The car is gone and you’ve been paid. A few short jobs are still on your list, and skipping them is how people end up with mail about a car they no longer own.
1. Keep your plates
The Illinois Secretary of State is blunt about this: “In Illinois, license plates belong to an owner, not the vehicle.” Plates don’t go with the car when you sell it. Take them off before the truck leaves, or ask the driver to wait while you do. A screwdriver usually does it.
If you’re buying another car, you can move the plates to it. The Secretary of State lists the fee for a transfer only as $25, using form VSD 190.
2. File the Seller’s Report of Sale
Form VSD 703, the Seller’s Report of Sale, tells the state you no longer own the car. The form’s instructions say to complete it “immediately” and mail it to the Secretary of State’s Vehicle Services Department, and that doing so “will release your responsibility for the vehicle.”
Note what it doesn’t do. The same form says filing it “does not meet the legal requirements for transferring ownership.” Signing the title over at the pickup does that. You need both: the signed title for the sale, the report for your own protection.
Write down the date of the sale and the buyer’s name for the form: Cash for Scrap Junk Cars, 4731 W 135th St, Crestwood, IL 60418.
3. Let the emissions notices stop
Most of the Chicago area, including all of Cook County, is in Illinois’s emissions-testing area. If your car was due for a test, the notices keep coming until the state’s records change. The Illinois Air Team’s FAQ says you must tell the Secretary of State you no longer own the vehicle, and that once the registration record is updated you’ll stop getting test notices. The Seller’s Report of Sale is one of the ways to do that.
4. Sort out insurance
We didn’t find a Secretary of State page that tells sellers when to cancel coverage, so treat this as a practical step: once the car is sold and you’ve filed the report, call your insurer about removing the car from your policy. Some policies refund unused premium. Your agent can tell you how yours works.
5. Clear out the last personal things
Ideally this happens before the pickup. If you forgot something, call us right away; once a car moves on to processing, getting items back isn’t realistic. Our pre-pickup checklist covers what people most often leave behind.
What you don’t need to do
You don’t need to apply for a junking certificate yourself when you sell to a scrap processor. The processor sends your title to the Secretary of State with a Junk Vehicle Notification within 15 days. For the paperwork you bring to the sale itself, see the Illinois scrap paperwork guide. If you’re still working out the title, start with scrapping a car without a title.