New York Bill of Sale for a Car (Form MV-912)

A New York bill of sale is Form MV-912, and the state publishes it free: dmv.ny.gov/forms/mv912.pdf. It needs a signature from the seller and the buyer, it does not need a notary, and it does not replace the title.

That is the short answer. The rest of this explains when New York actually requires it, what has to be on it, and the specific ways people fill it in that cause a problem weeks later at a DMV counter.

Is a bill of sale required in New York?

For a private vehicle sale, yes — New York's Buy, Sell, or Transfer Vehicle Ownership process treats the bill of sale and the title transfer as two separate pieces, both expected. A signed title does not stand in for the bill of sale, and the bill of sale does not stand in for the title. They do different jobs.

The distinction is worth holding onto because it explains almost every problem below. The bill of sale records that a transaction happened. The title records who owns the car. One is closer to a receipt, the other to a deed.

You do not have to use MV-912 specifically — a bill of sale you write yourself can carry the same information — but there is very little reason not to use the state's form, since it is free, it is already laid out with the fields New York expects, and a clerk looking at it recognizes it immediately.

What has to be on Form MV-912

DMV's transfer hub is explicit on the point people most often get wrong: the seller signs it, and the buyer signs it too. It is not a one-sided document. That two-signature rule holds even when the car is a gift rather than a sale — the DMV's language does not carve out an exception for family transfers.

Beyond the signatures, the form carries the basic facts of the deal: who sold the car, who bought it, the vehicle, and when it changed hands. Treat it the way you would treat a receipt for any transaction that might get questioned later — legible, complete, and matching the name printed on the title itself.

On the price: if you and the buyer settled on a number different from what either of you first mentioned, that is fine. What matters is that the figure on the bill of sale is the one that actually changed hands, not a placeholder written down earlier in the conversation. A price that does not match what was paid is the kind of small inaccuracy that becomes a large problem if anyone ever has cause to look.

Does a New York bill of sale need to be notarized?

No.

Neither MV-912 nor New York's transfer instructions ask for a notary anywhere in the process. That surprises people who assume anything involving a vehicle needs notarizing, and it means you can finish this part of the paperwork at a kitchen table.

That is specific to this form rather than a blanket rule. Other paperwork in New York's system — the affidavits used in certain estate transfers, for instance — does require notarization. The bill of sale for an ordinary sale is not one of them.

If a buyer or their bank insists on a notarized copy anyway, that is their own requirement, not the state's. Accommodating it to close a sale faster is fine. Just do not let anyone tell you New York will refuse the paperwork without it, because it will not.

A bill of sale is not a substitute for the title

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding on this page, so it gets its own section.

A signed bill of sale proves a transaction happened. It does not prove ownership on its own. New York still expects the title — or an accepted alternate proof of ownership — to change hands alongside it.

Sellers sometimes assume a signed bill of sale plus cash in hand means they can walk away clean. It is an understandable assumption, because that is exactly 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 is actually missing, a bill of sale will not close that gap. Can a junkyard legally buy a car without a title in NY covers what the state actually allows in that situation.

The related trap is the reverse: a buyer who wants the title signed but left blank, promising to "fill it in later." That is title jumping, and a bill of sale does not protect you from it. Sign the title over to a named party, every time.

Filling it out without creating problems later

The bill of sale and the title's transfer section usually get completed within the same few minutes, and small mismatches between the two are exactly what slows a buyer down at the counter weeks later.

Read both documents side by side before either signature goes on. Specifically check:

• The name matches the title exactly. Not a shortened version, not a married name if the title still carries the maiden one. Whatever is printed on the title is the name that goes on the bill of sale.
• The dates agree. The date on the bill of sale and the date on the title transfer should be the same day.
• The odometer figure agrees, where both documents ask for it.
• The vehicle identifiers agree — year, make, and VIN, digit for digit.

Filling out the NY title when you sell, line by line covers the title side of this in detail.

