Delaware title transfer cost and calculator

How much does it cost to transfer a title in Delaware?

Delaware charges $35 for the title. Add $20 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $55. That is the figure most people mean by a title transfer. If you are plating the car at the same time, the title, registration and plate fees add up to about $75 on a used $20,000 car, not counting tax.

The tax is the number that matters. A $20,000 purchase in Delaware carries roughly $1,050 in document fee, several times the title fee.

Work out your own figure on the Delaware registration fee calculator, which itemizes every line and links to the source for each one.

How to transfer a car title in Delaware

1. Get the paperwork right. The seller signs the title over to you and you fill in an application to put it in your name. Delaware DMV lists the exact forms on its own site.
2. Where you go. A Delaware DMV office. New residents title and register within 60 days of moving in. source 1
3. Pay. The title fee of $35, plus the tax on the purchase unless the transfer is exempt.
4. Do it in time. File within 60 days of the sale; what being late costs is under the deadline section below.

Do both of you need to be there, and can you do it online?

Delaware DMV does not say whether both of you have to be there. As a rule the seller has to sign the title over and the buyer signs the application, and where a state wants both signatures notarized a notary can stand in for one party being present. Confirm it with the Delaware DMV before you both take time off.

Can you transfer a title online in Delaware?

Partly. Renewals can be done online. A first title and registration in your name is done at a DMV office. source 1

Transferring a title to a family member, or as a gift

For a family gift of a car already titled in Delaware, the DMV lists a $35 title fee and names no document fee. That route covers a spouse, parent, grandparent, child or sibling: the owner signs the title over in section 1, and you bring a birth or marriage certificate if the relationship is not clear from the names. A gift from anyone else, or a car titled in another state, falls outside it, and the document fee law lists no gift exemption, so ask the DMV before you go. source 7 source 2

Writing $1 on the form does not help in Delaware. On a private transfer the tax is charged on the higher of your price and the book value, so a low number buys you nothing and is fraud if it is deliberate. If it truly is a gift, claim it as one on the proper form at the time of the transfer.

How long you have, and what late costs

New residents register within 60 days of moving to Delaware. source 1

What being late costs in Delaware: Delaware charges a $20 late fee on top of the normal registration fee for a renewal done after the registration expires.

The countdown runs from when the title was signed, not from your first free afternoon, so do not sit on it. A transfer you never finish leaves the car in the seller's name, and tickets, tolls and abandoned-vehicle notices all follow the registered owner, so the 60-day window is worth keeping to.

When something is missing

A lot of these searches start with "what if I do not have". The honest general answer, worth confirming with Delaware DMV for your own case:

• No title. The seller applies for a duplicate before selling. A car sold without its title is not a car you can register, and a seller who cannot produce one is a seller to walk away from.
• There is still a loan on it. The lender holds the title or the lien is recorded against it, and it only moves cleanly once the loan is cleared. Never hand over money for a financed car before you have seen the lien released in writing. Delaware charges $20 to record a lien, so that line shows up on your own paperwork when you finance a car here.
• No bill of sale. Some states require one and some do not, but write one anyway. It is the only record of what you paid, and in Delaware what you paid is what any tax is worked out on.
• The owner has died. This goes through the estate rather than a normal transfer, and what is needed depends on whether there is a will and whether the estate goes to probate. It is the one case here where it is worth ringing Delaware DMV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where Delaware wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about Delaware title transfers

Once the title is in your name

The title is half of it. The plate and the registration are the other half, and the tax lands with them. The Delaware registration fee calculator works out the whole bill line by line, including what a dealer means when they quote a single tax, title and license number.

Nearby states

Or see car title transfer by state for all 51.

Where these numbers come from