Are there any fees to pay when selling a car?

By Stuart Johnson 

When you sell a car privately, the good news is that there are no fees to be paid to your licensing authority.

The only admin expenses will be collecting the two forms from your local licensing authority, necessary  to officially record the sale.

These forms are:

The Yellow Change of Ownership form, marked as NCO (Notification of Change of ownership)

The Blue Application for Registration and Licensing form, marked as RLV (Application for Registration and Licensing).

Both these forms are issued free of charge to you at your local licensing authority. Both will require completion  by you the seller, and the new owner.

The new owner will have to pay the licensing and registration fees

You will also be required to provide the current registration form to the new owner, once the money has been lodged in your account.

If the car you are selling has been paid for in full, the registration form will list you as both the owner and the title holder.

If there are still outstanding finance payments owing on the car…

If there is still an outstanding amount of money owed on the car, the registration form is retained by the finance company, and you will be listed on the registration form only as the owner. The finance company is listed as the title holder, and the finance company only releases the registration form after the final payment has been made.

Once the final payment has been made, the finance company will furnish you with a registration document listing you as both the owner and title holder.

A settlement document from the finance company

If you still owe an amount of money on the car at the time of selling the car, you can request a  document from the finance company, detailing the settlement fee. You can then arrange for the new owner to transfer this settlement amount to the finance company, and the balance of the agreed selling price to your account.

Hand in the yellow form yourself

It is recommended that you and the new owner complete two copies of the yellow change of ownership form and that you  hand in a completed, yellow change of ownership form to your licensing authority personally,  once you have sold the vehicle. This allows the new owner a grace period of 21 days to register the car under his or her name, but importantly, it protects you against any traffic fines recorded on the vehicle once you have sold the car, and before the car has been registered in the new owner’s name.