Iowa Car Title and Seller Paperwork — Every Form Explained

The one most people get wrong

One page of the department's own guidance carries two different odometer rules, five years apart

Read How to Sell a Vehicle from the top and you meet the mileage twice. Its Selling to an Iowa Dealer section asks for a statement on any vehicle nine model years old or newer, which was Iowa's rule until the last day of 2020. Scroll on and its Odometer Statement section gives the rule that actually applies, keyed to model year 2011. A seller who stops at the first one will decide a 2014 needs nothing this year, and be wrong by five model years.

761 Iowa Admin. Code 400.40(3) is the version to work from, and it is 49 CFR 580.17 as in force on 1 October 2024, copied into Iowa's own rulebook: for transfers happening up to and including 31 December 2030 every vehicle of model year 2011 or newer needs a disclosure, and from 1 January 2031 the exempt line starts moving again at the current year minus twenty. There is no separate Iowa age hiding underneath it.

Model year 2011 and newer, sold at any point before 2031: The reading goes in the mileage box in the assignment area on the back of the certificate, in whole miles, and the buyer signs the same block to say they saw it.
Model year 2010 and older, sold in 2026: Exempt. The federal clock ran out years ago and Iowa asks for nothing, so the box stays empty rather than being filled in for tidiness.
Anything registered above 16,000 pounds gross weight: Exempt whatever its year, and the department only prints that exemption on Form 411099 - none of the web pages mention it.

Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division, odometer disclosure

Signing the title

You, the seller: Everything you sign is inside one block on the reverse of the certificate, headed ASSIGNMENT OF TITLE. Print the buyer's name and address on the top line, write in the transfer or sale date, tick SALE or GIFT, write the purchase price, fill in the odometer reading if the car is a 2011 or newer, answer the two damage questions, then sign and print your name on the transferor's lines. Then take the plates off the car.

The buyer: The buyer takes that certificate to a county treasurer with Form 411007 and has thirty calendar days to do it. They pay $35 for the title, the fee for new registration, and a prorated annual registration fee.

AND or OR. Two names joined by "and" on the face of the title means both of you sign as sellers. Joined by "or", any one of you may sign alone.

The rule is 761 IAC 400.13(1), and it is worth reading off your own certificate before you agree a completion date. Note the exception, because it is the one that catches people: a replacement title or a junking certificate needs every owner's signature whichever word is printed, connector or no connector. The treasurers' own FAQ still cites this rule as 400.14, which since the June 2025 rewrite of chapter 400 is the paragraph on cancelling a title instead.

An Iowa certificate has a bill of sale printed on it now, and correcting it is a notarised affidavit

Since the stock issued from September 2023 the assignment area carries a TRANSFER/SALE DATE, a SALE or GIFT tick and a PURCHASE PRICE box, so the document that transfers the car is also the document that records what you were paid for it. The department's own answer to a wrong figure is not a correction: the seller needs to obtain a replacement title to assign to the purchaser with the correct amount.

•Writing the price in later, beside the date, on an older certificate that has no price box. Iowa DOT's own answer to that question is one word longer than the question: no, this would be an unauthorized alteration that would void the title and require a replacement before transferring
•Leaving the transfer date out. It is the only entry in the new bill-of-sale area that is required on every single transfer, gift or sale, and the department says so
•Assuming a scratched-out line can be initialled away. An error, an erasure or an alteration is Form 411219, it must be notarised, it must be signed by whoever made the mistake, and photocopies of it are refused by name
•Using Form 411219 to undo the sale itself. Its own instructions bar it from being used to nullify the bona fide sale and delivery of a vehicle, repurchase offers and failed financing included
•Correcting an odometer entry with it. The same instruction list rules that out in four words - for odometer certification errors - and sends you to the county instead

Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division, title requirements

The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.

The forms

What each one is for

An ordinary sale

One block on the back of the certificate does the whole job - assignment, sale date, price, mileage and damage - and one optional filing tells the county it happened.

411107 — Notice of Sale of Vehicle and Delivery of TitleThe one piece of paper an Iowa seller can file about their own sale, and the state does not make you file it.…411108 — Motor Vehicle Damage Disclosure StatementThe disclosure normally lives in the assignment block on the back of the title, and this form is what you use…411077 — Odometer Disclosure StatementA one-page mileage statement for the times the back of the title cannot carry one. Iowa puts the odometer…411099 — Odometer Certification and Statement of FactThis is the form that gets used when you cannot be found. A buyer who has a car and no mileage statement from…411007 — Application for Certificate of Title and/or RegistrationThree pages, and not one line of it is yours. This is what the buyer takes to a county treasurer with the…

A lender is still on the title

Iowa lets a lender release a lien on the face of the title or on a separate notarised sheet, and which one you get decides how long the sale waits.

