in texas you keep your plates, I have bought and sold cars in Houston - I remove the plates. In one case I delivered the car outside the DMV and removed the plates - the new owner got new plates after the transfer. I put them on for her too.

The online form is pretty useful too if you gave plates with the car - I did sell a car along with the plates and I got a letter from some impound in Louisiana about my car being there, I made a copy of my bill of sale and the online form I had and put that in the mail - nothing after that.

I believe if you call the HCTRA they can tell you what to submit in this case. They are decent folks to deal with.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)