What the bill of sale actually protects you from

It is worth being concrete about why a receipt matters at all, because "keep good records" is easy to ignore.

The failure it guards against is a buyer who takes the car and never registers it. The vehicle is gone from your driveway, but on paper it is still associated with you — so parking tickets, toll violations and red-light camera notices keep arriving in your name, sometimes months later. People in that position often discover it through a registration suspension rather than through the mail.

Two documents get you out of it, and you need both. The bill of sale establishes that a sale happened, to a named person, on a specific date. The FS-6 receipt from surrendering your plates establishes the date your responsibility for the vehicle ended. Either one alone is weaker than the pair. When a buyer never registered the car and the tickets are in your name covers the recovery steps if it has already happened.

This is also the practical reason not to leave the buyer's name blank, and not to accept a verbal price different from the written one. A document that is vague about who bought the car, or for how much, is a document that does less work when you need it to do any.

When the bill of sale is not the only extra form

Three common situations add paperwork on top:

A gift to family. The notary answer does not change, but a gift adds Section 6 of Form DTF-802, completed by whoever is giving the car away. Gifting vs selling a car to family in NY covers what that form does and when it matters.

A loan or lien on the vehicle. Proof the lien is satisfied has to travel with the title before clear ownership can transfer. Selling a car with a loan or lien in NY covers what that proof looks like.

The registered owner has died. This is where notarized affidavits genuinely do appear, and where the value of the vehicle changes which route applies. Selling a deceased relative's car in NY walks through it.

Keep your own copy

Photograph or copy the signed bill of sale before the buyer drives off with the original, or before the car goes on a tow truck.

It is a ten-second step that matters disproportionately if a question about the sale ever surfaces — from a buyer's insurer, a DMV clerk, or a ticket issued to a car you no longer own. Keep it with your FS-6 plate surrender receipt; together those two documents fix both what you sold and when you stopped being responsible for it.

Selling to a licensed buyer instead

Paperwork mismatches between a title and a bill of sale cause outsized headaches for something so small, and they are exactly what a licensed buyer checks before the truck leaves.

When you sell to us, we walk the paperwork with you — bill of sale, title transfer, plate surrender, FS-6 receipt, in that order. A free instant offer takes about a minute, needs no notary any more than the DMV does, and includes towing anywhere in New York. The whole sequence is laid out in how to junk a car in New York.

Quick answers

Is a bill of sale required in New York? For a private vehicle sale, yes. New York treats the bill of sale and the title transfer as two separate required pieces — one records the transaction, the other records ownership, and neither substitutes for the other. The state publishes Form MV-912 free, though a bill of sale you write yourself carrying the same information is also acceptable.

Does a New York bill of sale need to be notarized? No. Neither Form MV-912 nor the DMV's transfer instructions ask for a notary. If a buyer or their bank wants one anyway, that is their requirement rather than the state's.

Who signs a New York bill of sale? Both parties. The seller signs and the buyer signs, and that holds even when the car is a gift rather than a sale for money.

Do I still need a bill of sale if I already have a signed title? Yes. A signed title does not stand in for the bill of sale, or the other way around. They record different things and New York's process expects both.

What if the buyer refuses to sign? Then the document is not complete by New York's own standard, and you should treat that refusal as information about the buyer. A legitimate purchaser has no reason to avoid signing a receipt for something they just bought.

Does any of this differ between New York City and upstate? No. Form MV-912 and its signature rules are statewide. Selling in Brooklyn or in a rural county changes only which DMV office is nearest, not the form or what has to be on it.

The short version

New York's bill of sale is Form MV-912, free from the DMV. It needs both signatures — seller and buyer — even for a gift, and it does not need a notary.

It records that a sale happened; it does not prove ownership, and it never replaces the title. Keep the two documents consistent with each other, keep a copy of the signed bill of sale, and sign the title over to a named buyer rather than leaving it open.