The bottom line: To sell a car privately in Alabama, you sign the title over to the buyer, write a bill of sale, and record the mileage on cars from model year 2011 or newer. Then take the tag off and transfer your plates to another vehicle you own or surrender them to your county license plate issuing office.
Nothing needs a notary, and Alabama has no emissions test or safety inspection.
Keep your copy of the bill of sale, because you don’t file anything with the state after the sale and it is your only proof the car is no longer yours. You’ll need it if an insurance verification notice for the car reaches you later. The buyer keeps a copy in the car and has 20 days from the date of sale to title and register it at their county office.
Before you list, get the lien release from your lender if you still owe money on the car. If the title is lost, order a replacement through the Public Title Portal for $15, and allow 10 to 15 business days to issue, plus 3 to 5 business days in the mail. A car more than 35 model years old doesn’t need a title, so for it the bill of sale is the transfer document.
If you’d rather not sell it yourself, Sell Car Advisor’s comparison tool gets you several instant offers at once.
- Sign the title over to the buyerVehicles more than 35 model years old are exempt. Odometer reading: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles.
- Take your plates off the carTransfer your plates to another vehicle you own or surrender them to your county license plate issuing office. Transfer fee: $1.25 to the state, plus any local issuance fee the county charges.
- Keep your proof of the saleNo filing is required. MyDMV has no seller's notice; it is where a registrant answers an insurance verification notice on a car already sold. Keep the bill of sale as proof.
- Cancel your insuranceOnly after you surrender the plate to your county license plate issuing office, so the registration is revoked and the state stops verifying insurance on it.
- Write a bill of sale
- Emissions test
- Safety inspection
- Notary on the title
- Notarized bill of sale
- Release-of-liability form
- Replacing a lost title
- $15Takes 10 to 15 business days to issue, plus 3 to 5 business days in the mail; can be ordered online; Form MVT 12-1
- Two owners on the title
- Two owners joined by "and", or with no conjunction between the names, both sign; joined by "or" or "and/or", one signature is enough.
- The buyer
- Registers the car within 20 days from the date of sale$15 plus interest charges
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
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Step-by-Step Process for Alabama
Step 1: Prepare Your Alabama Paperwork
Documents you’ll need:
- Vehicle title: the Alabama certificate, in your name, with any lien cleared off the record
- Driver’s license: yours and the buyer’s, looked at before the money moves
- Lien release: only if a lender is still on the title
If your title is missing:
Alabama runs replacements through its own Public Title Portal, and the online application is open to you as the titled owner. The form is Form MVT 12-1 and the fee is $15, which is not refunded if the original turns up afterwards.
If a lender is recorded on the title, the request is theirs to make rather than yours.
Allow 10 to 15 business days to issue, plus 3 to 5 business days in the mail.
If you can’t get a replacement title:
Some Alabama cars never had a title to lose. The state titles every motor vehicle up to 35 model years old, and anything older than that has always changed hands on a bill of sale instead.
There is a second route, and it ends only one way: an old enough, cheap enough car can go to a licensed dismantler or scrap recycler, and the paperwork there is theirs rather than yours: Form MVT 5-18, which the recycler files through the ADOR SCRAP portal.
The law behind both routes is Alabama Code Section 32-8-87 (dismantler) and Section 32-8-31 (35+ year vehicles), and the conditions are either at least 12 model years old and worth $1,000 or less, when sold to a licensed dismantler, or more than 35 model years old.
One catch worth knowing on the older cars: with no title to inspect, the county licensing official has to see the VIN in person before a plate can be issued.
If you still owe money on the car:
Your lender has three ways to clear the record and any one of them is enough: Form MVT 5-63, direct title signing in the lien release area, or release letter on lender letterhead. Liens automatically release after 12 years, or 4 years for vehicles 12+ model years old.
Ask which one they use before you advertise, because the letter route and the title route take different amounts of time.
Step 2: Prepare Your Car
Alabama has no inspection to pass before a sale, so the records you keep are what a buyer gets to see.
Service receipts, the last set of tires, any bodywork. Put it in date order and let the buyer read it while you talk.
