Selling a junk or dead car in Utah

State-issued Utah titles

The Motor Vehicle Division, part of the Utah State Tax Commission, issues every Utah title. Any vehicle driven in Utah needs one, no matter how old. Only small trailers are left out.

Signing rules:

• A notary is not part of it.
• AND between owner names means each owner signs. OR means one will do.

At the hand-off, hand over three things: your signed title, an up-to-date registration certificate, and a current emission certificate when the car has one. Utah law gives you 48 hours from the sale to provide the title.

Two more papers help. A bill of sale is your proof the transfer was legal, and the DMV's TC-843 works for it. Form TC-891, the odometer disclosure, needs both signatures, except on a car at least 20 years old.

Keep your plate

Unless the plates are part of the deal, take yours off. A plate left behind can make you liable for the next driver's parking or traffic violations.

Tell the DMV it sold

Utah's version of a release is a sold report. Three routes:

• Motor Vehicle Portal (MVP): use Report Sold Vehicle.
• Mail: write a note giving the year, the make, the plate number or VIN, and sign it. Form TC-502, the Application to Cancel Registration, also works. The Motor Vehicle Division Contact Center receives these at P.O. Box 30412. The city is Salt Lake City, and the ZIP is 84130.
• Phone: 1-800-DMV-UTAH.

Lost Utah title

A duplicate is $6.00. Ask for it on the Motor Vehicle Portal or file Form TC-123, the Application for Duplicate Utah Title.

Sellers can skip a step. TC-123 also moves a lost Utah title straight to your buyer, so no duplicate in your name is needed first. Its part two is where you assign and release ownership. See selling with no title.

Salvage and branded titles in Utah

Utah draws the salvage line at 100 percent of value. A car is salvage when a collision, flood or other event leaves damage whose safe repair would exceed fair market value. A salvage call by an insurer or another jurisdiction counts too.

A "nonrepairable vehicle" is one with no resale value apart from its parts or its scrap, or one its owner has irreversibly set aside for parts, scrap or destruction.

Branding happens at first registration or at transfer. The three Utah brands:

• Rebuilt: rebuilt and restored to operation
• Flood: in a flood and restored to operation
• Unrestored: not restored to operation

Selling one? Written notice to the buyer comes first, and any ad must mention it too. Our salvage title guide explains more.

Scrapping a car under Utah law

Normally nobody scraps or dismantles a car until its title is turned in to be canceled along with a dismantle-permit application. With that permit, the holder may take the car apart or bring it to a crusher, salvage dealer or dismantler holding a license.

A shortcut exists for cars that are finished. The Junk Permit (formally, an Affidavit of Abandoned and Inoperable Vehicle) comes from a State Tax Commission employee, for an inoperable car that won't be rebuilt. Once an investigator has written that the car "cannot be rebuilt," the permit steps are skipped and the car can go straight to scrap. The salvage buyer signs a promise it won't be rebuilt.

Abandoned and impounded cars

Utah counts a car as abandoned in two situations:

• unattended along a highway past 48 hours
• on public or private property past seven days, with no consent from the property's owner or manager

Either one is an infraction. A peace officer who has reasonable grounds can have the car removed, following the impound rules at 41-6a-1406.

Impounded cars eight model years old or more follow a 30-day clock from the original notice. If the owner or lienholder hasn't recovered the car by then, or the owner can't be located, the division gives the tow carrier holding it a certificate of sale. The car's age is measured on the day it was impounded, using the model year in its VIN.

Emissions tests in five counties

Five counties require them: Weber, Utah, Salt Lake, Davis and Cache. There, a car under six model years old is tested every second year. In Salt Lake County, the test year matches the model year: even with even, odd with odd.

Look at the 2026 county tables: 1996 to 2020 models show as Required, while anything from 1995 back shows Not required. Safety inspections ended for most vehicles January 1, 2018, but commercial vehicles still get one yearly.

Utah selling steps

1. Find the title, or plan on TC-123.
2. Get our offer. Tell us what's wrong and where it's parked.
3. Sign it and give the buyer the title inside 48 hours.
4. Pull the plate.
5. File the sold report by portal, mail or phone.

Utah's largest cities

By Census population. Free pickup covers every one.

Every Utah town page

All 47 Utah towns of 20,000 or more have a page, and 22 quote the town's own junk-vehicle code.

Salt Lake City, West Valley City, West Jordan, Provo, St. George, Lehi, Orem, Sandy, Ogden, South Jordan, Layton, Eagle Mountain, Millcreek, Herriman, Saratoga Springs, Taylorsville, Logan, Murray, Draper, Spanish Fork, Riverton, Bountiful, Tooele, Cedar City, American Fork, Syracuse, Roy, Pleasant Grove, Washington, Midvale, Springville, Kearns, Magna, Clearfield, Kaysville, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, South Salt Lake, Farmington, Hurricane, West Haven, Payson, Clinton, North Salt Lake, North Ogden, Highland, Brigham City

Questions about selling in Utah? Call (877) 421-6008.

Cities and towns in Utah

• American Fork
• Bountiful
• Brigham City
• Cedar City
• Clearfield
• Clinton
• Cottonwood Heights
• Draper
• Eagle Mountain
• Farmington
• Herriman
• Highland
• Holladay
• Hurricane
• Kaysville
• Kearns
• Layton
• Lehi
• Logan
• Magna
• Midvale
• Millcreek
• Murray
• North Ogden
• North Salt Lake
• Ogden
• Orem
• Payson
• Pleasant Grove
• Provo
• Riverton
• Roy
• Salt Lake City
• Sandy
• Saratoga Springs
• South Jordan
• South Salt Lake
• Spanish Fork
• Springville
• St. George
• Syracuse
• Taylorsville
• Tooele
• Washington
• West Haven
• West Jordan
• West Valley City