, where it is reassigned and the miles are disclosed.

A late transfer penalty hits the buyer who waits past 30 calendar days to apply.

Four of the service centers on file:

  • Duval: 231 E. Forsyth St., Jacksonville
  • Miami-Dade: 200 NW 2nd Ave, Miami
  • Hillsborough: 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
  • Orange: 301 S. Rosalind Ave., Orlando

File the Notice of Sale

This is the step sellers skip and regret. Statute 319.22 gives a seller 30 days to report a sale to the department. The form is HSMV 82050, which can also serve as a bill of sale. Complete sections 1 and 3; the buyer's signature is optional.

Put the VIN on it, plus the buyer's full name and address, and file it at a service center. Doing this detaches your registration from the car, and FLHSMV says it helps a seller avoid civil liability.

The tag is yours

In Florida the plate belongs to the seller. Unscrew it before the tow truck leaves, and move it to a new or replacement vehicle if you like.

Leaving Florida, or dropping the insurance on that plate? Then turn the tag in at a service center.

When the title is missing

Lost the paper title? Get a duplicate before selling. Use form HSMV 82101 at a service center. The fee is $75.25, and Fast Title adds $10.00. Mail-lost titles cost nothing to replace if you apply within 180 days of issue.

Old, low-value cars have another path: the derelict motor vehicle certificate, HSMV 82137. It fits when the car:

  • has 10 or more model years behind it (its own model year counts as the first)
  • is valued below $1,000
  • has no title, salvage title or certificate of destruction in hand

The car is then sold to a registered secondary metals recycler or a licensed salvage motor vehicle dealer, and the paperwork is turned in at a local tax collector's office. There is room on it for whoever hauls the car: a driver and a transport business. After that the car "can never be titled again" and must be crushed or taken apart. A tow company holding a storage lien may not use this form. See selling a junk car with no title.

Total loss, salvage and flood brands

Florida uses a number for this. It treats a car as a total loss once repair cost at the time of loss hits 80 percent or more of replacing it with one of like kind and quality.

FLHSMV describes a brand as a label on the title recording condition, such as junk, salvage or flood. A flood vehicle is one declared a total loss over water damage, and the title must carry that stamp before any sale. Insurers report flooded cars to the state. Our flood damage guide and salvage title guide go further.

How Florida law defines junk and abandoned

Statute 319.30 uses junk for a former vehicle that can't operate and whose top value is its metal or its parts. Derelict adds two limits to that idea: value under $1,000 and an age of 10-plus model years, with dismantling or scrap as its best use.

Chapter 705 covers ownerless property left on public land in a wrecked, inoperative or partly dismantled state. Officers post a notice on it, and 5 days later it is removed. The agency can keep the item or auction it publicly; leftover proceeds after costs are held for 1 year.

Counties and cities add junk-vehicle codes of their own, and most Florida town pages listed further down quote theirs.

Towing from private property

Under 715.07, a tow from private property done without the owner's say-so must end at a lot within 10 miles of the pickup spot in counties of 500,000 or more people. Smaller counties allow 15 miles.

The tow company holds a lien and must send certified letters to whoever owns, insures or holds a lien on the car. Statute 713.78 sets that notice at 35 days after storage for older models and 57 days for newer ones. More in towed or impounded.

No emissions or safety test

Florida dropped car inspections in 2000, when the Motor Vehicle Inspection Program in Chapter 325 was repealed. The 2025 statutes skip from chapter 324 to chapter 326. A dead car won't hold up a sale over a test.

Registration still counts. Miss a renewal and, from the 11th of the following month, a delinquent fee kicks in. It is flat, set by the license tax amount, from $5 to $250. Time a car spent in dead storage carries no license tax, if a notarized or certified affidavit shows it.

Four steps for a Florida seller

  1. Have the title, or file HSMV 82101 or a derelict certificate.
  2. Complete the seller's section on the front.
  3. Remove the tag.
  4. File HSMV 82050 within 30 days.

Florida's biggest cities

CityPeople
Jacksonville1,017,689
Miami489,812
Tampa413,554
Orlando333,888
Port St. Lucie268,062
St. Petersburg264,033
Cape Coral236,264
Hialeah230,968

Populations are Census estimates.

All Florida town pages

A page for each town below, in order of size.

Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Port St. Lucie, St. Petersburg, Cape Coral, Hialeah, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Gainesville, Palm Bay, Miramar, Coral Springs, West Palm Beach, Lakeland, Pompano Beach, Clearwater, Miami Gardens, Davie, Palm Coast, Boca Raton, Fort Myers, Deltona, Plantation, Sunrise, North Port, Deerfield Beach, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Homestead, Kissimmee, Boynton Beach, Doral, Miami Beach, Largo, Lauderhill, St. Cloud, Tamarac, Ocala, Delray Beach, Weston, Sanford, Port Orange, Apopka, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, Jupiter, Winter Haven, North Miami, Margate, Coconut Creek, Sarasota, Bradenton, Bonita Springs, Pensacola, Clermont, Pinellas Park, Ocoee, Fort Pierce, Titusville, Coral Gables, Winter Garden, Altamonte Springs, DeLand, North Miami Beach, Haines City, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Cutler Bay, Ormond Beach, Plant City, Lake Worth Beach, Hallandale Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Oviedo, Aventura, Winter Springs, Riviera Beach, Parkland, Leesburg, Estero, Panama City, Lauderdale Lakes, Dunedin, Cooper City, New Smyrna Beach, Miami Lakes, Dania Beach, Casselberry, Rockledge, West Melbourne, Crestview, Venice, Winter Park, Sebastian, Temple Terrace, Tarpon Springs, Groveland, Eustis, Key West, Palmetto Bay, Edgewater, Bartow, Jacksonville Beach, DeBary, Hialeah Gardens, Tavares, Lynn Haven, Zephyrhills, Sunny Isles Beach, Auburndale, Fort Walton Beach, Minneola, Sweetwater, Punta Gorda, Panama City Beach, Naples, Wildwood, Sebring.

Not on the list? Pickup is still free. Call (877) 421-6008 and tell us where the car sits.

Cities and towns in Florida

Questions people ask

Will I need a notary for a Florida junk car title?
No. FLHSMV's own procedure says the seller's transfer block needs no notarization.
Is the Notice of Sale optional for a junk car?
No. State law makes sellers file it, with 30 days to do so. Filing pulls your Florida registration off the car, and FLHSMV says that cuts your civil liability risk.
Can a car with no title be scrapped in Florida?
Yes, when it is under $1,000 in value and 10-plus model years old. File HSMV 82137 for a derelict certificate. Once that is done, no one can ever title the car again.
My title is electronic. How do I sell?
Bring the buyer. Both of you show photo ID at a service center, the title is reassigned there, and the mileage is disclosed on the spot.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Checked October 11, 2026.

  1. FLHSMV: Selling a vehicle in Florida (seller's section, tag, Notice of Sale, duplicates, liens, electronic titles) flhsmv.gov
  2. FLHSMV procedure TL-11 (no notary in the seller's section) flhsmv.gov
  3. FLHSMV form HSMV 82050, Notice of Sale flhsmv.gov
  4. FLHSMV form HSMV 82137, Derelict motor vehicle certificate flhsmv.gov
  5. FLHSMV form HSMV 82101, Application for duplicate or lost-in-transit title flhsmv.gov
  6. FLHSMV: Fees flhsmv.gov
  7. FLHSMV: Consumer advisory on flooded vehicles flhsmv.gov
  8. FLHSMV: Duval County service center flhsmv.gov
  9. FLHSMV: Miami-Dade County service center flhsmv.gov
  10. FLHSMV: Hillsborough County service center flhsmv.gov
  11. FLHSMV: Orange County service center flhsmv.gov
  12. Florida Statutes 319.22, Transfer of title (Notice of Sale) flsenate.gov
  13. Florida Statutes 319.30, Salvage, junk and derelict motor vehicles leg.state.fl.us
  14. Florida Statutes 319.14, Flood vehicles and branded titles flsenate.gov
  15. Florida Statutes 705.101, Abandoned property definitions flsenate.gov
  16. Florida Statutes 705.103, Abandoned property on public property flsenate.gov
  17. Florida Statutes 715.07, Vehicles towed from private property flsenate.gov
  18. Florida Statutes 713.78, Towing and storage liens flsenate.gov
  19. Florida Statutes 320.07, Expired registration and delinquent fee flsenate.gov
  20. Florida Statutes 320.18, Dead storage leg.state.fl.us
  21. Florida Senate bill analysis SB 1092 (2000), ending the inspection program flsenate.gov
  22. Florida Statutes 2025, Chapter 325 (no longer in the statutes) flsenate.gov
  23. WMNF: Emissions testing in Florida ended at the turn of the century wmnf.org
  24. U.S. Census Bureau: city and town population estimates census.gov