Sell a Junk Car in Delaware (Get Cash Even Without a Title)

Each card opens the part of the guide for that case.

Six steps take a Delaware junk car from quote to gone. The report of sale to the DMV is the one left for after the tow.

You will be asked for the year, make, model, mileage and the ZIP code where the car is. Every form also asks if it starts.

Where a VIN is wanted, it is printed on the title and visible through the windshield at the driver’s corner of the dash.

Mention anything missing or broken, especially the catalytic converter and the wheels. The driver checks those against the form on the day.

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.
• Odometer reading: required for model year 2011 and newer, with 2010 and older, non-motorized vehicles, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt.

Two of these are for a title problem and one is the report you send once the car has gone.

Accept through the buyer’s website or its phone line. The buyer passes the job to a tow company near you, and that company contacts you 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 sandy lot near the beach or down a farm lane in Sussex County can be awkward for a truck. Tell the tow company how to reach it.

Take everything out of the car before the truck comes: glove box, 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 when you ask for quotes, and see our guide to selling a car with lost keys.

The driver looks the car over and you sign the back of the title. Fill in the odometer section too.

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 report of sale asks for the buyer, which is the company in your offer confirmation, not the driver.

Mail the Seller's Report of Sale to P.O. Box 698, Dover, DE 19903, or email it to DMV.CorrespondenceServices@delaware.gov.

When: right after the sale, with no grace period in the statute.

Until you report it: no fixed dollar penalty, and the filing does not end the exposure by itself: the Division flags the record on the date reported, which is your dated proof the car changed hands.

Plates: come off the car and go back to any Delaware DMV office, or go into retention so the number is held for you.

End the insurance once the report is sent and the plate is back at the DMV. A pickup that runs late leaves the car yours, and it still needs cover until it goes.

Yes, to a licensed automotive recycler. There are three ways to do it.

Option 1: Sell it to a licensed recycler for dismantling.

Terms: sale must be to a licensed automotive recycler for wrecking or dismantling, and the recycler accepts a salvage certificate or other acceptable evidence of ownership in place of a title.

Statute: 21 Del. C. § 2505.

Say on the quote form that the title is missing. The buyer will tell you whether its recycler takes the car that way.

Option 2: Get a duplicate title, then sell. Every buyer can then quote the car.

Option 3: Break it for parts. Tires, a battery or an alternator sell with no title. It is slow, and our guide to selling a car for parts lays it out.

What a replacement title takes in Delaware:

• Application: Form MV-213
• Where to submit: by mail to State of Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, P.O. Box 698, Dover, DE 19903, or 303 Transportation Circle, Dover, DE 19901 by FedEx
• Fee: $50
• Processing time: the DMV gives no set processing time, and a request made within 15 days of the last title being issued goes for further review first

File for the duplicate in the week you start getting quotes. A buyer can quote from your details alone, so both waits run together.

If the original turns up later, destroy it and sign the duplicate.

How the lien comes off: you send Form MV-35 to your lender, your lender mails the Delaware title to the DMV office you picked, the DMV contacts you when it arrives, and it holds the title for no more than 60 days while you come in and finish the sale.

Peddle and Wheelzy won’t take a car still under a lien. Find out the payoff before accepting a quote, since any shortfall between the loan and the offer falls to you.

The payoff is covered in our guide to selling a financed car.

Electronic titles: . A lender-held title has to become paper before the pickup, because the driver takes it.

A Maryland or Pennsylvania title can be signed over in Delaware without retitling the car here. Name the state on the quote form.

Delaware’s duplicate form covers Delaware titles. A lost title from elsewhere is replaced by that state.

The buyer pays whoever is named on the title. When that person has died, the car passes on through Form MV-11 (Survivor's Transfer Form for a Vehicle) for the small-estate path, or the title assigned by the executor with Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration if the estate is probated.

What to bring: If probated: a certified copy of Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration plus the title assigned by the executor to the new owner. If not probated and the personal estate is $50,000 or less with no Delaware real estate: Form MV-11 (Survivor's Transfer Form for a Vehicle) plus a certified death certificate. Both paths require submission to a Delaware DMV office with the assigned title.

Once the title is in your name, the junk sale is the same as any other.

Gifted car: No separate gift transfer form. Delaware charges a vehicle document fee rather than sales tax, and it is waived for a qualifying family gift under 2 DE Admin. Code 2266.

A car someone dumped on your land is not yours to sell. The abandoned vehicle process comes first, and it starts with the police.

A recycler bases its price on the car’s weight and the current scrap rate. A price over the phone is not a written offer, and it can be cut at the scale.

Find out whether the recycler tows, and whether the tow is charged against the price.

With no title, check that the recycler is licensed before you go further.

An online buyer gives a written number before booking any truck, and you can collect several to compare. That number reflects parts that resell, not just scrap weight.

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

An SUV or a truck with a good engine can be worth more to a mechanic or a hobbyist than to a recycler. Finding that buyer takes weeks, and they bring their own trailer.

Counties and towns each set their own rules on an inoperable car kept in view. A written notice can lead to a fine and then to a tow you pay for.

Near the coast, salt air reaches the underside of a car that sits. Park it on a hard surface away from standing water.

More on holding a car until it goes is in our guide on how to store a junk car.

A recycler or an auction takes it. Parts that still work are pulled for resale, the fluids are drained, and the rest is shredded as scrap.

An offer can drop at pickup when the car does not match the form, for instance wheels or a converter that are missing. 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.

Check whether the repair would raise the car’s offer by more than it costs. If it would not, junking it is the better choice.