Bill of sale generator

Six blocks print, and each one answers a question somebody may ask later.

Parties. Full name and full address for both sides. Addresses are not decoration: 49 CFR 580.5 lists the printed name and address of both parties as required content.

Item identity. Year, make, model, and the number that makes it unique: the VIN on a vehicle, the hull ID on a boat, a serial number on a trailer. The tool checks the VIN as you type, because a VIN is 17 characters and never contains I, O, or Q (the ISO 3779 standard, carried into 49 CFR 565). A typed 0 where an O belongs is the most common way a bill of sale ends up describing no vehicle at all.

Price, in figures and in words. Both ways, with the cents left as a fraction, the convention on a negotiable instrument: a smudged digit can be checked against the words. Deposits and trade-in allowances print on their own lines.

The as-is clause, in capitals.A private seller who wants no warranty attached to the sale is relying on UCC 2-316, which says a disclaimer of the implied warranty of merchantability must mention merchantability and, in writing, must be conspicuous. That is where the capitals and the box come from. Not shouting: the statute's test for whether a reasonable person would have noticed.

Lien certification. One sentence certifying the item is free of liens, plus the warranty that the seller owns it. If a lender is still on the title, that sentence is false and the sale is not ready. See car title with a lien for what has to happen first.

Odometer block and signatures. The odometer block appears only when it is required, which is its own subject below. Each party gets a signature line, a printed name, and a date, plus optional witness lines and a notary acknowledgment.

The rule changed on January 1, 2021, and most template pages have not caught up. A vehicle used to need an odometer disclosure for 10 years. NHTSA extended that to 20 years for model year 2011 and newer, in a rule published in 2019 and effective at the start of 2021. Model year 2010 and older kept the 10-year clock, which has now run out for all of them. So a 2014 car sold in 2026 needs a disclosure and a 2009 car does not. The generator applies that test to the year and sale date you entered.

The other exemptions in 49 CFR 580.17 cover what people most often over-document: anything with a gross vehicle weight rating over 16,000 pounds, and anything not self-propelled, which takes trailers out. Picking Trailer removes the block entirely.

The contents are set by regulation too. 49 CFR 580.5 requires the reading with no tenths, the transfer date, both parties printed and signed, the vehicle description, and a statement referencing federal law and warning that a failure to complete it or a false statement may result in fines or imprisonment. It also requires three checkboxes: the mileage is actual, it exceeds the odometer's mechanical limits, or it is not the actual mileage, the last carrying a discrepancy warning. The tool prints all three and marks your choice. A false statement made with intent to defraud carries three times actual damages or $10,000, whichever is greater, under 49 U.S.C. 32710.

Now the part almost nobody gets right. Under 49 CFR 580.5(c), a seller in whose name the vehicle is titled discloses on the title itself, not on a separate document. If you hold the title, the odometer line on the title is the official statement. The block here is your record copy, useful because you hand the title over and keep the bill of sale. It is not a substitute. Of the top-ranking template pages we checked, several still print the obsolete 10-year rule and several omit the federal statement entirely.

These are the states where we found a specific rule on a government source and can link you to it. Where a cell says not verified, we did not find the answer on a government source. That is not the same as no.

The notarized bill of sale lists that circulate on template sites are usually a misreading. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma do require a notary, but on the title assignment, a different signature on a different document. The cases where the bill of sale itself gets notarized are narrower: Louisiana, Maryland, and West Virginia, each verified on the state's own page, and each tied to the price you write down rather than to every sale.

It does not transfer title. Washington says it directly: a bill of sale does not transfer ownership. Pennsylvania puts the transfer on the notarized title plus MV-4ST. Colorado does not need one if the title is fully completed, and requires one when the price is not on it. If the title never moves, the sale never happened in the state's records, the mechanism behind title jumping.

The price on it does not always set the tax. Texas charges 6.25% on the greater of your price or 80% of Standard Presumptive Value. Georgia charges TAVT on the state's own fair market value table, with no trade-in reduction on a private sale. Maryland asks for a notarized form when the car is under 7 years old and your price is $500 or more below book value; West Virginia when it is below half of NADA clean loan value.

The as-is clause is not a Buyers Guide. The FTC Used Car Rule at 16 CFR 455 applies to dealers, defined as someone who sells five or more used vehicles in 12 months. A private seller does not post a Buyers Guide and does not need one. The as-is language here does a different job, under UCC 2-316.

A gift is not a $1 sale. One of the most-visited template sites tells you to write a nominal amount such as $1.00 when giving a vehicle away. Do not. Say it is a gift: the tool prints for no consideration (gift) and drops the price line.

Louisiana is different. Louisiana's warranty law is not the UCC's, and we have not verified how an as-is clause is treated there. Use the OMV form and a notary. The tool warns you when you pick Louisiana and tick as-is.

The generator asks for the fields Granite extracts when you file a bill of sale in the vault. Our schema reads 13 and requires 8: VIN, make, model, year, buyer name, seller name, sale price, and sale date. Optional are odometer, trade-in allowance, seller address, buyer address, and state. Each document is keyed by VIN plus sale date, so two sales of the same car years apart stay separate records, and the VIN is stored as a sensitive field.

Compare the neighbors. Our vehicle title schema reads 8 fields and has neither an odometer nor a buyer. Our receipt schema reads 7 and cannot identify the item or either party. The mileage at the moment of sale and the name of the buyer exist in exactly one place: the bill of sale. That is why it belongs next to the title rather than instead of it, and it is what reading and extracting every document on the way in is for. Ask later what you sold the truck for and the answer arrives with its page citation.

To be plain about the boundary: Granite organizes documents. It does not file DMV forms, and nothing here is legal advice.

Print two copies and sign both, so each party leaves with an original.

Then the seller files the notice. This is what keeps a car you no longer own from generating tickets in your name. In Washington the seller files a Report of Sale within 5 days. California has a notice of transfer form; check the DMV's page for the deadline. File it the day you hand over the keys.

The buyer titles the vehicle. Washington gives the buyer 15 days. Vermont has run an NMVTIS check on every transaction since Act 165 took effect on July 1, 2024, one more reason the paperwork has to match. If the title comes back branded, read what a branded title means before you assume anything about value. If you are still assembling the pile, our guide to the documents you need to sell a car covers the whole set.