How to fill out Arkansas Notice of transfer

Arkansas's release of liability, and the form is candid about being optional: it prints its own statute across the top, explaining that an owner who has made a bona fide sale, delivered possession, and properly endorsed and delivered the certificate of title is not liable for damages from the vehicle's later negligent operation - and that the selling owner, at his option, may notify the Office of Motor Vehicle by completing this notice. No fee is printed anywhere on it, and the same notification can be made online through DFA's Transfer Vehicle Ownership service.

Written against Notice of transfer (no revision printed), issued under Ark. Code Ann. § 27-14-911. The online version of this filing hides under a name that undersells it: DFA's services directory calls it Transfer Vehicle Ownership, and describes it as notifying the state when you sell a vehicle without visiting the DMV in person. It is the same § 27-14-911 notice; do not let the name convince you it does the buyer's transfer for them, because nothing a seller files can do that.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Notice of transfer from the dfa.arkansas.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Notice of transfer guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   The vehicle row

   Year, make, model, VIN and the date of transfer, across the top of the sheet.

   Watch out: The date of transfer is the fact this whole filing exists to record. Use the handover date on your bill of sale, to the day.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Your block

   Printed name and address of the seller/transferor - as the state's records spell you, so the notice attaches to the right file.

   Watch out: Match the name on the certificate of title you just signed away, even if it is a maiden name or an old address. The Records Unit is matching paper to paper.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   The buyer's block

   Printed name and address of the buyer/transferee, copied from their driver's license at the handover.

   Watch out: This is the name the state will look to when the parking tickets start. Copy it carefully from the license, not from memory or a text message.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Read the certification before signing it

   Three past-tense facts: previous owner, interest transferred, title properly endorsed and delivered.

   Watch out: If any of the three is not yet true - the title is in a drawer waiting for a lien release, say - fix that first. The notice reports a completed sale.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Sign, date, deliver

   Your signature and the date, then the sheet goes in person to Room 1100 of the Ragland Building or by mail to P.O. Box 1272, Little Rock - or the same facts go in online through the Transfer Vehicle Ownership service.

   Watch out: Keep a copy with your bill of sale. The pair of them, dated the same week, is the file that ends every future argument about when the car stopped being yours.

What gets this one rejected

• •Filing it instead of doing the transfer. The certification says the title was already properly endorsed and delivered - this sheet reports a finished sale, it does not effect one.
• •Signing it before the title has actually gone to the buyer. The certification is in the past tense on every element, and a notice filed about a sale still half-done certifies something untrue.
• •A date of transfer that disagrees with the bill of sale. The notice's only value is as a dated record; a date that conflicts with the 10-313 undermines both documents.
• •Filing it by the buyer. Every line is the seller's, and the statute it quotes protects the selling or transferring owner.
• •Expecting an acknowledgment back. It goes to the Records Unit in person or by mail, and what you keep is your own copy and the certainty it was sent - post it with proof of mailing if that certainty matters to you.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The protection exists whether or not you file. Read the statute the form prints: the liability shield turns on the sale being bona fide, possession delivered and the title endorsed and delivered - not on the notice. Filing is how you prove the date without an argument.
• •Two addresses, one building. By mail it goes to the Office of Motor Vehicle, P.O. Box 1272, Records Unit, Room 1100, Little Rock; in person to the Arkansas Revenue Division in the Ragland Building at 1900 West 7th Street - Room 1100 either way.

Every line here was read off Notice of transfer (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Motor Vehicle pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Arkansas seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Arkansas involves.