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The bottom line: To sell a car privately in Montana, sign the title over to the buyer and take your plates off the car. Every owner named on the title signs, and no notary is needed. White-out or a crossed-out entry voids the title.
For a 2011 or newer model, also record the mileage on an odometer disclosure (Form MV90A). A bill of sale on Form MV24 is recommended rather than required, and it needs no notary either. No emissions or safety inspection is needed.
There is nothing to file once the car is gone, because Montana has no release of liability form. Keep copies of the signed title and the bill of sale as your proof of sale.
If the title is lost, a replacement on Form MV7 costs $10.30 and can take up to four weeks, so order it before you list the car.
Before you set a price, compare the instant offers and treat the best one as the number a private buyer has to beat.
- Sign the title over to the buyerOdometer reading: the seller discloses the mileage on Form MV90A, required for vehicles 20 years old and newer.
- Take your plates off the carAsk your County Treasurer about transferring them to another vehicle you own
- Keep your proof of the saleMontana has no release of liability form. Keep copies of the signed title and bill of sale as your proof of sale.
- Cancel your insuranceOnce the car is sold and your plates are off it; Montana needs no notice of sale to the County Treasurer.
- Write a bill of saleForm MV24
- Emissions test
- Safety inspection
- Notary on the title
- Notarized bill of sale
- Release-of-liability form
- Replacing a lost title
- $10.30Takes up to four weeks; can be ordered online; Form MV7
- Two owners on the title
- Every owner named on the title has to sign it, and Montana presumes joint ownership with right of survivorship where more than one owner is listed.
- The buyer
- Registers the car within 40 days from the date of saleA $10 late fee applies when the buyer waits longer than 40 days to title and register
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 Montana
Step 1: Prepare Your Montana Paperwork
Documents you’ll need:
- Certificate of title – the Montana title, in your name, with no live security interest on the front
- Photo ID – yours, and a look at the buyer’s before anything is signed
- Lien release – only where a lender is still named on the record
If your title is missing:
The wait is the part that catches people out: up to four weeks. Start it the week you decide to sell, not the week a buyer turns up.
Here is the whole of it: complete Form MV7 and submit it online through MVD Online Services or by mail to the Vehicle Services Bureau with the $10.30 fee.
Can you sell without a title?
No. Montana will not transfer a car without the title, and a bill of sale does not stand in for it.
One opening exists, and it is narrow. Where the car was last titled in Montana, is currently registered, and is going to a Montana resident, you hand the buyer a signed Form MV7, a bill of sale signed by every owner, and a title application naming the same buyers, and let the buyer carry the replacement and the transfer through together.
If you still owe money on the car:
Where a lender is still named on the front of the title, that name has to come off the record before the car changes hands. In Montana, the lienholder completes a Release of Security Interest or Lien (Form MV37A) or provides a release on official letterhead; Montana is not a title-holding state, so the owner holds the title while the lender holds a security interest filing.
Hand the release to the buyer along with the title. Only the lender can produce it.
Clearing the loan does not by itself produce a clean title. If you want the lender’s name gone from the paper before you advertise, send the original title and the replacement fee to the Vehicle Services Bureau, or take the release to your county treasurer and ask for a replacement with the lienholder removed.
If you owe more than the car is worth, you pay the difference to clear the loan.
Step 2: Prepare Your Car
Wash it inside and out, then empty the glovebox, the door pockets and the trunk. A buyer opens all three.
Put the service records in one folder and take the photographs in daylight, with the car pointed away from the sun.
Step 3: Price Your Car
Look the car up on KBB and Edmunds rather than one of them, and write both numbers down.
Then search Facebook Marketplace and Cars.com for the same year and trim, and widen the radius until you have five or six real listings to compare. Asking prices are not sale prices, so treat them as the top of the range.
Step 4: Advertise Your Car
Facebook Marketplace reaches buyers in Billings, Missoula and Great Falls. Cars.com and Autotrader put the car in front of people searching from further out.
Buyers do cross the line from Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, and an out-of-state buyer changes nothing on your side. You sign the same title and take the same plates off. Montana also charges no general sales tax, which is one reason a listing here travels.
If a company is buying it in a business name, get the business name and its federal employer or corporate ID number before anyone leaves. The bill of sale has a field for it.
Do not park a car you are selling on land you have no legal interest in, unless the owner’s written permission is displayed in the car.
If you would rather not deal with buyers at all, Peddle and Wheelzy buy older and damaged cars outright, and Carvana quotes on any 1993 or later car it can drive safely.
