The bottom line: To sell your car privately in Missouri, sign the title over to the buyer and give them a bill of sale on Form 1957. Every owner listed on the title signs, exactly as their name appears on it. No notary is needed.
Pay for a safety inspection shortly before the sale, unless the car is in its first ten model years and has fewer than 150,000 miles. The certificate is good for 60 days. In St. Louis City and St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties, you also hand the buyer a passing emissions certificate.
If a lender still holds a lien, it gives you a notarized lien release (Form DOR-4809) once the loan is paid off. A lost title is replaced with a notarized Form 108 for an $8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing fee.
Your plates stay with you, so move them to another car you own, or destroy them. Within 30 days of the sale, mail the Motor Vehicle Bureau the Notice of Sale (Form 5049 or the tear-off on newer titles) or the completed Form 1957. Skipping it can cost a fine of up to $200.
Compare offers from multiple buyers before you decide a private sale is worth the errands.
- Get an emissions testFor cars registered in St. Louis City or St. Louis, St. Charles or Jefferson County
- Get a safety inspectionYou pay for a fresh inspection right before the sale, unless the car is in its first ten model years with under 150,000 miles, or is sold for junk, salvage or rebuilding and the buyer gives you an affidavit saying so
- Sign the title over to the buyerOdometer reading: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles.
- Write a bill of saleForm 1957
- Take your plates off the carTransfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or destroy and recycle them
- File Form 5049 (Notice of Sale) within 30 daysComplete Form 5049, or the tear-off Notice of Sale printed on newer Missouri titles, and mail it to the Motor Vehicle Bureau, P.O. Box 3050, Jefferson City, MO 65105-3050; a completed Bill of Sale (Form 1957) is accepted in its place. No notice is needed for a car sold to an out-of-state purchaser, a car sold to a dealer, or a car that already has a salvage title or junking certificate. It helps protect you from liability for the car after the sale.
- Notary on the title
- Notarized bill of sale
- Replacing a lost title
- $8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing feeTakes 3 to 5 business days when submitted in person at a license office; 4 to 6 weeks for mail-in applications; can’t be ordered online; Form 108Faster: The Department will handle an application in an expeditious manner on request, $5 on top of the regular certificate of ownership fee.
- Two owners on the title
- All owners listed on the face of the title must sign and print their names in the seller fields on the back, exactly as the names appear on the face; only one purchaser is required to sign.
- The buyer
- Registers the car within 30 days from the date of sale$25 title penalty for each 30 days of delinquency, not to exceed $200 total
Automated assistant: general info, not legal advice
Answers come from our state paperwork data and published guides. Confirm anything binding with your state DMV.
Compare Instant Offers
Step-by-Step Process for Missouri
Step 1: What Paperwork You Need to Sell a Car in Missouri
The Department of Revenue’s list of what you owe the buyer is short.
Documents you’ll need:
- The certificate of title, in your name, with the assignment on the back left blank until you are standing with the buyer
- A safety inspection certificate, less than 60 days old, unless the car is exempt
- An emissions certificate, only if the car is registered in the St. Louis area
- A notarized lien release, only if a lender was ever recorded on the title
Take your driver’s license as well. The Department asks every seller named on the front of the title to sign the back exactly as the name is printed there, so fix a married name or a dropped middle initial before you list.
The inspection is the easy one to get wrong. State law puts the safety inspection on the seller, at the seller’s expense, rather than on the buyer at the license office, and the certificate you hand over has to be less than 60 days old on the day of the sale.
The exemption is generous, and it covers most cars that change hands privately: a car in its first ten model years with under 150,000 miles on the odometer needs no inspection at all.
When one is needed, the certificate itself is a Certificate of Inspection and Approval valid for 60 days from the inspection date, or 90 days when the car came from a Missouri dealer whose inspection was done within 60 days before the purchase; vehicles in their first ten model years with less than 150,000 miles on the odometer are exempt, as are trailers, ATVs and new vehicles.
Emissions is narrower again, and it turns on where the car is registered: the four areas are St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County and Jefferson County.
Emissions certificate in those four areas: yes, in the four affected areas: at the title transfer the seller provides the purchaser with a valid emissions compliance certificate or waiver, and the seller pays for the test.
If your title is missing:
You cannot sell without it: the Department says a sale is not valid without a properly assigned title. To apply, complete Form 108, have it notarized, and submit in person at any Missouri license office or by mail to the Motor Vehicle Bureau, P.O. Box 100, Jefferson City, MO 65105-0100.
