Rhode Island junk car sales: titles, plates and local rules

Who issues Rhode Island titles

The Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles, part of the Department of Revenue, issues every title. Counties have no title role.

The model year decides whether you even have one. A car from model year 2001 on carries a title that you sign over on the back. Older cars get no title until ownership is transferred or a lien is created, though an owner may ask for one for $50.

What the DMV asks of a seller:

• Sign the back of the title as seller. The buyer signs as buyer.
• Write in the mileage.
• Hand over a bill of sale with the year, make, model, VIN, color and price, signed by you with your address.

Under Rhode Island law (31-3.1-12), you sign in the certificate's set space when you hand the car over, and that signature is an "assignment and warranty of title."

Keep your plates

Rhode Island plates belong with the seller. A private buyer moves their own plates to the car they just bought.

Cancel the registration online. The DMV says not to return the plates. Its confirmation email is your proof, and once you have it the plates can be destroyed or recycled. If you would rather not go online, a DMV branch has a drop box: drop in the Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration along with your ID or a copy of the registration.

The DMV says a registration must be cancelled when you stop using the car, and links that step to insurance revocation fines.

Proving the car is no longer yours

We found no form named a release of liability. The statute does the same job. Under 31-4-2, the owner writes the buyer's name, address and the transfer date on the back of the registration card and "immediately" forwards it to the DMV.

Keep two records: that card's details and the online cancellation email. Under the same statute, the plates need not be returned if you register another car within 10 days.

Lost title, or none at all

For a 2001 or newer car, request a duplicate at the Cranston DMV location. The DMV warns it can take up to 90 days. The statute sets the fee at $50.00; the DMV fee table lists $53.50. Expect a printed note on the duplicate warning that anyone holding rights under the first certificate may still claim them.

A second route exists for a lost registration. Under 31-42-7, an owner whose registration is "faulty, lost or destroyed" may apply to the local police for authority to sell or give the car to a demolisher. In Rhode Island you sign this application under oath. It gives your name and address, the car's year, make, model and serial number, and how the title was lost. After the notice period, the police issue a certificate of authority, which the demolisher accepts "in lieu of registration."

Whoever finally scraps or dismantles a car must at once mail its title or salvage title to the DMV for cancellation (31-3.1-17). More in selling a junk car with no title.

Salvage titles

Rhode Island sorts salvage into two classes, and the insurer decides which:

• Class A: extensive damage, good for parts only.
• Class B: considerable damage, but repairable.

An insurer holding a car it called a total loss has 10 days to trade the title for a salvage certificate. Owners have a duty too. If a car is less than 7 years past its manufacture date and repairs would exceed 75 percent of its fair market value, the owner returns the title within 10 days for a salvage certificate. The DMV fee table lists a salvage title at $53.50. See our salvage title guide.

The abandoned-vehicle law

Chapter 31-42 sets two definitions.

An abandoned motor vehicle is any of these:

• won't run, is over 8 years old, and has sat on public property more than 48 hours
• left illegally on public property more than 3 days
• left on private property without consent more than 3 days

An "abandoned motor vehicle of no value" is inoperable, over 10 years old, has no current registration and no valid inspection sticker, and has a fair market value of $500 or less.

For junked cars on an unlicensed junkyard, the director of the Department of Environmental Management may order demolition and removal within 3 months. Towns add their own codes; most of the town pages below quote them.

What happens after a police tow

After a vehicle survey report, police may take an abandoned car into custody from public or private land. They post a notice on it 48 hours before the tow.

Within 15 days, police notify the last registered owner and lienholders by registered mail. You have three weeks to reclaim the car by paying towing and storage. If no one does, the police sell it at public auction, and the buyer takes title free of liens. That auction receipt counts as title only for a transfer to a demolisher.

Inspection every two years

Rhode Island inspects statewide. Cars of 8,500 pounds or less get an emissions and safety check every two years. In Rhode Island a new vehicle skips inspection for 24 months or 24,000 miles, whichever is first. A used car moved in from another state needs inspection within 5 DMV business days of registration. Block Island cars follow the same schedule, with a safety check and a two-speed idle emission test.

Failing it is one of the usual reasons people sell; read failed inspection.

Four steps to sell

1. Look at the model year. From 2001 on, you need the title, so replace a lost one first.
2. Ask for our offer. Describe its condition, any missing pieces, and the address.
3. Sign the title and the bill of sale.
4. Keep the plates and cancel the registration online.

Largest Rhode Island towns

Pickup is free in each of them.

• Providence, the biggest city
• Cranston, home of the DMV office that handles duplicate titles
• Warwick
• Pawtucket
• East Providence
• Woonsocket

All Rhode Island town pages

Where a town has its own junk-vehicle code, its page quotes it.

Providence · Cranston · Warwick · Pawtucket · East Providence · Woonsocket · Cumberland · Coventry · North Providence · South Kingstown · West Warwick · Johnston · North Kingstown · Newport · Lincoln · Westerly · Central Falls · Smithfield · Bristol

Questions about your car? Call (877) 421-6008. You sell the whole car as it sits.

Cities and towns in Rhode Island

• Bristol
• Central Falls
• Coventry
• Cranston
• Cumberland
• East Providence
• Johnston
• Lincoln
• Newport
• North Kingstown
• North Providence
• Pawtucket
• Providence
• Smithfield
• South Kingstown
• Warwick
• West Warwick
• Westerly
• Woonsocket