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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
- Accepts cars with active loans
- Trade-in can save on sales tax
- License plate starts the quote
- Direct deposit option available
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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
- Free towing
- Fast payment
- Buys non running cars
- Pays by check 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 from the online form or the phone line
- Free pickup and towing anywhere in Montana
- Paid at pickup, usually by cashier's check that can be cashed the same day
- No dealer sale fees, title transfer fees or removal fees
Step 5: Meet with Buyers Safely
Meet somewhere busy and well lit, in daylight.
Before a test drive, ask to see the buyer’s driver license, and go along as a passenger. Call your insurance agent first as well, because policies differ on drivers you have not declared.
If the buyer wants their own mechanic to look the car over, agree who is paying for that before the appointment is booked.
Step 6: Handle Payment and Negotiate
Take the payment before you sign anything.
Cash you can count in front of the buyer is the simplest. For anything bigger, meet at the buyer’s bank and watch the cashier’s check drawn, or take a wire and wait until it shows in your account.
A personal check is not payment until it clears, and that can be days after it looks like it has.
Step 7: Sign Over the Montana Title (No Notary Needed)
Fill every field in blue or black ink. White-out, an erasure or a scratched-out entry voids the title itself, though an error in the record can still be put right, which the FAQ below covers.
Montana law requires the buyer’s full legal name and address on the title. Write them in, and add the date of the sale.
Title notarization in Montana is not required.
Where the disclosure applies, read the odometer in whole miles, with no tenths, and write it on Form MV90A Odometer Disclosure Statement.
The buyer signs the title too, and the person signing has to be the buyer written on it.
Titling and registration happen together in Montana, so the buyer does both in one visit to the buyer's County Treasurer's office.
Buyer’s deadline: 40 days from the date of sale.
Miss it and a $10 late fee applies when the buyer waits longer than 40 days to title and register.
Because the plates leave with you, the car is going nowhere legally until the buyer sorts that out, and getting a temporary registration permit is the buyer’s job, not yours.
If it suits you both, the whole thing can happen at the county treasurer’s office: you sign in front of the clerk, and the buyer pays the fees and picks up plates while you are standing there.
Step 8: Handle Montana License Plates and Registration
Unscrew the plates and put them in the trunk of your own car before you hand over the keys. They belong to you and not to the vehicle.
Plates stay with you.
Then ask your County Treasurer about transferring them to another vehicle you own.
Leave them on and you may be liable for parking or traffic violations that happen after the sale.
On a classic car or for personalized plates, a plate can go to the buyer, and that takes its own paperwork: contact your County Treasurer's office, a Statement of Fact (MV100) is required to relinquish plates to a buyer and registration fees alone do not transfer them.
Step 9: Cancel Insurance
Cancel the policy once the title is signed and the plates are off.
The registration renewal notice may still arrive next year. You can ignore it.
Montana Sale Checklist
Before the Sale
At the Sale
After the Sale
Montana MVD Resources
State Resources:
Phone Support:
- Montana Vehicle Services Bureau: 406-444-3661
- Email: mvdtitleinfo@mt.gov
Montana Fees and Costs
| What You Pay? | Cost | When? |
|---|---|---|
| Replacement title | $10.30 | If original is lost or damaged |
| Lien payoff (if applicable) | Loan balance | Before sale |
| Everything else | $0 | Buyer pays |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to get the title notarized when I sign it over in Montana?
No, not since October 2025.
If your title was printed before then and still has a notary box on it, leave the box blank. The MVD accepts those titles without it, and titles printed since then do not have the box at all.
The rule follows the title, not the buyer, so a Montana title signed for an out-of-state buyer does not need a notary either.
How do I sell a car without a title in Montana?
You start by getting one, because Montana will not transfer a car on anything else.
Where the title cannot be traced at all, the buyer’s route is a bonded title: MCA 61-3-208 authorizes a bonded title (Break/Bond, Form MV10) when no record of the title can be found, and Title 75, chapter 10, part 5 lets licensed wrecking facilities take a vehicle for parts or scrap. To apply, use Form MV10, Application for Break/Bond Title.
Do I need a bill of sale to sell a car in Montana?
Using Form MV24 is recommended rather than compulsory. What the MVD asks you to keep is a record of the sale carrying the buyer’s name and address, and a photocopy of the reassigned title counts as one.
That form is the easier option because it already asks for everything the record needs: the year, make and VIN, both parties’ details, the price and the date.
Notarization is not required. On the form itself: a fillable PDF on the MT MVD website; a notary is needed only when the MV24 goes with an Application for Break/Bond Title (MV10) or an electronic records transfer.
Does the buyer have to sign the Montana bill of sale?
Yes. Form MV24 has a signature line for the purchaser as well as the seller, and the seller’s half says every owner has to sign.
