The NY Bill of Sale (MV-912): What It Must Include

A New York bill of sale doesn't need a notary's stamp to be valid. Nothing on the DMV's Bill of Sale form or its transfer instructions asks for one. That surprises a lot of sellers who assume every document involving a car needs notarizing, and it means you can finish this piece of the paperwork at your kitchen table. What the form does need is more specific than most people expect, and getting it wrong is one more way a private sale gets complicated later.

What has to be on the form?

New York's Buy, Sell, or Transfer Vehicle Ownership hub is clear on one point: the seller signs the Bill of Sale, Form MV-912, and the buyer signs it too. It's not a one-sided document. That two-signature rule holds even when the car is a gift rather than a sale for money; DMV's language doesn't carve out an exception for family transfers.

Beyond the signatures, the form is where the basic facts of the deal live: who sold the car, who bought it, and when. Treat it the way you'd treat any receipt for a transaction that might get questioned later: legible, complete, and matching whatever name is on the title itself. If you and the buyer settled on a number that's different from what either of you first mentioned, that's fine. What matters is that the figure on the bill of sale is the one that actually changed hands, not a placeholder either of you wrote down earlier in the conversation.

Is a NY bill of sale notarized?

No. New York's own MV-912 form and its transfer instructions don't call for a notary anywhere in the process. That's specific to this particular form; it isn't a blanket rule about every document involved in a car transaction. Some related paperwork elsewhere in New York's system, like the affidavits used in certain estate transfers, does require notarization. The bill of sale for an everyday sale simply isn't one of them.

If a buyer or a bank insists on a notarized copy anyway, that's their own added requirement, not a New York DMV rule you're obligated to meet. It doesn't hurt to accommodate a reasonable request like that if it closes the sale faster, but don't let anyone tell you the state itself won't process the paperwork without one. It will.

A bill of sale is not a substitute for the title

A signed bill of sale proves a transaction happened. It doesn't prove ownership on its own. New York still expects the title, or an accepted alternate proof of ownership, to change hands along with it. The two documents do different jobs: one is closer to a receipt, the other is closer to a deed. Sellers sometimes assume that a signed bill of sale plus cash in hand is enough to walk away clean, and it's an understandable assumption, since that's how plenty of other private sales work. A car is different because the title, not the receipt, is what the next owner needs in order to register it. If the title is the piece that's actually missing, a bill of sale alone won't close that gap. Our guide to whether a junkyard can legally buy a car without a title in NY covers what New York actually allows in that situation.

Filling it out without creating problems later

The bill of sale and the title's transfer section usually get filled out around the same moment, and small mismatches between the two, like a name spelled differently or a date that doesn't line up, are exactly the kind of thing that slows a buyer down at the DMV counter later. Read both documents side by side before either signature goes on, not just each one on its own. Our line-by-line guide to filling out the NY title when you sell walks through the title side of this in more detail.

Keep your own copy

Make a copy of the signed bill of sale before the buyer drives off with the original, or before you drop the car at pickup. It's a small step that matters if a question about the sale ever comes up later, whether that's from a buyer's insurer, a DMV clerk, or your own records of the sale.

Where CashMyCarNY fits in

Paperwork mismatches between a title and a bill of sale are a small thing that causes outsized headaches later, and it's exactly the kind of detail we check for you. When you sell to CashMyCarNY, we walk you through what the paperwork needs to say, from the bill of sale to the title transfer to plate surrender and the FS-6 receipt. An instant offer takes about 60 seconds and doesn't require a notary any more than the DMV does. Once you accept, free towing is folded into the offer anywhere in New York.

Quick answers

Does a bill of sale need anything different for a sale happening in Brooklyn versus upstate? No. Form MV-912 and its signature rules are the same statewide. If you're in Kings County, the form itself doesn't change, only your nearest DMV office does.

Do you need a bill of sale if you already have a signed title? Yes. New York's process treats the title transfer and the bill of sale as two separate, required pieces. A signed title doesn't stand in for the bill of sale, or the other way around.

Does a bill of sale need to be notarized for a gift between family members? No, the notary question doesn't change for a gift. What does change is an extra form: Section 6 of Form DTF-802, completed by whoever's giving the car away.

What if the buyer refuses to sign the bill of sale? Then the document isn't complete by New York's own standard. DMV's process expects both signatures, not just the seller's.

The short version

New York's Bill of Sale (Form MV-912) needs signatures from both the seller and the buyer, even for a gift, and it doesn't need a notary. Nothing on the DMV's form or process asks for one. It's a record that a transaction happened, not a substitute for the title itself, so keep both documents accurate and matching each other. Gifts add one more form on top: Section 6 of Form DTF-802 from whoever's giving the car away.