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

No, and the MVC still asks you for one. It sits in the list headed “The Seller must”, beside signing the title over.

Nobody will stop the transfer if you skip it. The buyer’s own list at the counter is the assigned title, a registration application, their license, proof of New Jersey insurance and the fees, and a bill of sale is not on it.

Notarizing it is not required.

No. You sign the seller’s section on the back of the title and that is the whole of it: title notarization is not required.

New Jersey wants a notary in two places only, and neither is a normal private sale. A car coming from a state that does not issue titles needs a notarized statement from its seller, and anyone signing on an owner’s behalf needs a notarized Power of Attorney naming the year, make and VIN.

You apply for a title correction, which is a different transaction from a replacement. The MVC’s own route: a correction is made at a motor vehicle agency or by mail with the original title and proof of the error, for $60, and free only where the MVC caused it.

The MVC has a name for the version where a sale collapses after you have written the buyer’s details in. It calls that title spoiled, and the route is the same correction with the original title in hand.

At any MVC agency. Hand them to the staff inside, or drop them in the plate box outside the door without going in.

Not at an inspection station. The MVC says plainly that plates cannot be surrendered there.

You can post them instead, to one of the MVC agencies that takes plates by mail, with a stamped self-addressed envelope so the receipt comes back.

No. New Jersey has nothing for a private seller to file after the sale.

Form: None required (plate surrender).

What stands in its place is the plate receipt. Hand the plates in at an MVC agency and the MVC mails a receipt back as proof of surrender, and that receipt is what the MVC asks for when it wants to know whether a car was still yours on a given day. Keep it with the signed title.

If the question ever comes up formally, the MVC’s Vehicle Registration/Plate Status Form (RSC-6) is where the sale and the plates are reported: it has a box for “Sold” and a line for the date and place the plates went in.

Only with written authority from whoever is on the title. Signing another person’s title yourself is not something New Jersey allows.

The MVC accepts a notarized Power of Attorney, and a Limited one has to name the year, make and VIN of the car and the transaction it covers. Where the owner has already signed everything and you are only carrying the paperwork in, a General Letter of Authorization (LOA-1) is enough.

If the owner has died, that is a different route again, with its own form and the County Surrogate’s seal.

No. The buyer pays it, at the counter, when they register the car.

What the price on the title does is set the figure. The Division of Taxation has to certify that the right amount was paid on the actual purchase price, and where the price looks low against NADA it can assess the tax on NADA’s number instead.

A genuine gift is the one exemption, and it is claimed by writing GIFT on the purchase price line. Expect to be asked for a Seller’s Affidavit if you do.

Form: Form BA-62.

It goes in at a Vehicle Center by appointment, with the title signed by whoever has the authority to sign it, a death certificate, and a raised seal from the County Surrogate in the county where the person lived.

How much else the MVC wants depends on the estate, and an estate over the limit needs an Administrator’s Short Certificate as well: $50,000 or less with a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or civil union partner, or $20,000 or less with heirs but no surviving spouse; larger estates require an Administrator's Short Certificate

Nothing changes for you. Fill the assignment in the same way, take the plates off, and hand over the certificate.

The plates still go back to the MVC. They belong to New Jersey, not to the car and not to the buyer, and the buyer’s home state will issue its own.

The late fee above is a New Jersey charge on a New Jersey title transfer, so it will not follow a buyer who titles the car in another state. Their own state’s clock is the one that matters to them.

Then a junk buyer is the faster answer, and the numbers are small. Buyers in New Jersey typically offer $670 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 395 offers, ranked 4 of 44 states).

The paperwork is lighter but not absent: the plates still come off and still go back to the MVC. Our guide to selling a junk car in New Jersey has the rest.