The bottom line: To sell a car privately in Pennsylvania, you sign the title in front of a notary or an authorized PennDOT agent, such as a tag service or licensed dealer. Every owner on the title signs, and for a 2011 or newer model you write the mileage in Section A.
If there’s a loan on the car, pay it off, and the lender mails you the paper title with the lien released. A lender that holds the title electronically has to convert it to paper before the sale.
Take your plate off, then move it to another car you own for $11 or mail it back to PennDOT’s Return Tag Unit. There’s no notice of sale to file.
You don’t need an inspection or emissions test to sell, since those are the buyer’s to sort out. A bill of sale is recommended but not required.
- Sign the title over to the buyer in front of a notaryOdometer reading: required for model year 2011 and newer vehicles.
- Take your plates off the carTransfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or return them to PennDOT Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Return Tag Unit, P.O. Box 68597, Harrisburg, PA 17106-8597
- Keep your proof of the saleNo online filing is required. Return your license plates to the PennDOT Return Tag Unit by mail unless you transfer them to another vehicle.
- Cancel your insuranceOnly when you return the plate and registration card to PennDOT, which must receive them no more than 30 days after the cancellation; later than that brings a three-month registration suspension.
- Write a bill of sale
- Emissions test
- Safety inspection
- Notarized bill of sale
- Release-of-liability form
- Replacing a lost title
- $72Can’t be ordered online; Form MV-38O
- Two owners on the title
- If the vehicle is titled in more than one name, all owners must sign the title.
- The buyer
- Registers the car within 20 days from the date of sale
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 Pennsylvania
Step 1: Prepare Your Pennsylvania Paperwork
Documents you’ll need:
- Vehicle title: paper, in your name, lien released
- Photo ID: the agent checks it before you sign
- Lien release: only if a lender was ever on the title
If your title is missing:
Order the duplicate title before you list the car. To do it, complete Form MV-38O and mail to PennDOT with payment, or submit through an authorized PennDOT agent.
It costs $72, and the processing time is not published by PennDOT.
If you don’t have a title:
A private buyer can’t register the car without one, so a normal sale waits for the duplicate. Scrapping it is the one exception, under 75 Pa.C.S. Sections 1162 and 1163 (transfer of salvage vehicle without title to a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor). The conditions: vehicle must be a salvage vehicle (inoperable or unable to meet inspection standards where the cost of repairs would exceed the value of the repaired vehicle), located on the owner's property, and transferor must verify in writing that the vehicle is salvage; transfer must be to a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor.
If you still owe money on the car:
When a lender is involved, lender mails paper title with lien released to owner once loan is satisfied; if lender participates in ELT program, request conversion to paper title before sale. Get the payoff figure the day you decide to sell, because the agent will not process a title that still shows a lien.
If you owe more than the car brings, you pay the lender the rest before the release comes.
Notarization required:
In Pennsylvania, the seller's signature on the title must be notarized or verified by an authorized PennDOT agent at a notary public, tag service, or licensed motor vehicle dealer. Don’t sign at home.
Step 2: Prepare Your Car
Wash it, empty the glove box and the trunk, and fix the small things a buyer notices first. Keep the inspection and service receipts in one folder; a Pennsylvania buyer will ask when the sticker runs out. Pull a history report on your own VIN so nothing on it surprises you later.
Step 3: Price Your Car
Step 4: Advertise Your Car
List it on Facebook Marketplace for a buyer nearby, and on Cars.com or Autotrader if you’d take one from out of state. Pennsylvania borders New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia, and buyers do cross. Put the year, trim, mileage and the inspection expiry in the first line; that’s what Pennsylvania buyers scan for.
If you’d rather skip the ad, Peddle and Wheelzy buy cars with something wrong with them, 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
- Free pickup from any Pennsylvania address
- Paid at pickup, usually by cashier's check
- Guaranteed offer by phone or online, no visit first
- No fees: title transfer and removal included
Step 5: Meet with Buyers Safely
Meet in daylight somewhere busy, a bank lot or the marked exchange spot outside a police station if your town has one. Check the buyer’s license before the test drive and sit in for it. Since the title gets signed at an agent’s counter anyway, agree that address before any money moves.
Step 6: Handle Payment and Negotiate
A small sum can be cash; deposit it at your bank before you sign anything. For a bigger one, meet at the buyer’s bank and watch the cashier’s check being drawn. Or wait for a transfer to show in your account. The agent’s counter is a sensible place to take payment, because you’re both there.
Step 7: Complete the Pennsylvania Title Transfer
Section A is on the back of the Pennsylvania title and it’s yours to fill in. Write the buyer’s full name and address and the mileage. Then print and sign your name with the agent watching.
The buyer fills in Section D on the front. The agent sends the whole packet to PennDOT, so you never mail the title anywhere. PennDOT says the two of you should go to the agent together, because your section names the buyer.
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.
From there the buyer has 20 days from the date of sale to apply for the title in their name.
Step 8: Handle Pennsylvania License Plates and Registration
Plates in Pennsylvania go with the person, not the car: they stay with you. Take them off once the title’s signed; PennDOT’s fact sheet says never to hand them to the buyer. Then transfer your plates to another vehicle you own, or return them to PennDOT Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Return Tag Unit, P.O. Box 68597, Harrisburg, PA 17106-8597.
Moving them to another car of yours costs $11. The buyer gets a plate of their own from the agent when they register.
Step 9: Cancel Insurance
Keep the policy running until the plate is off the car and either on your next one or in the mail to PennDOT. Then cancel it, and file the cancellation letter with the buyer’s receipt.