411168 — Cancellation of Security InterestYour lender's form, not yours, and the one that decides whether your sale waits a day or a fortnight. Iowa…411094 — Notice to Deliver a Title Certificate to a Person Other Than the OwnerEight boxes and a signature, and the smallest form in the Iowa set. When a lien is cancelled the county…

The title is lost, wrong or damaged

Lost, misspelled, signed in the wrong box, or missing a disclosure the buyer needed. Iowa answers each with a different affidavit and three of the four want a notary.

411033 — Application for Replacement of Iowa Certificate of Title to a Motor VehicleIowa's duplicate title, and the form that stops a sale for a week. It goes to the county treasurer, it costs…411219 — Affidavit of CorrectionThe form for the day the pen went in the wrong box. Seven tick boxes cover the mistakes Iowa sees often enough…411109 — Statement of Absent Damage DisclosureThe buyer's escape hatch when you never gave them a damage disclosure and cannot be reached. They swear this…411097 — Certification of CorrectionA form for one very specific collision between an old car and a modern record. The previous title says six…

The owner cannot be there

Somebody signing for the owner. Iowa takes a vehicle-specific power of attorney, or a general one propped up by an affidavit, and nothing else.

411021 — Power of Attorney AuthorizationIowa's vehicle-specific power of attorney, and the cleanest way to sell a car you cannot be in the room for.…411020 — Affidavit of Authority for Vehicle Pursuant to General Power of AttorneyThe bridge between an ordinary general power of attorney - the kind drawn up for a parent's affairs, covering…

The owner has died

Two affidavits, one for a will and one without, both notarised, both filed by the person inheriting rather than by an estate.

411083 — Certification of Death Testate (With a Will) for Vehicle TransferFor a car left by somebody who made a will that was never probated, or was probated without administration. The…411088 — Certification of Death Intestate (Without a Will) for Vehicle TransferThe same job as the testate affidavit, for somebody who left no will and no administered estate. The difference…

The car is damaged or unverified

Junked, salvaged, or a car whose parts are being sold off. These forms end a vehicle's life on the record, and one of them is reversible for exactly fourteen days.

411123 — Application for Junking CertificateThe form that ends a car. Surrender the title and the registration receipt to a county treasurer, get a junking…411403 — Request to Restore Title from Iowa Junking Certificate Issued by Mistake or InadvertenceThe undo button, and it only works on a mistake. Iowa will restore a title from a junking certificate for one…

Plates and registration

They left the car with you. Now they are either on your next vehicle or on a county treasurer's counter, and one of those two routes is worth money.

411122 — Plate CancellationEleven lines on half a page, and the shortest document in the whole Iowa set. It records that a plate has been…411047 — Claim for Refund (Vehicle Registration)The form that turns the months you paid for and did not use into money. Iowa is one of the states that gives a…

In Iowa the plates belong to you, not to the car - and this is where sellers from other states get it backwards

Iowa Code s. 321.34 is headed Plates or validation sticker furnished - retained by owner, and the sentence underneath is not a suggestion: the registration plates, including special registration plates, shall be assigned to the owner of a vehicle. When the owner of a registered vehicle transfers or assigns ownership of the vehicle to another person, the owner shall remove the registration plates from the vehicle. The Motor Vehicle Division's own Seller's Checklist puts it first, above the title: remove license plates, turn them in to your county treasurer's office.

You then have two ways to go. Move them within thirty days to a replacement vehicle you have bought, which also carries your unused registration across as a credit, or hand them to any county treasurer and claim the unused months back in cash. The credit route wants the replacement titled within six months; the refund route wants a claim within six months of the sale. Either way there is a floor: under s. 321.126 nothing under ten dollars is paid out, and nothing under ten dollars is credited.

Plates come off an inherited car as well. s. 321.47(3) covers every transfer by operation of law - inheritance, a dissolution decree, a foreclosure, a storage lien sale - and says the registration plates shall be removed and forwarded to any county treasurer.

So how does the buyer get home? Not on your plates. If the car is currently registered, Iowa lets them drive it for thirty days with no plates at all provided they carry a copy of a signed, dated bill of sale describing the vehicle, or a copy of both sides of the assigned title. If it is not currently registered, the treasurer sells them a thirty-day temporary permit for $25, and an out-of-state buyer can have a thirty-day transit plate for $3.

Then decide whether to file the notice - because in Iowa it is optional

Form 411107, Notice of Sale of Vehicle and Delivery of Title, goes to any county treasurer and Iowa Code s. 321.46(5) is written in the permissive: the seller or transferor MAY file an affidavit. There is no deadline attached to it anywhere in the statute or on the form, and no penalty for never filing one. What it does is narrow and worth having: on the day it arrives the treasurer notes it in the vehicle registration and titling system, and from then on it shall be presumed that the seller or transferor has assigned and delivered the certificate of title for the vehicle.

Read that against what actually protects you, which is s. 321.493(3): a person who has made a bona fide sale and has delivered possession is not liable for damage afterwards, and the purchaser is deemed the owner. That protection turns on handing the car over, not on filing anything - the same section goes out of its way to say the title rules in s. 321.45(2) do not decide the question. The notice is the evidence, not the shield. File it when the buyer is a stranger, when they are driving away without transferring, or when you have any reason to think the title will sit in a glovebox for a month.

Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division, private party registration

What the buyer has to do, so you can tell them

Register at any county treasurer's office in Iowa within 30 days of the purchase. No sales tax, because Iowa does not charge any on a vehicle. What the buyer pays instead is the fee for new registration under s. 321.105A - ten dollars plus five per cent of the purchase price - handed to the county treasurer with the application. You collect none of it and you file nothing about it. $35 for the title, being a $30 fee under s. 321.46(2) and a $5 surcharge under s. 321.52A, plus the fee for new registration and an annual registration fee prorated over the months left in the registration year.

What they need to bring:

•The Iowa certificate of title with your assignment completed on the back - the purchase price and the transfer date included, because both now have their own boxes
•A completed Form 411007, Application for Certificate of Title and/or Registration, signed by every owner going on the new title
•A bill of sale or purchase agreement, which Iowa Administrative Rule 701.250 requires to establish the purchase price and which must be signed by you
•A separate damage disclosure on Form 411108 if the car is a 2019 or newer and the assignment block could not carry the disclosure
•A separate odometer statement only if the back of the title has no mileage block on it, in which case the treasurer or a dealer supplies one
•Form 411168 from the lender if an uncancelled security interest is still printed on the front of the certificate
•$35 for the title, the fee for new registration, and the prorated annual registration fee, which Iowa works out from the vehicle's weight and its original list price
•The name of the county where the vehicle was last registered and the date the plates expire - you tell them that, and s. 321.45(3) makes it your job

Nothing to test, nowhere in the state

Iowa runs no emissions programme and no periodic safety inspection, in any county, at any age of vehicle. Nothing in the Motor Vehicle Division's list of what to bring to a title transfer is a test certificate, and there is no windscreen sticker on an Iowa car that can be out of date. One inspection does exist and it is not the seller's and not annual: a vehicle that has been through salvage has to be physically examined by a peace officer certified by the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy before a rebuilt title can be issued, which costs $53 and takes about forty-five minutes. That examination is about stolen parts, not roadworthiness - the officer verifies that no stolen parts were used to rebuild a vehicle - and it happens to the person putting the car back on the road, not to the person selling it.

Iowa DOT, salvage vehicles and the salvage theft examination.

Eight Iowa rules worth knowing before you list it

•A salvage-titled car is the one Iowa car you may not sell to your neighbour. The department's own answer is flat: an individual can only sell a salvage titled vehicle to an educational institution, a new motor vehicle dealer, a person engaged in the business of purchasing bodies, parts of bodies, frames, or component parts of vehicles for sale as scrap metal, a salvage pool, or an authorized recycler licensed under ch. 321H. Repair it and pass the theft examination first, or sell it to one of those five.
•Iowa does give a seller money back, which most states do not. Unused registration on the car you sold becomes either a credit against the next one or a refund in cash, on a six-month clock either way, and the plates have to be handed in for the refund. The floor is ten dollars: below that s. 321.126 pays nothing and s. 321.46 credits nothing.
•Your registration expires in your birth month, and it moves house with you rather than with the car. Iowa staggers registration by the owner's month of birth, and where a vehicle has more than one owner they choose whose birthday it runs on. It is the reason the expiry date is a thing you have to tell the buyer rather than something they can read off the plate.
•Handing over a junking certificate is not selling a car, it is ending one. A junking certificate authorises the holder to possess, transport or transfer by endorsement the ownership of the junked vehicle, and no further titling of that vehicle is allowed - the only exception being a car twenty-five years old or older, which can come back through the bonded-title route. A mistake is reversible for fourteen days and then it is not.
•The purchase price is now yours to write and yours to be wrong about. Iowa Administrative Rule 701.250 requires a bill of sale or equivalent, signed by the seller, to establish it, and the department lists under-reporting among the things its investigators pursue as fraud. If the figure on the title and the figure on the buyer's application disagree, the department's own position is that the one you attested to on the title is the official one.
•There is no charge for correcting a lien, and a fifteen-day clock on the lender. s. 321.50(5)(a) makes the county treasurer note a cancellation on the face of a title without charge, and a holder of a discharged security interest who does not release it within fifteen days of a written request forfeits twenty-five dollars to the person who paid.
•Iowa titles issued before 1 July 2021 still print the old damage threshold. The assignment area on those certificates asks about repair costs exceeding fifty per cent of value; every title issued since asks about seventy. Form 411108 exists partly so a buyer can close that gap on a car sold with older stock, and the buyer signs it rather than you.
•Selling to a dealer does not change your side of the paperwork by much, and Iowa says so in a sentence most states do not print: after delivering the vehicle to the dealer, remove the license plates and keep them. The registration receipt stays with you too, unless the replacement vehicle is coming from that same dealer.

Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division · figures and rules as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.

Iowa car paperwork, start to finish