The fee is $8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing fee, the form has to be notarized, and the wait is 3 to 5 business days when submitted in person at a license office; 4 to 6 weeks for mail-in applications. There is more on the process in our guide to getting a replacement title.
If you can’t get a replacement title:
Missouri allows two exceptions, and both are for cars at the end of their life.
The first is the scrap route. It takes a car that is inoperable (rusted, wrecked, worn out or mechanically dead, fit only for scrap), at least ten model years old, free of any recorded lien, and sold to a Missouri scrap metal operator, who checks the lien record with the Department of Revenue unless the car is at least twenty model years old.
That route runs on Section 301.227.9, RSMo (a scrap metal operator may buy an inoperable vehicle at least ten model years old without a title).
The second is narrower still. For a car built twenty six or more model years before the current one, where you hold a bill of sale but no title, the Department can issue a junking certificate instead, provided nobody has reported the car stolen and the Highway Patrol writes to say so.
A junking certificate is not a title. It lets the holder keep the car, move it, or pass on the parts and scrap; it does not put the car back on the road.
If neither exception fits, selling a car without a title explains what is left.
If you still owe money on the car:
The lender has to release the lien before the title can move. In Missouri, the lender provides a notarized Lien Release (Form DOR-4809) once the loan is satisfied; submit it with the title to issue a new title without the lien.
If your lender does not use that form, a notarized statement on its own letterhead saying the lien is released does the same job. If you owe more than the car brings, you pay the lender the rest before the release comes.
Step 2: Prepare Your Car
Wash it properly, wheel wells and underside included, and take the photographs outside in daylight rather than in a garage.
Put every service record you can find into one folder. The buyer who asks for them is usually the buyer who pays your asking price.
Run the VIN before you list, not after. You want to have read the history report the buyer is going to read.
Step 3: Price Your Car
Step 4: Advertise Your Car
Facebook Marketplace reaches local buyers in Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia. Cars.com and Autotrader reach further out.
Missouri touches eight states: Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. If you live near either edge of the state, write the ad for a buyer who might drive in from Illinois or Arkansas, and say which side of the state you are on.
If the car is in poor shape, Peddle and Wheelzy buy it as it stands, and Carvana is the one to try for a car under 10 years old in good condition.
-
Offer amount 35% 5/5
-
Process ease 20% 5/5
-
Offer validity 15% 4/5
-
Pickup / drop-off 15% 4/5
-
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
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 4/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 5/5
-
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
-
Offer amount 30% 5/5
-
Quote speed 20% 5/5
-
Pickup speed 20% 5/5
-
Vehicle acceptance 15% 4/5
-
Process ease 15% 4/5
- Guaranteed offer in minutes, online or by phone
- Free towing across Missouri, at a time you choose
- Paid on the spot when the driver collects
- No title transfer, towing or hidden fees
Step 5: Meet with Buyers Safely
Meet in daylight, in a public parking lot, and take somebody with you. A bank is the best place of all, because it has the cameras and the money in one building.
Photograph the buyer’s driver’s license before the test drive and go along for the ride.
Step 6: Handle Payment and Negotiate
Get paid before the title leaves your hand. Nothing in Missouri law obliges you to sign anything until the money is yours.
The cleanest version is to meet inside the buyer’s own bank: watch the cashier’s check printed, have the teller confirm it, or take a transfer between accounts while you both sit there. Cash is fine if you count it at a teller window rather than on the hood.
A check handed to you anywhere else is a check you cannot verify, whatever it says on it.
Step 7: Complete the Missouri Title Transfer
The assignment is printed on the back of the Missouri title. Fill it in with the buyer in front of you, not the night before.
What to fill in:
- The buyer’s full legal name and physical address
- The date of sale, which is the date the buyer’s clock starts
- The sale price
- The odometer reading, in whole miles
- Your signature and your hand-printed name.
Missouri does not send you to a notary for any of this: the title assignment on the back of the Missouri title does not require notarization; sign it exactly as your name appears on the face of the title.
Odometer 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.
Missouri has no separate odometer form in the ordinary case, because the disclosure is built into the title assignment. A separate Odometer Disclosure Statement goes with the title only when the title has no space for it.
Do not reach for correction fluid. Erasing a line, whiting it out or writing over it is what turns a title into a mutilated one, and the Department publishes a fix instead: draw one thin line through the incorrect information, record the correct information above it, and submit a signed statement of correction giving the error, the correct information and the vehicle's year, make and VIN.
Buyer’s deadline: 30 days from the date of sale to apply for a title, at any Missouri license office statewide; the Missouri Department of Revenue processes the title application after submission.