Wash it, empty it, and pull the vehicle history report before the first viewing rather than after the first question about it.
Step 3: Price Your Car
Step 4: Advertise Your Car
Facebook Marketplace, Cars.com and Autotrader all reach Alabama buyers, and between Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville a listing covers most of the state’s buying population.
Alabama borders four states, so anything within an hour of the line is worth writing for someone driving over from Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi or the Florida panhandle.
If the car has reached the stage where you would rather not park it in a stranger’s driveway for a test drive, Peddle and Wheelzy buy old and damaged cars outright, and Carvana is the one to try for a car under 10 years old in good condition.
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Offer amount 35% 5/5
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Process ease 20% 5/5
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Offer validity 15% 4/5
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Pickup / drop-off 15% 4/5
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Payment speed 15% 4/5
- Get a real offer online in 2 minutes
- Suits a car under 10 years old in good condition
- No haggling: its best offer comes upfront
- Pays off your loan when it buys the car
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 4/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
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Process ease 15% 5/5
- Buys any car in any condition, running or not
- Free towing, with no fees taken off the offer
- You can cancel before pickup at no cost
- Pays by check on the spot at pickup
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Offer amount 30% 5/5
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Quote speed 20% 5/5
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Pickup speed 20% 5/5
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Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
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Process ease 15% 4/5
- Guaranteed offer in minutes, by phone or online
- Free pickup and towing anywhere in Alabama
- Paid on the spot at pickup, usually by cashier's check
- No dealer fees, no title transfer fees, no removal fees
Step 5: Meet with Buyers Safely
Pick somewhere with people and cameras. A bank lot in daylight or a busy supermarket lot both work, and both are better than your own address.
Look at the buyer’s license before the test drive, and go along for the ride.
Step 6: Handle Payment and Negotiate
The simplest version is to meet at the buyer’s own bank and let the teller confirm the cashier’s check while you are both standing at the counter.
A wire transfer is fine once you can see the money in your account rather than in a screenshot.
If it is cash, count it indoors, and sign nothing until it is counted.
Step 7: Complete the Alabama Title Transfer
Turn the title over. The assignment is the block where the registered owner signs the car away, and it is the only part of the document that is yours to fill in.
Sign it the way your name is printed on the front. Then fill in the buyer’s full legal name and address, the date, the price you agreed and the mileage.
The mileage line has a rule of its own: disclosure is required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt.
If your title has no odometer block, Form MVT 5-5 is the separate disclosure.
If two names are on the front, who signs depends on the word between them: two owners joined by "and", or with no conjunction between the names, both sign; joined by "or" or "and/or", one signature is enough.
Made a slip?
The buyer takes the signed title to their county license plate issuing official and applies for the title and the plate together. They have 20 days from the date of sale, and if the last day is a Sunday or a holiday it rolls to the next working day.
After that it is $15 plus interest charges.
Step 8: Handle Alabama License Plates and Registration
The tag is registered to you rather than to the car, so it comes off before the buyer drives away.
Plates stay with you. Then pick one: transfer your plates to another vehicle you own or surrender them to your county license plate issuing office.
Moving it to your next car costs $1.25 to the state, plus any local issuance fee the county charges.
The buyer leaves the county office with a plate of their own.
Step 9: Cancel Insurance
Cancel the policy last, once you’ve surrendered the tag at the county office and the registration is revoked.
There is no state filing to wait for in Alabama, and no reason to wait for the buyer to register it either.
Alabama Sale Checklist
Before the Sale
At the Sale
After the Sale
Alabama DMV Resources
State Resources:
- Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division
- Vehicle Licensing Offices by County
- License Plate and Registration Information
- Alabama Public Title Portal
Phone Support:
Alabama Fees and Costs
| What You Pay | Cost | When? |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate title (if the title is lost) | $15 | Before sale |
| Moving your plate to another car | $1.25 to the state, plus any local issuance fee the county charges | After sale |
| Lien payoff (if applicable) | Loan balance | Before sale |
| Everything else | $0 | Buyer pays |
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an Alabama car title have to be notarized, or witnessed, when I sign it over?
No. Alabama doesn't require the title assignment to be notarized.
