How to fill out Delaware Report of Sale

The one page that tells the Division of Motor Vehicles your car is gone. Delaware prints it as a detachable strip at the foot of a current certificate of title, and publishes this standalone version for everybody whose title has already been handed over or never carried one. It names you, the vehicle, the buyer, the price, the mileage and the date, and it is what a Delaware seller has instead of a notice-of-sale deadline.

Written against Report of Sale (Rev 8/28/24), issued under 21 Del. C. s. 2502, cited on the form itself. The Division's advice, in its own words on the titling page, is that the seller transfer the title to the buyer at a Division facility - because that is the only way to be certain the buyer actually obtained a new title and your name actually came off. This notice is what you do when that was not possible. It is a flag on a record, not a discharge.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Report of Sale from the dmv.de.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Report of Sale 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

   Your name, in the sentence

   The form opens mid-sentence - I, ______, sold my vehicle - and your name completes it. Use the name as the certificate carries it.

   Watch out: If two owners are on the title joined by AND, both of you were required to sign Section 1, and both names belong here too.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Make

   The manufacturer, on its own line.

   Watch out: Delaware's forms split make, model and year onto three separate lines throughout. Filling one line with all three is the commonest way this comes back.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Model

   The model as it appears on the registration card, not the trim level you advertised.

   Watch out: The Division matches this against its own record. A model name that is close but not the same slows the match down.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Year and VIN (Serial Number)

   Model year on the left, the seventeen-character vehicle identification number on the right.

   Watch out: Copy the VIN off the front of the certificate, character by character. Nothing else on this form identifies the car with certainty.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Tag Number and Odometer Reading

   The plate the car was wearing, prefix included, and the mileage in whole miles with no tenths.

   Watch out: This mileage should be the same figure you wrote in Section 1 on the back of the title. Two different readings on two documents dated the same day is the sort of thing an odometer investigation starts with.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   To: the buyer's name

   Who the car went to, in full.

   Watch out: Off their licence, not off the message they sent you. This is the name the Division will look for if it ever has to trace the car.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   The buyer's address, both lines

   Street on the first line, city, state and ZIP on the second.

   Watch out: Sending this in with a sold-out-of-state application? The form says in capitals that the buyer's address, city, state and zip must be outside of Delaware, or the two documents contradict each other.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Sale Date and Selling Price

   Month, day and year, and what was actually paid.

   Watch out: The same date and the same price you wrote on the back of the certificate. Two different prices on two documents is how a document-fee query starts.

9. 9
   You fill this in

   Sign it, and date the signature

   Signature of Seller, with the date on the line beside it.

   Watch out: Blue or black ink if you are printing it. If you are filling it in on screen to email, do that and then sign the printed copy - the Division accepts the emailed form at the address on its face.

10. 10
    The buyer fills this in

    The buyer signs, dates, and adds a licence number

    Signature of Buyer, the date, and Buyer's Driver License No. on the same row.

    Watch out: Get this before they drive off. Chasing a stranger for a signature on your own release of liability a week later is the single most avoidable problem in a Delaware private sale.

What gets this one rejected

• •Sending it and assuming you are clear. The form's own opening paragraph says the Division will flag the vehicle record and that the flag will not change the ownership of the vehicle nor stop law enforcement, the DMV or parking authorities from contacting you about it.
• •Leaving a line blank. Printed above the boxes in bold: forms submitted without complete and legible information will still hold me liable for this vehicle.
• •Skipping the buyer's signature or licence number. This is the version with buyer information on it; without those two the Division has a notice it cannot match to a person.
• •Filing it for a car sold to a Delaware buyer while writing a Delaware address in the buyer block on a sold-out-of-state submission. The form is explicit that on those the buyer's address must be outside of Delaware.
• •Treating it as a substitute for the registration card. 21 Del. C. s. 2502 asks for the card as well, endorsed with the buyer's name and address and the date of transfer.
• •Filing it instead of tearing the strip off the title. If your certificate carried one, the strip was the original and this is the replacement - the Division wants one of them, not neither.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Where it goes. Two addresses, both printed on the form: mailed to P.O. Box 698, Dover, DE 19903, or emailed to [email protected]. The email route is the reason to fill this in on screen rather than by hand.
• •What the statute actually asks for. 21 Del. C. s. 2502 requires an owner transferring a registered vehicle to endorse the transferee's name and address and the date of transfer on the registration card and to give or send that card to the Department immediately. No day count is set anywhere - immediately is the whole of the deadline - and where the buyer is a Delaware dealer, the card goes to the dealer and only this notice comes to Dover.
• •The other version. The Division also publishes a report of sale with no buyer block, for a seller who genuinely does not have the buyer's details. Use this one if you can: a notice the Division can tie to a named buyer with a licence number is worth more than a notice that says the car left.
• •It is also a money form. The document fee credit application will not be processed until the Division knows the car has gone, and the MV347's own instructions name this notice as the way to tell it.

Every line here was read off Report of Sale (Rev 8/28/24) 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.