Late penalty: $25 title penalty for each 30 days of delinquency, not to exceed $200 total.
That deadline is the buyer’s to meet, not yours.
Step 8: Do You Need a Bill of Sale in Missouri? (Form 1957)
Missouri is unusual here: a bill of sale is required, and the state gives you two forms to report a sale with. File Form 1957 or file the Notice of Sale, and either one does the job.
It runs the other way too: a completed Bill of Sale (Form 1957) is accepted in place of the Notice of Sale to report a sale, and a Notice of Sale is accepted in place of a bill of sale for a 180-day tax allowance, a temporary permit and proving the purchase price.
Notarizing it is not required for a private sale; the form calls for a notary only when it is proving ownership of major component parts on a rebuilt vehicle or when the Department of Revenue asks. For an ordinary private sale, both of you sign it and both of you keep a copy.
Step 9: Handle Missouri License Plates and Registration
Plates stay with you, and they come off before the buyer takes possession; valid or expired, it makes no difference.
The moment ownership transfers, the registration on those plates expires and nobody but the person they were issued to may hold them. So if you left them on the car, call the buyer and get them back.
Afterward you can transfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or destroy and recycle them. Moving them onto another car you own costs $2 plate transfer fee (additional fees may apply for upgraded plates or different vehicle class).
If the next car is a different class and the plates cannot follow, you can surrender them and take credit for the unused registration against the new car’s fee. That is credit rather than a refund; Missouri does not refund unexpired registration.
The buyer gets plates of their own when they register.
Step 10: Report the Sale to the Missouri Department of Revenue
Deadline: 30 days from the date of sale.
The two forms do the same job here. Form 5049 (Notice of Sale) and the bill of sale are interchangeable as a way of reporting the sale, and if your title is a recent one you may find the notice already printed on it as a tear-off strip.
Until the buyer applies for a title, the Department’s record still shows you as the last titled owner. Filing the notice is what puts the buyer’s name against the car in the meantime, and it is what the Department reads when a ticket or an abandoned-vehicle notice comes in.
Skipping it is not free: an infraction with a fine of up to $200; a class C misdemeanor with a fine of up to $300 if the sale went unreported to help the buyer avoid titling, registration fees or other fraud.
Handing in the plates does not do this job for you. Plates as release: no; returning plates does not formally release liability, you must also file Form 5049.
Step 11: Cancel Insurance
Cancel last, once the title is assigned, the plates are off and the notice is sent.
There is nothing to wait for after that. The buyer’s registration is the buyer’s business, and every step that separates you from the car is one you have already taken.
Missouri Sale Checklist
Before the Sale
At the Sale
After the Sale
Missouri DMV Resources
State Resources:
- Missouri Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Bureau
- Find a Missouri License Office Near You
- Selling a Vehicle in Missouri
Phone Support:
- (573) 526-3669 (Motor Vehicle Bureau)
Missouri Fees and Costs
| What You Pay | Cost | When? |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate title (if the title is lost) | $8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing fee | Before sale |
| Lien payoff (if applicable) | Loan balance | Before sale |
| Emissions test (St. Louis area only) | approximately $24 (set by individual stations) | Before sale |
| Safety inspection (the seller pays) | up to $12 charged by the inspection station for a passenger vehicle or truck | Before sale |
| Plate transfer (if keeping plates) | $2 plate transfer fee (additional fees may apply for upgraded plates or different vehicle class) | When registering next car |
| Everything else | $0 | Buyer pays |
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Compare instant offers before you accept one
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to get the title notarized when I sign it over in Missouri?
No, not for signing the title over. The notary turns up elsewhere in a Missouri sale, though: on the replacement title application, on a lien release, and on the estate affidavit if the car was inherited. Notary fee: $2 notary service at any Missouri license office, for the duplicate title application (Form 108)
Most license offices have a notary at the counter, so it is not a separate errand.
Both my spouse and I are on the Missouri title. Do we both need to sign?
Yes, every one of you. It makes no difference how the names are joined on the front of the title, or whether they are joined at all.
On the buyer’s side the rule is the opposite: only one purchaser has to sign.
What if I make a mistake on the Missouri title?
There is a fix, and it is not a duplicate: the Department takes a signed statement of correction alongside the title.
What you cannot do is erase the line, white it out, or write over the top. That counts as altering the title, and then you really are applying for a duplicate with Form 108.
The buyer is from out of state. Does Missouri require anything special?
Less, not more. A sale to an out-of-state purchaser is one of the transfers the Department exempts from the Notice of Sale, along with a sale to a dealer and a car already carrying a salvage title or junking certificate.
