How to fill out Delaware MV72

Delaware lets you give a plate number away. Retention puts the tag on hold in your name after you sell the car; this affidavit takes it out of pending and puts it on somebody else's vehicle, permanently. The Division links it from its own retention page under the words 'or even give it to someone else using this form' - and its operative sentence is that you wish to give up your rights to the licence plate number listed above.

Written against MV72 (Rev 3/22), issued under the registered owner of the retained plate, sworn before a notary. Do not sign this until you know who is getting the number and that they have a vehicle to put it on. A plate released from pending goes onto their car, and the Division has no mechanism for taking it back because the arrangement soured. The sentence you are swearing to is that you give up your rights to it.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV72 from the dmv.de.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV72 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   I/We, your name

   The owner of the retained plate, completing the opening sentence.

   Watch out: The Division's record of who holds the retention is what this is checked against, not the certificate of the car you sold.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Give my/our permission to

   The full name of the person receiving the plate number.

   Watch out: They will need a vehicle registered in that name to put it on, and proof of Delaware insurance for it.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Delaware license plate number

   The tag being released from pending, prefix and all.

   Watch out: Delaware's word for retention on this form is pending. If the plate is not in pending, this form has nothing to release.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Signature of Owner

   Signed in front of the notary, not before you get there.

   Watch out: The certification above it is under penalty of perjury. The Division treats plate numbers as property because in Delaware they behave like it.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Printed Name of Owner

   Beside the signature, so a clerk can read who signed.

   Watch out: Print it the way the Division holds it. A signature nobody can read plus a name that does not match the record is two problems at once.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Driver's License/ID Owner

   Your Delaware licence or identification number, on its own line under the signature row.

   Watch out: This is the identifier the Division matches you to. A retention held in a slightly different spelling of your name is found by this number.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Signature of Co-Owner (if plate joined by AND)

   The second signature row, used only where the plate is held in two names joined by AND.

   Watch out: The condition is printed on the line. Where it applies and the row is blank, the affidavit is incomplete on its face.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Printed Name of Co-Owner and their licence number

   The co-owner's printed name, and their licence or identification number on the line below.

   Watch out: Both owners need to swear this in front of a notary. Doing it together on the same day saves a second appointment.

9. 9
   Somebody else fills this in

   Sworn to and subscribed before me

   Day, month and year, then the Notary Public's signature.

   Watch out: The Division wants the original with the seal on it. Photocopy it for yourself before you hand it over.

What gets this one rejected

• •One owner signing where the plate is joined by AND. The form prints the condition on the co-owner line, so there is no arguing about it afterwards.
• •A missing driver's licence or identification number. There is one under each signature and both are asked for.
• •No notary. Sworn to and subscribed is at the foot of the page, and the Division wants the original.
• •Using it for a plate that is still on a car. This releases a plate from pending - that is, from retention. A plate still attached to a vehicle you are selling has to be retained first.
• •Assuming the plate is still yours afterwards. The printed sentence says you wish to give up your rights to the number. It is a one-way transaction.
• •Leaving it too long. A retained plate keeps for 365 days after its expiration date, and after that it is gone whether or not anybody released it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •What retention is. Putting a plate into retention means putting the tag number on hold until it expires, for future use. You can attach it to another vehicle or hold it under your own name - but if you do not attach it before the plate expires, you will lose the tag.
• •What it costs. The Division publishes two answers and reconciles neither. Its online-services FAQ and its retention flyer both price the retention itself one way, with a lower flat charge to bring the plate back out again and put it on a vehicle; the published fee schedule instead carries separate Retain Tag and Switch Tag lines at that lower figure. The three sets of numbers, and where each comes from, are on our Delaware paperwork page. Budget for the larger and ask at the counter.
• •Retain before you sell, not after. The Division's own warning: if you leave the licence plate attached to the vehicle and decide to sell the vehicle, you will lose the licence plate if you do not retain it first. Order of operations is the whole game here.
• •The online route. Where the buyer is out of state and the registration is still live, the whole retention can be done at the Division's Sold Out of State application without a visit. It will not run if the tag has expired, if there is an uninsured-motorist case or suspension, if the owner's licence status is invalid, if there are registration suspensions or red-light or toll violations, or if the car went to a Delaware dealership.

Every line here was read off MV72 (Rev 3/22) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Delaware seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Delaware involves.