State guide
Selling a junk car in Louisiana
A junk car in Louisiana can go to scrap with no title at all, as long as you sign an ownership affidavit. With a title, you sign it before a notary, pull the plate and report the sale to the OMV. We buy whole non-running and junk cars and offer free pickup anywhere in the US, so you can sell the whole car as it sits.
Updated · 17 sources
Louisiana rules at a glance
- Title agency
- State OMV or a Public Tag Agent; parishes issue none
- Notary
- Title assignment is signed before one
- Plate
- Seller removes it, then cancels or moves it
- Seller's notice
- Notice of Vehicle Transfer within 15 days
- No title, scrap only
- Owner's affidavit for an auto hulk
- Total loss
- 75%+ of market value in damage
- Inspection sticker
- Gone for most personal vehicles from Jan. 1, 2027
- Emissions
- Five Baton Rouge-area parishes
Louisiana titles come from the state
Parishes don't issue titles. The Office of Motor Vehicles does, and it sits under the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. You can mail paperwork or deliver it to OMV headquarters, or have it handled at a Public Tag Agent (a private agent) or an OMV office.
A notary must witness the seller signing the title assignment. There's one exception. If a lien gets recorded as part of the same transfer, an authorized agent of a federally insured financial institution can serve as the witness, once a list of its authorized officers is supplied.
Write the price on the title assignment. If the assignment lacks it, you also need a separate bill of sale or invoice, notarized, with the actual price. Our bill of sale guide covers what goes on one.
DPSMV 1799, the Vehicle Application, is the buyer's to submit. Doing it within 40 days of buying avoids penalty and interest.
Your plate leaves with you
The plate belongs to the seller, so remove it before the car goes. Then choose one:
- Cancel it online, then take it off and destroy it.
- Turn it in at an OMV office, or mail it.
- Transfer it to another vehicle through the plate-transfer section of DPSMV 1799. The license transfer fee is $3.00.
Sequence counts. The OMV's advice is to cancel the plate before you drop your liability insurance.
Tell the OMV you sold it
Louisiana law puts a duty on the seller. Anyone transferring a car "shall give written notice of the transfer to the commissioner within fifteen days," using the commissioner's form.
That form is the Notice of Vehicle Transfer, and you file it online. It marks your OMV record with what became of the car. It doesn't transfer ownership. Only the new owner's title application does that.
No title: the auto hulk route
For scrap, Louisiana offers a real no-title path. The law's word is "auto hulk": a vehicle "not self-propelled nor capable of carrying persons or property on a public highway," in a state where its highest or primary value is as parts or scrap metal.
Sell one as scrap to a secondary metal processor or a licensed dismantler, and a signed, dated affidavit stands in for the title. In it you state you're the owner or are entitled to sell it. Your buyer keeps the affidavit, a copy of your ID and your plate information. Before any crushing or dismantling, the buyer enters the VIN in the OMV's auto hulk database. From then on that VIN is finished: no state can title or register it again.
Want a titled sale instead? The replacement goes through DPSMV 1799 and its Duplicate Title Affidavit, which the owner signs before a notary. It covers a title that was lost, mutilated or never received. Fees listed by the OMV: title, $68.50; handling, $8.00. On the pages we checked, no separate duplicate charge appeared. More on selling with no title.
Total loss, salvage and flood titles
Louisiana sets a number. Its "total loss" means damage reaching at least 75% of market value, per the current NADA guide. Hail damage that is only cosmetic falls under a separate rule.
After a total loss:
- Within 30 days of an insurance settlement, the OMV must receive the title plus a salvage title application, sent by the insurer, its agent or the owner.
- The OMV then issues a salvage title.
- If the car is rebuilt, it has to pass a VIN inspection, and the new title reads RECONSTRUCTED.
Flooded cars are treated harder. A "water-damaged vehicle" is a flood total loss: water ruined its power train, its computer or its electrical system. Following a disaster or emergency the governor declares, such a car gets a "certificate of destruction." See selling a flood-damaged car.
Dismantlers have ten days after receiving a car to notify the OMV and surrender its salvage title.
Junk and abandoned vehicle rules
Much of this is local in Louisiana. Parishes and cities may adopt ordinances that define derelict or junk vehicles and set their own procedure for towing and selling them, skipping the standard sale steps. Fifteen of our Louisiana town pages quote their town's code.
