How to Sell a Junk Car in West Virginia? (Title & Buyers)

The bottom line: To sell a junk car in West Virginia, you and the buyer sign the back of the title. No notary, emissions test or inspection is needed. If you’re selling for under half the car’s NADA book value, you both also sign a notarized bill of sale (Form DMV-7-TR).

You can’t sell without the title. If it’s lost, apply for a duplicate with Form DMV-4-TR for $15, by mail or at a DMV regional office.

After paying off a loan, get a clear title before you sell, since the lender’s signed release doesn’t update the DMV’s records.

Keep your plates, then mail a Sold Vehicle Notice (Form DMV-1-S), which marks the car as sold in the DMV’s records.

In West Virginia, the typical offer in our data for a junk car 10 years or older is $405.

Choose the card closest to where you are.

Six steps get the car from the driveway to the scrap yard. The last one, the notice to the DMV, happens once the truck has gone.

Each quote form starts with the year, make, model, mileage and your ZIP code. Then it asks whether the car runs.

Some forms want the VIN as well. You find it through the windshield on the driver’s side, where the dashboard meets the glass, and on the title.

Tell the form what has been taken off the car and what no longer works. The driver checks the converter, the wheels and the engine against what you wrote.

Get at least three quotes. None of them commits you to anything.

Get the title and a photo ID out before you accept anything. The name on the title has to be yours, and no lender can still be listed on it.

• Title required to sell: yes.
• Bill of sale: required when the price is below 50% of the current NADA Clean Loan Book value, and optional otherwise.
• State bill of sale form: Form DMV-7-TR (Bill of Sale).
• Bill of sale notarization: required; Form DMV-7-TR is completed by both the buyer and seller and must be notarized.
• Odometer reading: required when the vehicle is sold or transferred, with exemptions set by vehicle class rather than by model year.

Where that rule applies, the bill of sale is signed in front of a notary before pickup day.

A bill of sale is used on every sale. These three cover a lost title, a car received as a gift, and a car whose owner has died.

Say yes to the offer online or over the phone. The buyer passes the job to a tow company near you, and that company calls to set a pickup window.

You meet the driver, sign the title, and take the money. If someone else will do that for you, tell the buyer when you book.

A car on a hillside, down a hollow road or behind a barn is harder to reach than one at the curb. Describe the way in when the tow company calls, so it sends a truck that fits.

Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glovebox, trunk, door pockets, under the seats and the spare tire well. Take off any toll pass or parking permit.

Plates stay with you. Take them off before the truck arrives.

Lost keys do not stop the pickup, because the driver winches the car on. Note it on the quote form. Our guide to selling a car with lost keys has the details.

The driver looks the car over and you sign the back of the title. Use the name exactly as the front of the title prints it.

You are paid before the car goes on the truck, so count the cash or read the check before it moves.

Keep any paper the driver leaves with you, and check your inbox, because some buyers email the bill of sale and the confirmation instead. The sold vehicle notice asks for the buyer, so copy the company’s name and address from your offer confirmation, not the driver’s.

Complete Form DMV-1-S and mail it to DMV Insurance, PO Box 17020, Charleston, WV 25317. The notice will not be accepted if any lines are left blank.

Plates: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or return them to a DMV regional office.

Keep a copy of the notice with the bill of sale. Together they show the date the car left your hands.

Cancel the insurance only once the car is on its way and the notice is sent. If the tow is pushed back a day, the car still sits in your name that day.

No.

Selling without a title: not allowed; a lost title must be replaced with Form DMV-4-TR before the sale.

Option 1: Replace the title, then sell. Every buyer can then quote the car.

Option 2: Sell the parts one by one. A radiator or a set of tires sells with no title.

It takes weeks, and the rest of the car still needs a title to be sold. Our guide to selling a car for parts covers it.

Say on the quote form that the title is missing. A buyer will tell you whether it can wait for the replacement.

What a replacement title takes in West Virginia:

• Application: Form DMV-4-TR (Affidavit of Duplicate Title for a Vehicle or Watercraft)
• Where to submit: by mail to Receiving and Processing, PO Box 17710, Charleston, WV 25317, or in person at a DMV regional office
• Fee: $15
• Processing time:

Mail the form in the week you start collecting quotes. Buyers quote from your description, so the DMV wait and the quotes can overlap.

If the lost title surfaces once the duplicate is issued, tear the old one up and sign the duplicate.

When a vehicle loan is paid off, the lienholder mails the physical title to the owner with the lien release section validated. The DMV database is not electronically updated when a lender signs a physical release, so the owner should apply for a clear title before selling.

Ask the lender what it takes to pay off the loan before you accept any quote. If that is more than the offer, the difference comes out of your pocket.

The steps for the payoff are in our guide to selling a financed car.

West Virginia has transitioned to a fully digital vehicle title process. A digital title can be printed many times, much like a boarding pass, and is verifiable in real time through the state's verification portal. Have the printed title ready before the pickup, because the driver takes it away with the car.

An Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia title is signed over in West Virginia just as it would be at home. Put the issuing state on the quote form.

A duplicate of that title comes from the state that issued it. The West Virginia DMV only replaces its own.

The buyer pays whoever is named on the title. When that person has died, this is what West Virginia asks for: If a will or administrator exists, a certified copy of the court appointment is attached to the title. If none exists, the legal heir completes a notarized Form DMV-185-TR with a copy of the death certificate.

With that paperwork in place, the junk sale is the same as any other.

Gifted car: DMV-5-TR, Affidavit of Transfer of Ownership Without Consideration. The affidavit is signed by both the current and new owner and includes a notary section. It is not required where a West Virginia titled vehicle passes between parent and child or between spouses.

A car abandoned on your property does not become yours to sell. The abandoned vehicle process comes first, and it starts with the county sheriff or the police, not a buyer.

A scrap yard’s price follows the weight of the car and the going rate for steel. A price quoted over the phone is not on paper, and the yard can revise it at the scale.

Find out who does the towing and what it costs before you commit.

Get the yard’s business name for your bill of sale and the sold vehicle notice.

An online buyer commits to a number in writing before the truck is booked, which lets you line up several and take the best. That number allows for the parts, not just the scrap weight.

The truck that arrives belongs to a local tow company, the same kind a yard would send. What differs is that the price was agreed before it set out.

Our guide to how online buyers work out an offer goes through what moves the number.

A pickup or a 4×4 with a working drivetrain can fetch more from someone who fixes them than from a scrap buyer. That kind of sale is slow, and the buyer has to haul the car away.

Towns and counties set their own rules on a junked car kept where it can be seen. A notice from the town or county can be followed by a fine, and then by removal at your cost.

Damp ground and fallen leaves hold moisture against the underside of a car parked on grass. Gravel or pavement keeps the floor and the brake lines drier while it waits.

More on keeping a car until pickup is in our guide on how to store a junk car.

Whatever still has a use comes off first, such as the engine, the alternator and good panels. The fluids are drained, and the body is flattened and sold for its metal.

If the car differs from the quote form, for example a missing converter or a car described as running that does not, the driver can offer less. Nothing obliges you to accept the lower number.

Until you sign the title the car is still yours, so you can send the truck away and use one of your other quotes.

Compare the cost of the repair with how much more the car would be offered once it is fixed. If the repair costs more than that increase, junking it is the better deal.