Selling a junk or dead car in Maryland

The MVA issues Maryland titles

MDOT MVA, the Motor Vehicle Administration, stands behind every Maryland title. Look yours over before a sale:

• Your name is on it.
• A lender's lien, if there ever was one, shows as released.
• Mistakes on it are already corrected.

Then turn it over. The odometer figure goes on the back, since federal law asks for it, followed by the owner's signature. Two owners both sign, unless the word "OR" sits between their names.

A bill of sale is the MVA's advice rather than a must. It lists buyer and seller and carries both signatures, and a few buyers can't title the car without one. See our bill of sale guide.

Tags are yours, and they go back

In Maryland the tags belong to you, not to the car. Unscrew them before the buyer gets the keys, and don't lend them out for the trip home.

An MVA tag return box takes them with no appointment, at any hour. Once the tags are back, the insurance and registration duties on that car stop.

Protecting yourself after the sale

We found no separate release-of-liability form from the MVA. The tag return does that job. Hold on to its receipt, and leave the policy active until the receipt shows up.

Copy the signed title front and back, plus the bill of sale, and keep them with that receipt.

Lost or damaged title

No valid title, no Maryland sale. A lost or damaged one gets replaced first, on form VR-018, the duplicate title application. The fee is $40.00. myMVA takes it online, and an MVA branch or the mail works as well.

More help: selling a junk car with no title and a lien still on the title.

When Maryland calls a car salvage

Maryland's test sits in Transportation Article 11-152. A car hit by collision, fire, flood or some other event is "salvage" once repairs would top 75% of the market value it had before the damage.

Flood cars carry an extra mark. If the salvage certificate notes flooding, the next title shows "Flood Damaged" in plain view (13-507). Read our salvage title guide.

Maryland's abandoned-vehicle rule

Section 25-201 is the state rule a parked dead car can run into. It makes a car an "abandoned vehicle" in three cases:

• someone else's private property has held it for over 48 hours, and the owner or manager never agreed
• it is broken down and alone on public land past 48 hours
• it is parked unlawfully on public land past 48 hours

All 13 of our Maryland town pages quote that town's own junk-vehicle code, for example Baltimore or Annapolis.

Towed as abandoned

After police tow a car as abandoned, a certified letter must go to the owner within 7 days at most (25-204). If it comes back undelivered, the notice gets posted instead, inside 15 days of the tow (25-205).

When nobody comes for it, a police auction sells it. The bidder gets the car with no liens attached and may seek a salvage certificate and then a title (25-207). If yours was towed, see towed or impounded.

Safety and emissions inspections

Before a car can be "sold, titled, or transferred" in Maryland, it needs a safety inspection certificate. On a private sale, the MVA's selling page hands that job, plus titling and any emissions test, to the buyer. None of it lands on you.

VEIP emissions testing covers 14 jurisdictions: Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne's and Washington. Used cars go every 2 years. A new car (2019 or newer, first owner, Maryland title) waits 72 months from its model year for the first test.

A car that can't pass either one is covered in our failed inspection guide.

Maryland sale checklist

1. Check the title: your name, lien released, no errors. Lost it? File VR-018.
2. Request an offer with the car's condition and its location.
3. Complete the back: odometer and every owner's signature. A bill of sale is recommended.
4. Pull the tags and drop them in an MVA return box.
5. Keep copies: title, bill of sale, tag receipt.

Largest Maryland cities

Population figures are Census estimates. Pickup costs nothing in any of them.

Every Maryland town we cover

Each page has that town's own junk-vehicle code:

Baltimore · Frederick · Gaithersburg · Rockville · Bowie · Hagerstown · Annapolis · College Park · Salisbury · Laurel · Greenbelt · Hyattsville · Westminster

Have a Maryland car that won't start? Call (877) 421-6008 and sell the whole car as it sits.

Cities and towns in Maryland

• Annapolis
• Baltimore
• Bowie
• College Park
• Frederick
• Gaithersburg
• Greenbelt
• Hagerstown
• Hyattsville
• Laurel
• Rockville
• Salisbury
• Westminster