At the state level, the department, a city or a parish may take custody of any abandoned vehicle, on public or private property. When police find one, a notice goes on its windshield. From then, 24 hours is all the owner gets. Past that deadline, removal and disposal follow the Louisiana Towing and Storage Act, handled by the parish, the municipality or its contracted tow company.
Towing, impound and expired tags
When a city or parish seizes a car for illegal parking or abandonment and nobody claims it for three months or longer, it becomes that government's property. What happens along the way:
- Certified letters to the owner, one within ten days of the seizure and one at the three-month mark.
- An appraisal, followed by three ads inside ten days.
- A sale to whoever bids highest.
Sale money can be claimed by the owner or a lienholder for up to a year.
Expired tags can end in a tow too. An officer who spots an expired registration may impound the car and make the driver register it and buy the license right then. Being stopped with an expired Louisiana license and registration also adds a penalty of 25% of the annual price.
Stickers end; Baton Rouge keeps emissions
For most personal vehicles, the yearly inspection sticker stops on Jan. 1, 2027, under Act 701 of 2026 (HB 1085), according to a news report on the signed law. In its place comes a $6 QR code tied to registration. From June 30 until the change, no one gets cited for a missing sticker.
Federal law keeps emissions testing in five parishes: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston and West Baton Rouge.
Private-sale buyers get 60 days of protection from no-current-tag citations while they wait for the title, with proof of application.
Five steps to sell in Louisiana
- Get an offer. Say whether the car runs and whether you have the title.
- With a title: sign the assignment before a notary and fill in the price.
- Without one: sign the auto hulk affidavit for a scrap sale.
- Remove the plate, then cancel or transfer it before dropping insurance.
- File the Notice of Vehicle Transfer within 15 days.
Largest Louisiana cities
Every one gets free pickup. Populations shown are recent Census Bureau estimates.
| City | People |
|---|---|
| New Orleans | 362,154 |
| Baton Rouge | 222,795 |
| Shreveport | 175,902 |
| Lafayette | 123,311 |
| Lake Charles | 82,676 |
| St. George | 78,536 |
All Louisiana town pages
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, Lake Charles, St. George, Kenner, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Central, Slidell, New Iberia, Hammond, Ruston, Zachary and Sulphur.
To talk through a Louisiana sale, call (877) 421-6008.
Cities and towns in Louisiana
Questions people ask
- Can I scrap a Louisiana car without the title?
- Yes, when it is an auto hulk going as scrap to a secondary metal processor or licensed dismantler. You sign and date an affidavit stating you're the owner or are entitled to sell it. The buyer keeps it along with a copy of your ID and your plate details.
- Does the buyer take my plate?
- No, the plate stays yours. Pull it, then cancel it (online, by mail or in person at the OMV) or put it on another vehicle. Transferring it costs $3.00. Drop the insurance only after the plate is canceled.
- Do I still need a bill of sale?
- Only if the title assignment lacks the price. Then add a separate bill of sale or invoice, notarized, stating the real price.
- Will a scrapped car ever be titled again?
- No. After the buyer logs it in the OMV's Auto Hulk database, no jurisdiction will title or register that VIN again.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Checked October 11, 2026.
- Louisiana OMV: Used vehicle title and registration (notary, bank witness, bill of sale, offices) expresslane.la.gov
- Louisiana OMV: Cancel a plate expresslane.la.gov
- Louisiana OMV: Vehicle registration, title and plate fees expresslane.la.gov
- Louisiana OMV: Notice of Vehicle Transfer expresslane.la.gov
- Louisiana OMV: Salvage yard and auto hulk (Auto Hulk database) expresslane.la.gov
- Form DPSMV 1799, Vehicle Application (buyer's 40 days, duplicate title affidavit) public.powerdms.com
- Louisiana law: written notice of transfer within fifteen days legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: auto hulk sold as scrap without a title legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: definitions (auto hulk, total loss, water-damaged vehicle, certificate of destruction) legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: salvage title, dismantler notice, reconstructed title, buyer's 60-day protection legis.la.gov
- KALB: Louisiana drivers soon will say goodbye to inspection stickers (June 2, 2026) kalb.com
- Act No. 701 (HB 1085), 2026 Regular Session, enrolled text legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: custody of abandoned vehicles legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: 24-hour notice on abandoned vehicles legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: local junk vehicle ordinances and sale of unclaimed vehicles legis.la.gov
- Louisiana law: expired license and registration penalty and impound legis.la.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau: city and town population estimates census.gov