Selling a Vehicle

In order to properly transfer a vehicle, you must do the following:

  1. Remove the license plates. License plates in the state of Washington stay with the seller. You may choose to discard them, but make sure you either destroy them enough so they can’t be taken and used by someone else, or you can bring them into us to recycle.
  2. File a Report of Sale with us that contains at least the full name of the buyer, address of buyer, when they bought the vehicle from you, and the price you sold it for. This must be filed within 5 days of selling the vehicle.
  3. Sign off on the title before giving it to the buyer. You will need to fill in the following information: names, signatures, and address of all the registered owners. (In the case of divorce or death of one of the registered owners, additional paperwork will be required.) If the vehicle is 2011 or newer, you must provide the odometer reading on the title. Only one of the registered owners is required to print their name, sign and fill in their address for this portion. Remind the buyer they then have 15 days to transfer the title before they are fined.