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State guide

Selling a junk or dead car in Ohio

Selling a dead car in Ohio takes three things: the title, your notarized signature on it, and the plates off before the car leaves. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and pickup is free anywhere in the US.

Updated · 17 sources

Downtown Cleveland on a winter day, seen across Lake Erie: Key Tower, the Huntington and Sherwin-Williams towers and Terminal Tower rise behind a docked lake freighter
Photo: Erik Drost · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ohio rules at a glance

Titles
County Clerk of Courts title offices, not the BMV
Notary
Seller's signature on the title is notarized
Plates
Seller removes them at the sale
Duplicate title
$18, or $23 in some counties (form BMV 3774)
Buyer's deadline
30 days to apply for the new title
E-Check
Seven northeast counties only
Junk-car law
ORC 4513.63 to 4513.65; 3+ years old, worth $1,500 or less
Salvage brands
Salvage, then rebuilt salvage

Get an offer online or call (877) 421-6008. You sell the whole car as it sits.

Titles are a county job in Ohio

The BMV does not issue Ohio titles. Each county's Clerk of Courts runs a title office that issues, transfers and duplicates them, and the BMV says any county's office will serve you with a valid photo ID and the title fees.

The seller's part:

  • Complete the assignment of ownership, printed on the title's reverse side.
  • Get your signature notarized, then hand the title to the buyer.

The rest falls to the buyer, who has 30 days after the assignment or delivery to apply for a new title, sworn before a notary or another officer who can give oaths, and who pays the sales tax at the title office.

We found no seller's release-of-liability form on the BMV's title page, and the title statute (ORC 4505.06) sets a deadline only for the buyer. Keep a photo of the signed, notarized title as your record.

The plates stay with you

ORC 4503.12 ends the registration when ownership changes and tells the old owner to remove the plates at once.

No title? Get a duplicate first

The fix for a missing title is a duplicate, applied for on form BMV 3774. Mark it as a request for a duplicate, state whether the original was lost, stolen or destroyed, and sign in front of a notary. Any county title office takes it, at the counter or by mail. The base fee is $18; counties whose commissioners opted into the higher rate charge $23.

In the sections of Ohio law we read on title surrender, salvage dealers and scrap (4505.11, 4738.01, 4737.05), we found no age cutoff and no affidavit that replaces a title.

The title matters to the end. When a car is dismantled or destroyed, each owner must surrender its title to the clerk for cancellation. A salvage dealer handed an assigned title needs none in its own name. It marks that title "FOR DESTRUCTION" and surrenders it, and the car may then be used only for parts and scrap metal. See selling a junk car with no title.

When Ohio law calls it a junk car

ORC 4513.63 defines an abandoned junk motor vehicle. It must be all of these:

  • three years old or older
  • extensively damaged
  • apparently inoperable
  • worth $1,500 or less
  • left 48 hours or more on private land without permission, or on a public street or road right-of-way

Police or the sheriff have it photographed and sent straight to a salvage dealer or scrap metal processor. Willfully leaving one on someone else's land over 72 hours without permission violates 4513.64.

Your own yard counts too. Under 4513.65, the same kind of car kept uncovered outdoors more than 72 hours, with the landowner's permission, can bring a certified notice. You then get 10 days from receiving it to move the car indoors, into a garage or similar structure, or off the property.

Township trustees may regulate junk-car storage in unincorporated areas, with collector's vehicles protected (ORC 505.173). For a city's own rule, see its page, such as Columbus or Grove City.

If it gets towed

Police or the sheriff can order a car into storage once it has sat 48 hours on a public street or highway right-of-way and no one has told them why (ORC 4513.61), or, on a complaint, after four hours on a home or farm property without permission (4513.60).

After a tow from a public road, police have five business days to look up the owner and any lienholder, then mail them a notice. A car still unclaimed 10 days after that notice goes out is declared a nuisance and disposed of.

E-Check covers seven counties

Ohio EPA runs E-Check only in the Cleveland and Akron area: Lake, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Summit and Portage counties. Gas and diesel vehicles registered there, 10,000 pounds GVWR or less and no more than 25 years old, are tested every two years. Since June 30, 2025, new vehicles are exempt for their first 6 years (7 for hybrids without a plug).

