How to Sell a Car in Idaho Privately? (State Guide)

The clock starts the moment the title is signed and handed over, and it runs 30 days from transfer.

Within that time the buyer takes the signed title to a county assessor’s motor vehicle office and applies for one in their own name.

Miss it and the penalty is theirs, not yours: $20.00 late-filing penalty.

Registering the car is a separate thing. Idaho charges the title penalty whether the vehicle was registered or not.

Only if the vehicle is old enough or unusual enough to qualify. The conditions are the vehicle must be a 2010 or older model year, weigh over 16,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, or have no odometer device.

Form: Form ITD 3369 (Duplicate Idaho Title Application With Ownership Transfer).

Two things catch people out on this route. The seller’s signature on the application has to be notarized, and the buyer has to be an Idaho resident, or no title will be issued.

If the car does not qualify, a duplicate title comes first. Nothing else will do, and no bill of sale replaces it.

A bill of sale is recommended in Idaho, and there is one case where it is not needed at all: optional; no bill of sale is required if the seller enters the sales price on the title in the space dedicated for it, and where one is used Idaho provides Form ITD 3738.

A bill of sale records the price. The buyer takes it to the county office as proof of what they paid, and Idaho collects sales tax on that figure, so where the title already carries the price that job is done.

Whichever document carries the price, write the true one. A false selling price on either is a felony in Idaho.

A usable one names the vehicle, the price, the buyer’s full legal name, the date, and carries your original signature. Our free bill of sale generator produces one in a couple of minutes.

Which affidavit you need turns on whether there was a will and how big the estate is. Form ITD 3414 (Affidavit of Inheritance) where the owner died without a will, or Form ITD 3413 (Small Estate Affidavit) for a small estate.

Form ITD 3414 applies where the owner died intestate, left no remaining creditors and left no other property needing probate, and no other heir has prior right to the vehicle. Form ITD 3413 applies where the estate subject to probate is worth no more than $100,000 after liens, more than thirty days have passed since the death, and no personal representative has been appointed. Either affidavit is attached to the application for an Idaho certificate of title.

Estate limit: $100,000, measured on the estate subject to probate less liens and encumbrances.

It depends on the word printed between the two names: any owner may sign if the names on the title are connected by "OR", but all must sign if they are connected by "AND".

Check the front of the title before the buyer arrives, so the right people are in the room.

Nothing changes on your side of it. Sign the title, take the plate off, and file the release on the same clock as you would for a buyer in Twin Falls.

Titling the car is their problem, under their own state’s rules.

It is worth knowing which way Idaho’s own inspection rule points, because sellers get this backwards. Idaho wants a VIN inspection on a car arriving from another state or never titled here before, done by a police officer, a DMV employee, a military police officer or an Idaho licensed dealer. That applies to cars coming in, not to yours going out.

No, and leaving them on to help the buyer drive home does the opposite of helping.

A plate left on the car is still registered to its old owner while the buyer is driving it, which is exactly the exposure the release of liability exists to close.

Yes. What makes it matter is the ITD’s own wording: the motor vehicle record stays in your name until the buyer applies for and is issued a new Idaho certificate of title.

Filing it is what puts the sale on the record while the buyer takes their time.

Sign the title over as you would in a sale, and add the exemption form so nobody pays use tax on a car that was given away. The form is ST-133GT, Gift Transfer Affidavit, for a gift. ST-133 for a sale between qualifying family members.

Who counts as family: a parent or child, a grandparent or grandchild, or a brother or sister.

Both parties sign the gift affidavit. For a family sale the seller must have paid tax when they bought the vehicle

Possibly nothing, and possibly one less trip for the buyer. Where a private sale carries a lien from a financial institution, the ITD says that institution may prepare the application for title and file it themselves. If they do not, the buyer files it at the county office like anyone else.

Your side is unchanged. Sign the title over, take the plate, and file the release on the usual clock.

Wait for the money to land before the title moves. A lender’s check is still a check until your own bank has it.

Some cars are worth less than the trouble of listing them. Buyers in Idaho typically offer $488 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 54 offers, ranked 28 of 44 states), and an online buyer will tow it rather than make you show it to strangers.