Pennsylvania Sale Checklist
Before the Sale
At the Sale
After the Sale
Pennsylvania DMV Resources
State Resources:
- Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Driver and Vehicle Services (PennDOT)
- Find an Authorized PennDOT Agent Near You
- PennDOT Buying or Selling a Vehicle
- PennDOT fact sheet: Buying or Selling Your Vehicle in Pennsylvania (PDF)
Phone Support:
- 717-412-5300 (PennDOT customer call center)
Pennsylvania Fees and Costs
| What You Pay | Cost | When? |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate title (if needed) | $72 | Before sale |
| Plate transfer (optional) | $11 | After sale |
| Lien payoff (if applicable) | Loan balance | Before sale |
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 Pennsylvania?
Yes, and it is the part of a Pennsylvania sale that trips people up: you sign Section A in front of the notary, not before you get there. A notarial act costs $5 per notarial act, plus up to $20 more when done electronically or remotely, at a notary public, tag service, or licensed dealer that is an authorized PennDOT agent. Agents may add a service fee of their own.
When is a bill of sale required in Pennsylvania?
It isn’t: the notarized title does the legal work. Pennsylvania publishes no bill-of-sale form of its own, and notarizing one is not required.
Write one anyway: it puts the price and the date on paper, and our free bill of sale generator takes a minute or two.
Do I need to notify PennDOT after I sell my car in Pennsylvania?
No online filing is required. Return your license plates to the PennDOT Return Tag Unit by mail unless you transfer them to another vehicle. That’s the whole of it, and there is no form to go with it.
The receipt the buyer signs for you is the one paper on your side.
Can I sell my car in Pennsylvania without a title?
Do Pennsylvania license plates transfer to the buyer?
Both my spouse and I are on the Pennsylvania title. Do we both need to sign?
PennDOT’s rule: if the vehicle is titled in more than one name, all owners must sign the title. Each of you signs Section A in front of the agent, so pick a time you can both make.
What if I make a mistake on the Pennsylvania title?
Don’t erase it or paint over it. In Pennsylvania, a single line through the wrong purchaser or seller entry, marked "completed/signed in error" with the notary's initials and a notarized affidavit attached to the title application, is accepted; a mileage correction, an erasure, white-out or correction tape is not, and the owner then applies for a duplicate title.
If the slip is one PennDOT won’t accept, the defaced title goes back with the duplicate application. The sale waits for the new one.
The buyer is from out of state. Does Pennsylvania require anything special?
Nothing extra on your side: Section A signed before the agent, and the plate off the car. The buyer titles it under their own state’s rules, with the signed title and a bill of sale, and there is still nothing for you to send PennDOT.
My car was inherited. What additional Pennsylvania forms do I need?
It depends on whether anyone was appointed to handle the estate. If probated: certified copy of letters testamentary or letters of administration plus title; if not probated: Form MV-39 plus death certificate; surviving spouse co-owner or joint tenant with right of survivorship can transfer without title fee. There is no dollar threshold; process depends on whether the estate is probated and whether there is a surviving spouse, joint tenant, or other heirs.
Can I give my car to a family member or sell it for $1 in Pennsylvania?
A gift goes on MV-13ST, Affidavit of Gift, claimed as Exemption 13, attached to the buyer’s title application.
Who qualifies: Anyone. The test is whether anything of value passed, not the relationship.
A sale for a token price is a sale, not a gift, and the title is signed in front of the agent the same way.
How do I sell a junk car in Pennsylvania?
The buyer is a yard or an online service instead of a person, and the title still changes hands. Buyers in Pennsylvania typically offer $605 for a junk car (cars 10 years and older, 505 offers, ranked 9 of 44 states); our list of online junk car buyers shows who tows for free and pays at pickup.
Article Update History
Every rule on this page checked against PennDOT and its Buying or Selling fact sheet, with title corrections, co-owner signing and junk-car offers added.
Fees, forms and PennDOT requirements checked against Pennsylvania's official driver and vehicle services.
Originally posted and shared with our readers.
Sources
"yes" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$72" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Replacement Title Processing Time
"not published by PennDOT" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Sell Without Title: Legal Authority
"75 Pa.C.S. Sections 1162 and 1163 (transfer of salvage vehicle without title to a licensed salvor or scrap metal processor)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Emissions Testing Required to Sell?
"not required (buyer needs a passing test to register in 25 counties)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Safety Inspection Required to Sell?
"not required" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Title Replacement Available Online?
"no" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Driver and Vehicle Services (PennDOT)" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Inherited Vehicle Form Requirements
"If probated: certified copy of letters testamentary or letters of administration plus title; if not probated: Form MV-39 plus death certificate; surviving spouse co-owner or joint tenant with right of survivorship can transfer without title fee." Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Buyer Registration Deadline After Sale
"20 days from the date of sale" 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
"717-412-5300" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"$5 per notarial act, plus up to $20 more when done electronically or remotely, at a notary public, tag service, or licensed dealer that is an authorized PennDOT agent" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
Does Plate Surrender Release Liability?
"PennDOT names no seller notice; the plate is returned to the Return Tag Unit or transferred to another vehicle you own, and the agent sends the title application to PennDOT" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"a single line through the wrong purchaser or seller entry, marked "completed/signed in error" with the notary's initials and a notarized affidavit attached to the title application, is accepted; a mileage correction, an erasure, white-out or correction tape is not, and the owner then applies for a duplicate title" Accessed Sep. 10, 2026
"MV-13ST, Affidavit of Gift, claimed as Exemption 13" 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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