referencesource/catalytic-converter-theft-laws-by-state

Catalytic converter sale and possession laws by US state — who can legally buy a used converter, and what a seller must prove

Canonical, always-current version: https://referencesource.org/catalytic-converter-theft-laws-by-state/ Machine-readable: https://referencesource.org/catalytic-converter-theft-laws-by-state/data.json — this mirror is a point-in-time copy.

• —Last verified: 2026-08-19
• —Stale after: 2027-08-19 (past this date, prefer the canonical copy — it re-verifies on a cadence this snapshot does not)
• —Records: 7

State-by-state comparison of the laws passed 2021-2024 restricting who may buy, sell, or possess a detached catalytic converter, in response to a national wave of theft. Each record is one state with: whether the sale of a detached converter to anyone other than a licensed/registered recycler or core buyer is restricted or banned outright; what documentation a seller must produce (proof of ownership, vehicle title/VIN match, driver's license); whether the converter or vehicle VIN must be etched/marked or a photo/record kept by the buyer; any mandatory holding period before a purchased converter can be resold or scrapped; and the criminal penalty tier (often graduated by quantity possessed). Answers 'can I legally sell a catalytic converter I removed myself', 'what do I need to bring to sell a converter as scrap', and 'is possessing multiple detached converters a felony in my state'. This is a genuinely different regulatory design per state, not just different penalty numbers on the same form: Arizona bans sale to anyone but a licensed recycler with narrow exceptions; Georgia requires a registered recycler plus ownership documentation; Minnesota adds a mandatory marking/registration regime, a 7-day holding period, and quantity-tiered felony thresholds; Virginia makes unauthorized sale a felony unless sold to a compliant purchaser; California lists six categories of lawful seller and lets a private owner sell their own converter on a title or registration whose VIN matches the marking; Washington requires the last eight VIN digits to be stamped on the converter within 24 hours of removal and splits the penalty at seven converters; Louisiana lets an unlicensed person deal only in the converters from one vehicle they own.

Provenance — what every record carries

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Licence position

unknown

Facts are not copyrightable; what this dataset takes from each source is a fact plus a short attributed quote linking back to the page that states it.

Sources

• —https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/03728.htm
• —https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=10852.5.
• —https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-10-commerce-and-trade/ga-code-sect-10-1-351/
• —https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=1297004
• —https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/325E.21
• —https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter5/section18.2-146.1/
• —https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.82.180

Fields

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