Who signs: all owners named on the title, plus the buyer
The form also asks each side for a driver license number, or a business buyer’s federal employer or corporate ID number, so collect that before anyone drives away.
What MVD forms do I need to sell a car in Montana?
For an ordinary private sale, none beyond the title itself. You sign the assignment on the Montana title and hand it over.
Bill of sale: Form MV24, which is recommended.
Odometer: a separate disclosure form, which step 7 covers
Lien release: only where a lender is named on the title
A lost title adds the replacement application step 1 covers, and giving a personalized plate to the buyer adds a Statement of Fact.
How do I tell the Montana MVD I sold my car?
You don’t. Montana has no seller notice, and the MVD says in terms that you do not need to tell the county treasurer’s motor vehicle office that the car is gone.
The sale reaches the state when the buyer titles and registers the car. Until then your copies are what answers a ticket or a fine that arrives with your name on it, so keep them somewhere you can find them.
Can I leave the plates on the car when I sell it in Montana?
No. Take them off before you hand over the keys, and don’t let the buyer use them in the meantime. A personalized or classic plate can be signed over deliberately, on its own form, but that is a separate errand and not the same as leaving plates on.
Until the buyer has plates of their own, they can show a police officer the bill of sale or the signed title as proof of ownership.
Both my spouse and I are on the Montana title. Do we both need to sign?
Yes. In Montana, every owner named on the title has to sign it, and Montana presumes joint ownership with right of survivorship where more than one owner is listed.
There is no “and” or “or” shortcut on a Montana title, so check who is named before you arrange a viewing. If one owner cannot be there, the sale waits.
What if I make a mistake on the Montana title?
Don’t reach for the white-out. In Montana, white-out, an erasure or a scratched-out entry voids the title, and an error in the title record goes to the Vehicle Services Bureau on a Statement of Correction (Form MV11AB).
Send the correction to the Vehicle Services Bureau with anything that supports it. If the title is already ruined, a replacement is the way back, and step 1 sets out how long that takes.
My car was inherited. What additional Montana forms do I need?
Montana asks first whether the estate was probated. If probated, the personal representative provides certified Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration with the title and Form MV1. If not probated and the estate is under $100,000, the heir uses Form MV12 with a copy of the death certificate.
Estate limit: $100,000, counting the whole estate less liens and encumbrances.
What to file: Form MV12, Application for Title by Non-Probate Transfer.
Your county treasurer’s office can confirm what your own situation needs before you fill anything in.
Can I sell a junk car in Montana?
Yes, and it is the one sale that can happen without a title in your hand. A licensed wrecking facility records a notarized bill of sale or a release of ownership in place of the certificate.
A typical junk car in Montana is offered $695 (cars 10 years and older, 55 offers, ranked 1 of 44 states).
Article Update History
The page now follows the Montana Motor Vehicle Division's selling guidance, including that a title signed between individuals needs no notary.
Forms, fees and deadlines checked against the Montana Motor Vehicle Division.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Replacement Title Processing Time
"up to four weeks" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$10.30" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Conditions to Sell Without Title
"a private sale needs the signed title, while a licensed junk or wrecking buyer can take the vehicle on a notarized bill of sale or release of ownership in place of a title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the seller discloses the mileage on Form MV90A, required for vehicles 20 years old and newer, with model years before 2011 and vehicles rated over 16,000 pounds exempt" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Sell Without Title: Legal Authority
"MCA 61-3-208 authorizes a bonded title (Break/Bond, Form MV10) when no record of the title can be found, and Title 75, chapter 10, part 5 lets licensed wrecking facilities take a vehicle for parts or scrap" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MV24" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Duplicate Title Application Form
"Form MV7" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"the lienholder completes a Release of Security Interest or Lien (Form MV37A) or provides a release on official letterhead; Montana is not a title-holding state, so the owner holds the title while the lender holds a security interest filing" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Form MV10, Application for Break/Bond Title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Safety Inspection Required to Sell?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"contact your County Treasurer's office, a Statement of Fact (MV100) is required to relinquish plates to a buyer and registration fees alone do not transfer them" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"white-out, an erasure or a scratched-out entry voids the title, and an error in the title record goes to the Vehicle Services Bureau on a Statement of Correction (Form MV11AB)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Form Requirements
"If probated, the personal representative provides certified Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration with the title and Form MV1. If not probated and the estate is under $100,000, the heir uses Form MV12 with a copy of the death certificate." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Junk Car Value Statistics, Sell Car Advisor
"On this page: 1 figure from 17,628 instant cash offers" Accessed Oct. 2, 2026