There, the test gates registration. A car due for it gets no registration without one of four things: a passing certificate, a repair waiver, an exemption, or an extension. The waiver got pricier on January 1, 2026: you must now spend $450 on repairs and diagnostic fees, not $300.

So a dead car in those counties means repair bills or a lapsed registration. Selling it ends the question, since your registration expires at the sale anyway.

Salvage titles in Ohio

Ohio law calls a car a salvage motor vehicle if it is wrecked, dismantled, worn out or unfit to drive (ORC 4738.01). No damage percentage triggers the salvage title. It follows when an insurance company declares a car economically impractical to repair and pays an agreed price for it. The title carries the notice "SALVAGE MOTOR VEHICLE - PURSUANT TO R.C. 4738.01," and the clerk charges $4 to process it.

A salvage car restored for the road needs a new title application, proof of ownership and a State Highway Patrol inspection; the new title is branded rebuilt salvage. More in our salvage title guide.

Selling in Ohio, step by step

  1. Find the title, or get a duplicate.
  2. Get an offer. Tell us if it starts, what parts are gone and where it sits.
  3. Sign the back of the title before a notary.
  4. Pull the plates before the car is loaded.

Ohio's biggest cities

Pickup is free in every one. Populations are 2025 Census estimates.

CityCountyE-Check county?People
ColumbusFranklin, Delaware, FairfieldNo938,396
ClevelandCuyahogaYes363,608
CincinnatiHamiltonNo314,367
ToledoLucasNo263,423
AkronSummitYes189,691
DaytonMontgomery, GreeneNo136,688

Cities and towns in Ohio

Questions people ask

Is a notary needed if the car is only going to scrap?
Plan on one. The BMV tells sellers to have the signature on the ownership assignment notarized, and Ohio's scrap rules work through that assigned title.
My Ohio title is electronic. What do I sign?
No paper title exists to sign. You and the buyer use form BMV 3770, the BMV's casual-sale assignment and title application. Dealers and insurance companies can't use it.
Who owes the sales tax on an Ohio car sale?
The buyer, when applying for the new title. Ohio law tells the clerk to refuse that application unless the tax comes with it.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Checked October 10, 2026.

  1. Ohio BMV: Vehicle titles (title offices, notarized assignment, BMV 3770, duplicates) bmv.ohio.gov
  2. Ohio Revised Code 4505.06, Application for certificate of title (buyer's 30 days, sales tax) codes.ohio.gov
  3. Ohio Revised Code 4505.09, Title fees (duplicate title) codes.ohio.gov
  4. Ohio Revised Code 4505.11, Surrender of titles; salvage and rebuilt salvage titles codes.ohio.gov
  5. Ohio Revised Code 4503.12, Transfer of ownership and registration (plates) codes.ohio.gov
  6. Ohio Revised Code 4738.01, Salvage dealer and salvage motor vehicle definitions codes.ohio.gov
  7. Ohio Revised Code 4737.05, read for a no-title scrap route (none found) codes.ohio.gov
  8. Ohio Revised Code 4513.60, Vehicles left on private property codes.ohio.gov
  9. Ohio Revised Code 4513.61, Vehicles left on public roads; owner notice codes.ohio.gov
  10. Ohio Revised Code 4513.63, Abandoned junk motor vehicles codes.ohio.gov
  11. Ohio Revised Code 4513.64, Abandoned junk vehicles on private property codes.ohio.gov
  12. Ohio Revised Code 4513.65, Junk motor vehicles left uncovered codes.ohio.gov
  13. Ohio Revised Code 505.173, Township regulation of junk motor vehicles codes.ohio.gov
  14. Ohio EPA: E-Check program information (participating counties) epa.ohio.gov
  15. Ohio EPA: E-Check testing information (who tests, exemptions, registration) epa.ohio.gov
  16. Ohio EPA: E-Check repair cap waiver epa.ohio.gov
  17. U.S. Census Bureau: city and town population estimates, Vintage 2025 census.gov