Signing a California title takes about ninety seconds once you know which boxes matter. Getting one of them wrong sends the buyer back to a California DMV field office and the car back to your driveway. Here is the whole thing, taken from the California Department of Motor Vehicles's own pages and the forms themselves.
Start hereHow to fill out a California titleLine by line, from the DMV's own manual - which line releases the car, which one is the lender's, and the one mark that decides whether your co-owner has to be there.Open the walkthrough →The DMV's private-sale checklist asks for the odometer reading "if the vehicle is less than 10 years old." Federal law moved that line to 20 years for anything built in 2011 or later, and federal law is what governs odometer disclosure. Going by the DMV page and leaving the mileage off a 2013 car is a disclosure failure, not a shortcut.
49 CFR 580.17 sets two different exemptions depending on when the car was built. A 2010-or-older vehicle is exempt 10 years after its model year. A 2011-or-newer vehicle is not exempt until 20 years after its model year - the regulation's own worked example is that in calendar year 2031, model year 2011 and older vehicles become exempt.
2010 model year or older: Exempt. The federal example is explicit: for transfers during 2020, model year 2010 and older vehicles were already exempt.
2011 model year or newer: Not exempt, and will not be for years. A 2011 becomes exempt in 2031, a 2015 in 2035, a 2020 in 2040. Write the mileage in.
Over 16,000 lb GVWR, or not self-propelled: Exempt regardless of age, under the same regulation.
California Department of Motor Vehicles, odometer disclosure
You, the seller: Sign the title exactly as your name is printed on it. California takes a slash between two names to mean AND, which is the single most misread mark on the certificate.
The buyer: The buyer prints their true full name as it appears on their California driver licence or ID card, and signs. Each new owner signs for themselves.
AND or OR. The REG 227 states it plainly: co-owners joined by "AND (/)" require the signature of each owner; co-owners joined by "OR" require the signature of only one owner.
Read that bracket carefully. California prints AND as a forward slash. A title reading SMITH / JONES needs both signatures, and people see the slash and assume it means either.
A signature for a company or business must include the printed name of the company and an authorised representative's countersignature on the signature line. The DMV prints the acceptable formats on the form itself: ABC CO., by JOHN SMITH - or - JOSEPH SMITH for ABC CO. A lone signature with no company name attached is not a company release, and it is caught at the counter every time.
California Department of Motor Vehicles, title requirements
The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.
A clear title, a smog certificate you are expected to supply, and ten days before the buyer has to file.
The lender is on the certificate, and California draws a hard line at two model years: newer than that and the release can only happen on the title itself.
Lost, never delivered, or already written on. California will look at a marked certificate rather than voiding it outright, which is not true everywhere.
Signing from another state, another country, or a hospital bed - and the narrow authority California accepts for it.
An estate small enough to skip probate, and the forty-day wait and dollar ceiling that decide whether yours qualifies.
Total losses you kept, rebuilds, kit cars, and vehicles arriving from out of state that have to be physically verified.
In California the plates stay with the car. It is the personalised and special interest plates that come off, and that reversal catches sellers who have moved from out of state.
Ordinary California plates belong to the vehicle, not to you. They stay bolted on and go to the buyer with the car, which is the opposite of how it works in most neighbouring states.
Personalised and special interest plates are the exception: those belong to you, and the DMV instructs that they should be removed from the vehicle before the new owner takes possession. Replacing them with the ordinary plates costs $28 under VC 9265.
To move a personalised plate to your next car, hold it for future use, or release your interest in it, file a Special Interest License Plate Application (REG 17). Do that before the car leaves, not after.
File the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability (REG 138) within five days of the sale. Online at dmv.ca.gov/nrl takes a couple of minutes and prints you a receipt.
Until it is filed you are still the registered owner of record. Parking citations, toll violations and civil liability for what the buyer does with the car all follow the registered owner, and the DMV has no other way of knowing the car changed hands - the buyer has ten days to come forward and not every buyer does.
A mailed REG 138 gets no acknowledgement at all.
The form says so itself: it may be mailed, but no notification will be sent confirming the DMV has received it. File online instead and print the receipt - it is the only proof you will ever hold that you filed inside the five days. California Department of Motor Vehicles, registration cancellation.
California Department of Motor Vehicles, private party registration
Register at a California DMV field office within 10 days of the purchase. California does charge tax on a private-party sale, but the buyer owes it, not you: the CDTFA collects use tax at the same rate as sales tax, set by the address where the car will be registered. The transfer fee itself is $15 under VC 9255, with a $15 late penalty beside it on the DMV's chart.
What they need to bring:
This is the big one. In most states emissions is the buyer's registration problem. In California the DMV's answer to "if I sell my car, do I have to get it inspected first?" is one word: Yes. You give the new owner a valid smog certification when you sell the car. It is transmitted to the DMV electronically and is valid for 90 days.
A certification is good for 90 days. Smog is required at renewal in 37 named California counties, which between them cover most of the state's population. California DMV, smog inspections.
California Department of Motor Vehicles · figures and rules as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.
See also: selling a car in California and the rest of the guides.