What is the essential paperwork required to sell a car? If you are searching for an answer to this question, here are the details that you are looking for.
Planning to sell your car privately, are you? While you go through the process of selling and finalizing the deal, having the necessary paperwork ready is very important. It's helpful in facilitating a hassle-free deal. When there is no dealer, you need to be extremely organized to sell a car.
The entire exercise can be very stressful and can even make you think twice about selling the car. It is best to organize the paperwork, before you start looking for a buyer. Are you wondering what paperwork has to be completed when selling a car? The answers are presented further.
Vehicle Title
Before you sell your car, you must have a clear title that a prospective buyer will want to check. If you are still making payments for the car loan, then along with your name, the title will also include the name of the lien holder.
Only if the auto loan is completely paid off, the loan company will release the lien and you'll get the new title, which includes only your name.
So you need to clear the car loan amount and ask the loan company to finish their paperwork and release the new title. Vehicle title is also often known as certificate of ownership.
Registration and Maintenance Paperwork
You will have to get the vehicle registration for your car. Also get the license paperwork which might be needed. It will be best if you have the receipts of maintenance and repairs done previously.
A list of parts replaced by you must also be added to the paperwork. If there are some safety checks to be done (if applicable in your case), provide a copy of these to the prospective buyer. Providing all these details will ensure that the new buyer does not keep coming back to you with complaints, after you sell off the car.
Vehicle History
It is best to provide other details like your car history to the new buyer. You must keep the vehicle history report ready, as this can be demanded by the buyer.
Providing this, before being demanded, will only help clarify things, and build trust between you and the buyer. The more your potential buyers know about your car and trust you, the more quickly you will be able to sell it.
Provide the vehicle identification number (VIN). This will also appear on the car tile, auto insurance, and other records. This helps a person get detailed accident records, service records, and repair records of your car from the online vehicle history database.
Bill of Sale
You will have to make a bill of sale for the buyer, which will be signed by you, along with other joint owners (if any), as mentioned in the title. You can also get a printed form of bill of sale which will have the necessary information, along with blank spaces to fill in the details.
The bill of sale essentially includes your name, name of the buyer, VIN, model of the car, make, year and body, current mileage, the price decided, and date of sale. The mileage can be recorded just before both of you sign the papers.
Well, the deal is done. Your car is sold. Now what? Don't forget to cancel the registration and car insurance. Have a copy of the new registration document, which mentions the name of the owner of the car and other details like date of sale, mileage at the time of selling, etc.
Having all the paperwork will ensure that there are no issues, during initial negotiations and after the deal is done. Make sure that you have photocopies of all the paperwork done for selling the car.