Selling a dead or junk car in Plymouth

How the excise works on a car that sits

Massachusetts towns and cities, not the state, assess and bill the motor vehicle excise. The rate is $25 for every $1,000 of value. A few details matter when a car has stopped running:

• Lapsing is not cancelling. Per the RMV, excise keeps adding up on a revoked registration until you cancel it.
• Partial years count. If a car is registered for part of a year, the bill covers the month it got registered through the end of that year.
• Insurance lapses cost extra. If the registration was revoked over lapsed insurance, you pay a reinstatement fee before registering again.

If a bill looks wrong, Plymouth's board of assessors rules on abatements. Plymouth allows 3 years counted from the due date or 1 year counted from payment, whichever ends last. More on yearly car taxes is in car property tax.

State law on junkyards, c. 140B, governs junk businesses, not a private owner's unused car. In a town of 96 square miles, that leaves the local bylaws as the rule for a car in your yard.

Cancel, then cut the plates

MyMassGov handles the cancellation online. Print or save the receipt; your insurer needs a copy of it. Plymouth sellers then deal with the plates themselves, since they are the seller's property: halve them or hand them to a recycler, and skip the trip to the RMV. Buying a replacement? The plates can go on that car within 7 calendar days. The RMV has no temporary plates to cover the gap. From cancellation on, the old car is barred from "any public way."

Signing the title

Plymouth sellers need no notary under the RMV's steps. Enter the mileage, and then both parties sign, print their names by hand and date it. By statute the seller's assignment must show "the actual odometer reading and a warranty of title." If the title has a price line, use it. If not, Plymouth sellers write the price on a bill of sale. Chapter 90D, section 15(e), ends the seller's exposure for later driving at the moment of signing and handover.

Two problems come up with cars that have sat a long time:

• A loan still shows. Get the lender to write a signed letter on its letterhead. For Plymouth owners, the RMV won't accept a fax or copy, even when the loan ended years back. See lien still on the title.
• The title is lost. A $25 replacement fixes that. Order it online, or mail the form with a check made out to MassDOT. Expect it in Plymouth within up to 10 business days.

A scrapped car's record reads "Junked" afterward, and no title or registration will ever be issued for it again.

Getting an offer

For a car in Plymouth, call (877) 421-6008 or use our online form. You sell the whole car as it sits, and the truck comes to it, near Court Street downtown or out at the far edge of the town's 96 square miles. Wareham is the next town over at 10.1 miles; the Massachusetts page lays out state law.