Registering the car for the buyer

What you owe the buyer after the sale

Vehicle Code 5753(a) makes it unlawful to fail to endorse, date and deliver the certificate of ownership to a buyer entitled to it. A dealer satisfies that duty another way: unless the buyer demands the title in writing, you deliver by submitting the documents and fees to the DMV for transfer under Vehicle Code 4456 (5753(b)). Vehicle Code 5906 excuses a dealer from transferring an inventory car into its own name, not from transferring it to the buyer. Failure to deliver a properly endorsed certificate of ownership is a ground for suspension or revocation (Vehicle Code 11705(a)(4)).

Types of California titles

The California Certificate of Title names the registered owner and the legal owner, the lienholder, if there is one. When the lienholder is in the DMV's Electronic Lien and Title program, no paper title issues: the DMV holds an electronic record, the owner gets a registration card, and a paper title issues when the lien is satisfied (manual, 1.050, read 2026-10-22). A total loss vehicle carries a salvage certificate in place of a title, which the DMV accepts, endorsed, in a transfer (Vehicle Code 11515(e)); a nonrepairable vehicle certificate (11515.2) is labeled NONREPAIRABLE VEHICLE across its face. Brands print in the red Vehicle History box on the title and follow the car. The manual's 1.025 lists California's: salvaged, which stays on a revived salvage and covers a former junk vehicle, prior taxi, prior police, non-USA for a grey market import, warranty return for a lemon law buyback, remanufactured, and park trailer (DMV branded titles page, read 2026-10-22).

Transfer requirements and signatures

Chapter 11 of the manual (11.015 and 11.040) lists what the DMV needs from a dealer:

• The title, released on line 1 by the registered owner. Co-owners joined by "and" both sign; joined by "or," one signs. A business signs by its name and a representative's countersignature; a trust by its trustee.
• The lienholder's release on line 2 or on a REG 166. On a car two model years old or newer, the lienholder requests a replacement title instead.
• The dealer reassignment section, each dealer's name with a countersignature or initials, continued on a Vehicle/Vessel Transfer and Reassignment Form (REG 262) when it fills.
• The odometer disclosure, on a complying title or on the REG 262. The REG 262 is a secure document; a photocopy or fax of it is never accepted (1.105).
• The new owner section: each buyer's name, address and driver license or ID number, the purchase price and date, and the new lienholder or "None." An application missing any of this comes back.
• A smog certificate or proof of exemption, the Report of Sale with the entries Vehicle Code 4456(a)(4) requires on the title, and the fees and tax.

Signatures follow 1.135: the owner's usual signature, with omissions or additions to the printed name accepted; a stamped signature on DMV documents; and a witnessed mark from a person who cannot write, with two witnesses for a release of ownership.

The secure power of attorney

Federal odometer law lets a seller give the buyer a power of attorney to disclose mileage when the title is held by a lienholder or is lost, on a secure form the state prescribes (49 CFR 580.13). California no longer produces its own secure power of attorney but still accepts one, and accepts another state's when the title was unavailable at the sale or the owner was out of state and that state supplied the form (manual, 5.065). An ordinary power of attorney, the REG 260 or section 5 of the REG 262, may release ownership but can never disclose mileage (1.125). A dealer holding a power of attorney keeps a copy five years (49 CFR 580.8).

The fees you collect and remit

Vehicle Code 11713(g) forbids adding to the price any amount for licensing or transfer that is not due to the state, except fees you already paid the state to stop penalties from running. The manual's 3.035 turns that into practice: itemize the fees, collect exactly what the transaction needs, charge the buyer penalties that accrued before the car entered your inventory but never ones your own lateness caused, and never the administrative service fee. The DMV's registration fee page (read 2026-10-22) carries today's figures:

Where a statute names a lower figure, Vehicle Code 1678 or Revenue and Taxation Code 11052(b) has raised it for inflation; collect the posted figure.

When are registration fees due? If the registration expires within 30 days of the application, or expired while the car sat in your inventory, the renewal fees go in with the transfer (3.045, 11.040). Otherwise the transfer fee and the fees above are enough, and a buyer whose registration expires after the transfer has 20 days to renew without penalty (Vehicle Code 9553(b)).

Sales tax is yours to pay, reimbursed by the buyer. Revenue and Taxation Code 6295 moved used-vehicle dealers, by January 1, 2026 at the latest, to paying the tax on each retail sale to the DMV with the transfer application, which then counts as the dealer's return for that sale (Vehicle Code 4456(a)(3)). The CDTFA may exempt a dealer in good standing with 1,000 or more retail sales a year, and its publication 34 (October 2025, read 2026-10-22) tells a dealer the DMV has not yet notified to keep paying on its CDTFA return. Your own charges are never government fees: a document processing charge of up to $85 with a Business Partner Automation contract and $70 without, and an electronic filing charge no higher than what your first-line service provider charges you (Vehicle Code 4456.5), capped at $30 for 2026 for a dealer in the program (13 CCR 225.45). No electronic filing charge when a registration service files for you, and a refund of it when the filing could not be done electronically (manual, 3.030).