No witness signature is needed either, on the title or on a bill of sale, on an ordinary titled car.
The one place a notary turns up is an older car the state does not title, where a county may want the seller’s signature on the bill of sale notarized instead.
Do I need a bill of sale to sell a car in Alabama?
Not to transfer a titled car. The assigned title does that on its own, and the state’s list of what a title application needs does not include one, which is why it reads as recommended here.
An older car is a different story: required for a vehicle Alabama does not title, and the buyer keeps a legible copy in the vehicle for the first 20 days.
There is no Alabama form to download, so any clear written record does the job, including the one our bill of sale generator makes.
Write one anyway. It is the only record of the price and the date, and it is what the licensing official asks to see if anything comes back to you later.
Do I have to tell anyone in Alabama that I sold my car?
No. Alabama has no seller’s notice, no sold-vehicle form and no county or state office expecting to hear from you. What moves the car off your name is the buyer’s own application at their county office.
Form to file: None required.
Nor does handing the tag in: no; surrendering a plate is voluntary in Alabama and does not report the sale.
Keep the bill of sale instead. If the state’s insurance check writes to you about a car you no longer own, the Department of Revenue says the registrant can answer the notice through MyDMV, or take documentation such as a bill of sale to the local licensing official, and have the registration revoked.
The car came from an estate. What does Alabama want before I can sell it?
It turns on whether the estate went through probate. If probated: letters testamentary or letters of administration. If not probated: Form MVT 5-6 plus death certificate, notarized.
My lender has gone out of business and the lien is still on the title. Now what?
Alabama has a route for exactly this. The Department of Revenue accepts an affidavit from the owner that the lien has been satisfied, evidence that the debt was paid, and the unopened envelope with its certified mail return receipt showing you wrote to the lienholder’s last known address.
Check the date the lien was recorded before you do any of that. Alabama releases old liens by the passage of time, so if enough years have passed you may need nothing at all.
Is a junk car in Alabama worth selling privately?
Buyers in Alabama typically offer $413 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 130 offers, ranked 42 of 44 states). Taking an offer like that is usually quicker than a listing and a run of viewings.
Article Update History
Every rule on this page now comes from the Alabama Department of Revenue and county tag offices.
Paperwork requirements, fees and forms checked against current Alabama DMV records.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form MVT 12-1" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$15" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"recommended" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
What to Do With License Plates
"transfer your plates to another vehicle you own or surrender them to your county license plate issuing office" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Buyer Registration Deadline After Sale
"20 days from the date of sale" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"yes (vehicles more than 35 model years old are exempt)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Bill of Sale Notarization Required?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MVT 5-63, direct title signing in the lien release area, or release letter on lender letterhead. Liens automatically release after 12 years, or 4 years for vehicles 12+ model years old." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Safety Inspection Required to Sell?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Sell Without Title: Legal Authority
"Alabama Code Section 32-8-87 (dismantler) and Section 32-8-31 (35+ year vehicles)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Form Requirements
"If probated: letters testamentary or letters of administration. If not probated: Form MVT 5-6 plus death certificate, notarized." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MVT 5-18, which the recycler files through the ADOR SCRAP portal" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Buyer Penalty for Missing Registration Deadline
"$15 plus interest charges" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Replacement Title Processing Time
"10 to 15 business days to issue, plus 3 to 5 business days in the mail" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"no testing required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$1.25 to the state, plus any local issuance fee the county charges" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles, with model year 2010 and older, trailers, and vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs exempt" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"two owners joined by "and", or with no conjunction between the names, both sign; joined by "or" or "and/or", one signature is enough" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"an error in a title assignment is corrected on Form MVT 5-7, Affidavit to Correct an Assignment on a Certificate of Title, submitted with the title application" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"county license plate issuing official" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Motor Vehicle Division: (334) 242-9000" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Bill of Sale Form Availability
"required for a vehicle Alabama does not title, and the buyer keeps a legible copy in the vehicle for the first 20 days" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Does Plate Surrender Release Liability?
"no; surrendering a plate is voluntary in Alabama and does not report the sale" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 1 figure from 17,628 instant cash offers" Accessed Oct. 19, 2026
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