How to Cancel License Plates in Colorado: Steps, Forms, and Refunds

To cancel license plates in Colorado, take the plates off the vehicle, file a Release of Liability with the Colorado DMV within five days, and then deal with any leftover registration credit and your insurance policy. Plates in Colorado belong to you, not the car, so this is on you to complete whenever you sell, trade, total, or permanently park a vehicle.¹

The Three Steps to Cancel Your Plates

Under Senate Bill 21-069, a standard Colorado plate expires automatically the moment you transfer title or ownership. That doesn’t finish the job for you. You still need to physically remove the plates from the vehicle before it leaves your possession, notify the DMV that you no longer own the car, and decide what to do with the plates themselves.

Leaving plates on a sold vehicle is the mistake to avoid. The Colorado DMV warns that sellers who fail to pull their plates can be billed for the new owner’s tolls, parking tickets, and camera violations, and can be drawn into a police investigation if the car is used in a crime.¹

Filing the Release of Liability

You have up to five days after the sale to file a Release of Liability. It is technically voluntary, but until the state’s records show you’ve released ownership, any automated ticket tied to that vehicle can come back to you.¹

The fastest route is the myDMV portal at mydmv.colorado.gov. Go to Vehicle Services and select Release of Liability. You’ll need the license plate number and the Vehicle Identification Number. Your county motor vehicle office can process the same filing in person if you prefer.²

If Your Plates Were Lost or Stolen

A Release of Liability isn’t enough if the plates were lost, stolen, destroyed, or illegible. You’ll need to complete form DR 2283, the Lost or Stolen License Plate/Permit Affidavit, which is signed under penalty of perjury in the second degree. The form asks for your name, address, plate number, and whether the plates were lost or stolen, and a filed police report may be required depending on the circumstances.³

Download the PDF from the Colorado DMV website, sign it, and deliver the original to the county or state motor vehicle office where the plate was last registered. One warning: if you later replace a lost or stolen personalized plate with the same configuration, you may still get pulled over, because the plate number can remain flagged in law enforcement databases until records catch up.⁴

Cancel Insurance Only After the Registration Is Off

The sequence matters. If you cancel auto insurance before the registration is cleared, Colorado’s motorist insurance database may flag you as driving uninsured. That is a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a mandatory fine of at least $500, a license suspension, an SR-22 filing requirement, and possible community service for a first offense.

Remove the plates and file the Release of Liability first. Then cancel the policy. If you’re buying a replacement vehicle the same day, your insurer can usually move coverage across without a gap, but confirm it with your agent before you sign paperwork at the dealership.

What to Do With the Physical Plates

Colorado does not require you to return canceled plates. You can recycle them as scrap metal or cut or bend them so they can’t be reused and throw them away. Destroying them is the safer choice if you want no chance of your old plate number turning up on another vehicle.

If you have personalized plates you want to reuse on a future vehicle, store them somewhere secure. Sitting in a garage under an expired registration doesn’t cause any problem on its own, but you’ll go through your county motor vehicle office to reactivate the configuration when you register a new car.

Using Any Leftover Registration Credit

Selling a vehicle partway through its registration period doesn’t get you a cash refund. Colorado creates a prorated credit for the taxes, surcharges, and registration fees you already paid, covering the months remaining from the first day of the month after the sale through the end of the registration period.⁵

A few limits catch people out. The credit applies once: the statute creates “a credit” toward “a subsequent application,” so you can’t split it between two vehicles. The total must exceed ten dollars to be usable. You can either apply it to your own new registration or assign it to the buyer of your old vehicle.⁶

Credits have to be processed in person at a county motor vehicle office. Cancel the registration without applying the credit, such as when you’re leaving Colorado for good, and any remaining balance is forfeited.⁵

Personalized and Specialty Plates Work Differently

Standard plates expire automatically at ownership transfer. Personalized plates and plates with a valuable registration number reserved under the Laura Hershey Disability Support Act are exempt from that automatic expiration and can be transferred to another vehicle you own, coordinated through your county motor vehicle office. Disabled Veteran plates have their own transfer process, handled at the county office after you receive the title complete notice for your replacement vehicle. If you sell the vehicle and don’t intend to reuse a personalized configuration, it expires like any other plate.⁷

1
Colorado Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Buyer’s and Seller’s Responsibilities
2
Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Vehicles
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Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. Lost, Stolen or Misuse of License Plates
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Colorado Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. DR 2283 Lost or Stolen License Plate Permit Affidavit
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Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. FAQs – Registration – Section: How Many Times Can I Transfer Credit From a Current Registration to Another
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FindLaw. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 42 Vehicles and Traffic 42-3-107
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Department of Revenue – Motor Vehicle. License Plates