Do I Need to Return License Plates in Delaware?

You need to return license plates in Delaware whenever the vehicle they’re attached to leaves active, insured registration in your name. That covers selling or transferring the car, moving out of state, canceling or losing insurance, totaling the vehicle, and having your registration suspended. The order matters: plates go back to the Division of Motor Vehicles first, and insurance gets canceled second. Reversing that sequence is what triggers penalties.

Situations That Require You to Surrender Plates

Delaware law ties the plate to lawful, insured use of the vehicle.¹ Plates must come back to the DMV when:

You sell or transfer the vehicle and haven’t already retained the plate or moved it to another vehicle you own. Once the car changes hands with the plate still on it, the plate is gone.²
You move out of Delaware and register the vehicle in your new state.³
You’re canceling or have lost your liability insurance. Plates go back before the policy ends.⁴
The vehicle is totaled or permanently off the road.
Your registration has been suspended or revoked. You have five days from the suspension notice to turn in both the plate and the registration certificate, or the DMV will also suspend your driver’s license.⁵

Return Plates Before You Cancel Insurance

This is the mistake worth avoiding above all others. Delaware does not let you drop coverage first and mail the plates in afterward. The correct order is to surrender the plates at the DMV, confirm they’re off your record, and then call your insurer to cancel.⁶

Insurance companies report cancellations directly to the state. When the DMV’s system sees an active registration without a matching policy, it starts assessing daily fees automatically. A car sitting in a locked garage doesn’t escape this. The trigger is the mismatch on paper, not whether the vehicle is being driven.⁴

When You Don’t Have to Turn Them In

Not every change in vehicle status calls for a plate surrender. You keep the plate when:

You’re transferring it to another vehicle you own. Delaware Code Section 2128 allows a plate transfer with a written application and a $20 fee on top of any other registration charges.¹
You’re renewing the current registration.
You’re placing the plate into retention rather than turning it in permanently.

How to Surrender Plates

In Person

Any full-service Delaware DMV office will take plates over the counter. The four locations are Wilmington, Delaware City, Dover, and Georgetown.⁷ In-person surrender gives you same-day confirmation that the plate is off your record, which matters when your insurance cancellation is queued up right behind it.

By Mail

If you can’t get to a branch, mail the plates to the Dover office: Division of Motor Vehicles, P.O. Box 698, Dover, DE 19903.⁸ Include a note with your name, contact information, and the reason for the return. Mailed plates aren’t logged as surrendered until the DMV processes them, so if you’re on a tight timeline with insurance, go in person.

Retention: Keeping the Plate Without Keeping It On a Car

If you’re between vehicles or selling one without a replacement lined up, retention preserves the plate number for later use. This matters more in Delaware than elsewhere because low-digit plates carry real market value. Single-digit tags have been valued above $1 million, and lower-numbered plates routinely sell for five and six figures. Leaving one on a sold car is an expensive slip.

Retention has to be done in person, and you’ll need:

Your Delaware title. If the title lists multiple owners joined by “and,” all of them must appear. Joined by “and/or,” one is enough.
Proof of Delaware insurance if you’re moving the plate to another vehicle or putting a different tag on the current one.

Financed vehicle? You’ll complete form MV-35 and have the lienholder mail the title to the DMV before retention can process.²

Retention is not open-ended. The plate stays on hold through the expiration date on its sticker and remains available for 365 days past expiration.⁹ Miss that window without attaching the plate to a vehicle and you lose it. If the vehicle you sold went to a buyer outside Delaware, you can submit the retention application through the DMV’s website instead of visiting an office.²

What It Costs If You Don’t Return Them

Hanging onto plates that should have gone back is expensive. When the DMV detects that a registered vehicle has lost its insurance, it charges an uninsured vehicle fee of $100 for the first 30 days without coverage, then $5 for every additional day until you get new coverage, surrender the plates, or the registration expires.¹⁰

Add a $50 registration reinstatement fee on top of that before the DMV will reactivate a suspended registration. The registration stays suspended until both the accumulated penalty and the reinstatement fee are paid.¹⁰ A suspended registration can’t be driven, and the outstanding balance follows your DMV record into any future Delaware registration.

These fees are separate from what happens if you actually drive uninsured, which carries a fine starting at $1,500 for a first offense and a six-month license suspension. The uninsured vehicle fees apply whether or not the car ever moves.

1
Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 21 Chapter 21 – Registration of Vehicles
2
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Tag Retention
3
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Moved to Another State FAQs
4
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Vehicle Liability Insurance FAQs
5
Delaware General Assembly. Delaware Code Title 21 – HB88
6
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Vehicle Services Registration – Insurance Requirements
7
Division of Motor Vehicles. DMV Locations Map
8
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Contact and Location Information
9
Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. Retaining a Delaware License Plate
10
Division of Motor Vehicles. Uninsured Motorist