Arizona's release of liability, and the one form on this list written for the seller alone. It tells MVD the vehicle has left you, and the deadline printed on it is ten days. Filing it is free, takes about a minute online, and is the difference between a stranger's parking ticket being their problem and it being yours.
Written against 46-8502 (R07/25), issued under A.R.S. 28-2058.
The Sold Notice and the registration credit are two separate requests that happen to live on the same website. The notice protects you from what the buyer does; the credit gives you back the unused vehicle license tax, less the processing fee the statute lets ADOT deduct, and it cannot be backdated. Doing one and forgetting the other is the usual mistake.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 46-8502 from the apps.azdot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 46-8502, rendered from the PDF the Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Everything on this form is about the two names and the date between them. Notice that your signature is the only one on the sheet: the buyer never sees it, never signs it, and cannot file it for you.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
The full seventeen characters, from the title or from AZ MVD Now.
Watch out: The VIN is what MVD matches on. A plate number alone will not find the record if the plate has already been moved to another car.
2
You fill this in
Year, Make and Plate Number
The plate that was on the vehicle when it left you.
Watch out: Give the plate even though you are keeping it. It is how the notice ties to the registration you may be about to claim a credit against.
3
You fill this in
Buyer/Lessor Name
The buyer's full name - first, middle, last and suffix.
Watch out: Take it from their driver licence at the time of sale, not from the advert reply. A name you cannot spell is a notice MVD cannot act on.
4
You fill this in
Date Sold
The day the buyer took possession.
Watch out: This is the day the ten-day clock started, and it is also the date that has to match the sale date on the title and on the buyer's application.
5
You fill this in
The buyer's address
Street, city, state and ZIP for the new keeper.
Watch out: Write down what is on their licence at the time. If they are moving next week, that is their problem to update with MVD once the title is in their name.
6
You fill this in
Seller/Lessee Name and address
Your name and address, as MVD holds them on the record.
Watch out: If your address on the record is three houses ago, fix it in the same sitting. Anything MVD sends about this vehicle goes to the address it has.
7
You fill this in
Seller/Lessee Signature and Date
Sign and date it. There is no notary block and nobody has to witness it.
Watch out: Then take the plate off the car if you have not already. The instruction sits directly under the signature line for a reason.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle Identification Number, Year, Make, Plate Number
Four fields in one row. The plate number is asked for even though the plate is coming off the car and staying with you.
Buyer/Lessor Name (first, middle, last, suffix) and Date Sold
Who took the vehicle, and when. The date is what the ten days run from.
Buyer's street address, city, state and ZIP
Where the new keeper lives. This is the address MVD will have if anybody comes looking.
Seller/Lessee Name and address
You, on a full-width line, with your own street address, city, state and ZIP underneath.
Seller/Lessee Signature and Date
One signature, yours, and the date you signed it. Nobody else signs this form.
The two printed instructions
One above the fields - this notice is your protection from liability for tickets, accidents, etc., that occur after the sale - and one below them, reminding you that the license plate must be removed from the vehicle and kept in your possession.
What gets this one rejected
•Treating it as the transfer. The form says so itself: to transfer ownership, you must also complete the transfer information on the back of the Certificate of Title and give it to the new owner.
•Filing it late. Ten days is printed in the first paragraph, and every day past it is a day MVD's records still name you as the owner.
•Leaving the buyer's address blank because you never asked for it. The whole value of the notice is that it names somebody else.
•Filing it before the buyer actually has the car. A sold notice on a vehicle you still hold blocks eTitle Transfer, which will not run on a vehicle with an existing Sold Notice.
•Assuming it cancels your registration. It does not, and it does not refund anything either - the registration credit is a separate request.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Online is the same notice. ADOT prints an invitation to skip the paper across the top of the form: save time, skip this form and submit online. AZ MVD Now files the identical notice and timestamps it.
•A trade-in counts, and so does a donation. The trigger is broad - sell, trade, end a lease, donate, or otherwise transfer ownership. Handing a car to a charity without filing one leaves it registered to you.
•eTitle Transfer files it for you. Where the sale runs online, ADOT generates the Sold Notice automatically and puts it in My Documents. That is the only situation in which not filing one is safe.
•The back of your registration carries one too. ADOT's Sold Notice page offers a third route: complete the sold notice form on the back of your vehicle registration and mail it to MVD.