That leaves the assigned title as the thing that moves the car off your name, so photograph both sides of it before it goes and keep the bill of sale with your copy. There is no separate filing to make.
What the buyer’s own state wants when they register it there is their errand, on their state’s terms.
Does Missouri require emissions testing when selling a car?
Only in four places, and then only for some cars. The exempt list is long: gas vehicles model year 1995 and older and diesel vehicles 1996 and older; vehicles over 8,500 lbs GVWR; electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles; motorcycles; school buses; historic-plate vehicles; new vehicles in their first model year with under 6,000 miles; a low-mileage exemption by application
If yours is not on it and the car is registered in the St. Louis area, find a station with the Gateway Vehicle Inspection Program station locator and get the certificate before the sale. It costs approximately $24 (set by individual stations).
My car was inherited. What additional Missouri forms do I need?
You title it in your own name first, then sell it as any owner would. Which route you take depends on the estate: $40,000 limit for the small estate affidavit process; estates over $40,000 require formal probate
There is a shortcut for one case: a surviving spouse or an unmarried minor child can transfer one vehicle out of the deceased owner’s name without a probate order at all.
What do I write in the sale price box if I’m giving the car to a family member?
The word GIFT. Write GIFT in the sale price area of the title. Writing $1 instead converts it to a taxable sale. Plates do not go with the vehicle
You still report the sale to the Department within thirty days, exactly as you would for a sale, and you still take the plates; they cannot go with a gifted car. Missouri’s test for a gift is not the relationship. Who qualifies: Anyone. The test is whether anything of value passed, not the relationship
The form is Form 768, General Affidavit, or a written gift statement, with GIFT entered in the sale price area of the title. It does not need notarizing. One limit worth knowing: a vehicle cannot be gifted two times in a row.
Can I get cash for a Missouri car that isn’t worth fixing?
Often, yes. Buyers in Missouri typically offer $485 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 235 offers, ranked 30 of 44 states).
Article Update History
Every rule on this page checked against the Missouri Department of Revenue, with title signing, gift sales and junk-car offers added.
Fees, forms and filing deadlines checked against the Missouri Department of Revenue.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
Bill of Sale Notarization Required?
"not required for a private sale; the form calls for a notary only when it is proving ownership of major component parts on a rebuilt vehicle or when the Department of Revenue asks" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Form Name
"Form 5049 (Notice of Sale)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Release of Liability Filing Deadline
"30 days" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"with you" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$8.50 title fee plus a $9 processing fee" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Buyer Registration Deadline After Sale
"30 days from the date of sale" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Seller Responsible for Emissions Testing?
"yes, in the four affected areas: at the title transfer the seller provides the purchaser with a valid emissions compliance certificate or waiver, and the seller pays for the test." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Estate Value Threshold
"$40,000 limit for the small estate affidavit process; estates over $40,000 require formal probate" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the lender provides a notarized Lien Release (Form DOR-4809) once the loan is satisfied; submit it with the title to issue a new title without the lien" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Missouri Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Bureau" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"up to $12 charged by the inspection station for a passenger vehicle or truck" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"approximately $24 (set by individual stations)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"yes, for cars registered in St. Louis City or St. Louis, St. Charles or Jefferson County" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Safety Inspection Required to Sell?
"required; you pay for a fresh inspection right before the sale, unless the car is in its first ten model years with under 150,000 miles, or is sold for junk, salvage or rebuilding and the buyer gives you an affidavit saying so" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Conditions to Sell Without Title
"inoperable (rusted, wrecked, worn out or mechanically dead, fit only for scrap), at least ten model years old, free of any recorded lien, and sold to a Missouri scrap metal operator, who checks the lien record with the Department of Revenue unless the car is at least twenty model years old" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form 5423 (Bill of Sale for Scrap Metal Operators), completed by the operator and mailed to the Motor Vehicle Bureau with a copy of your state ID; you sign the seller certification on it" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"all owners listed on the face of the title must sign and print their names in the seller fields on the back, exactly as the names appear on the face; only one purchaser is required to sign." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Title Notarization Explanation
"the title assignment on the back of the Missouri title does not require notarization; sign it exactly as your name appears on the face of the title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"draw one thin line through the incorrect information, record the correct information above it, and submit a signed statement of correction giving the error, the correct information and the vehicle's year, make and VIN" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"any Missouri license office statewide; the Missouri Department of Revenue processes the title application after submission" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Where to Get Emissions Testing
"Gateway Vehicle Inspection Program station locator" 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
Found this useful? Show Sell Car Advisor first when you search on Google.
Add us as a preferred source on Google