Deadlines and the administrative service fee

The application and fees are due within 30 days of the date of sale for a used vehicle and 20 days for a new one (Vehicle Code 4456(a)(2); 9553(c)). The administrative service fee under Vehicle Code 4456.1 is $5 for a late application or a missed five-day notice and $25 for a returned application not cleared within 50 days of the sale (Appendix 1F); you pay it, never the buyer. Registration penalties run from day 31 on your account, not the buyer's (4456(a)(2)), and discipline follows a first application filed 50 days or more after the sale (4456.1(d)). Vehicle Code 9562 lets the DMV waive penalties that accrued before you bought the car if you did not know of them (manual, 3.080).

The checklist, in order:

1. Report the sale in the electronic system before delivery. Attach the window copy and, if the car has no plates, the temporary plates.
2. Collect the itemized fees and tax, and your own charges, each named for what it is.
3. Assemble the title with every release and reassignment, the REG 262 if needed, the odometer disclosure, the smog certificate and the Report of Sale.
4. Submit the application and fees within 30 days.
5. If it comes back, fix it and resubmit within 50 days of the sale.
6. Refund any excess the buyer paid, whether or not the buyer asks (Vehicle Code 11713.4).

Out-of-state deliveries

A buyer who will register the car in another state gets no California plates from you. The manual's 8.050 has the steps: mark the Report of Sale "for registration in another state"; complete a REG 256 explaining how the car will leave if its California registration is not current; send the statement and every copy of the report except the book copy to the DMV's Sacramento mail address; give the buyer the title if the car is lien-free; and keep a copy of the statement four years. Do not put the window copy in the car, and do not move it on dealer plates (8.020, 8.050). The buyer transports it, registers it at home first, or drives it out on a one-trip permit.

The sale is free of California sales tax only if you can show the buyer took possession outside California, from your employee or a common carrier. The CDTFA's publication 34 asks for proof of the buyer's out-of-state address and a delivery record, and recommends its form CDTFA-448, Statement of Delivery Outside California, signed at the delivery point and notarized there. A California resident who claims out-of-state use signs a CDTFA-447 instead. A car that drove out on the report's operating copy gets no refund of the DMV fees paid on it; one that left on a one-trip permit may (26.055).

The one-trip permit

Vehicle Code 4003 lets the DMV issue a permit, in place of registration, to move a vehicle unladen on one continuous trip from a place in California to a place in or out of the state, or into California. Posted on the windshield, it is that car's registration for the trip. The fee is $28 on the DMV's current list (Vehicle Code 9258, adjusted under 1678). The manual's 25.040 adds the limits: the most direct route, no loaded commercial vehicle, no crane, one vehicle per permit, and no effect on the tax. Blank permits may be bought in bulk from any DMV office (Fast Facts 36).

Quick titles

What the OL 2000 outline calls a quick title the DMV calls rush title processing. Vehicle Code 9270 lets the DMV charge a service fee of up to $15, on top of the other fees, to complete an initial registration, a transfer or a duplicate title within 72 hours of receiving a complete and proper application, and only at its Sacramento headquarters; Appendix 1F of the manual (read 2026-10-22) carries the fee at $15. Use it when the buyer needs the paper title fast.

Refunds of fees overpaid

Vehicle Code 42231 lets anyone who paid the DMV a fee or penalty that was excessive or not legally due apply for a refund within three years of the payment, on an Application for Refund (ADM 399) with an explanation and proof of payment (manual, 26.000). The buyer's overpayment is a different duty: whatever you collected above what was due goes back, whether or not the buyer asks (Vehicle Code 11713.4; 3.035).

The Report of Sale in one paragraph

Every step above rests on the Report of Sale, which the previous lesson covers in full: the report required under Vehicle Code 4456, its storage and security, completing it, the five-day dealer notice under 5901, the window copy, submitting the report and the other documents to the DMV within 30 days, the penalty fees and administrative action for late submission, and ordering the forms.

Sources

• Vehicle Code 5753, delivery of the certificate of ownership; 5906, a dealer's inventory; 11705(a)(4), failure to deliver title, read 2026-10-22.
• Vehicle Code 11515 and 11515.2, salvage and nonrepairable vehicle certificates; 9254, title only; 9270, rush title processing (text current to January 1, 2026).
• Vehicle Code 4456 and 4456.1, the report of sale and administrative service fees; 4456.5, the dealer's own charges; 9553, penalties and the 30 days; 9562, waivers.
• Vehicle Code 9250, 9250.1, 9250.8, 9250.13, 9255 and 9258, the fees; 1678, their yearly adjustment; 11713(g) and 11713.4, charging and refunding fees.
• Vehicle Code 4003, the one-trip permit; 42231, refunds within three years.
• Revenue and Taxation Code 10752, the vehicle license fee rate; 11052, the transportation improvement fee; 6295, dealers' sales tax paid to the DMV.
• 13 CCR 225.45, the cap on a business partner's customer fee, read 2026-10-22.
• 49 CFR 580.8 and 580.13, odometer records and the power of attorney for mileage disclosure, read 2026-10-22.
• DMV, Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual, sections 1.025, 1.050, 1.105, 1.125, 1.135, 3.030, 3.035, 3.045, 3.080, 5.065, 8.020, 8.050, 11.015, 11.040, 25.040, 26.000, 26.055 and Appendix 1F, read 2026-10-22.
• DMV, Registration Fees page and Branded Titles page, read 2026-10-22; DMV, Fast Facts 36, Vehicle Registration Permits (rev. 11/2019).
• CDTFA, publication 34, Motor Vehicle Dealers (October 2025), and the sales and use tax rates page, read 2026-10-22.
• DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007).