How to fill out a Kansas title

The certificate, drawn from the statute and the Division's own words

Kansas publishes no specimen of its certificate of title - not in the Dealer and Salesperson Handbook, not on any Division page, not inside any of the twenty seller-facing forms fetched for this build, and all four were checked. So what follows is a diagram, marked as one: every block on it is named from K.S.A. 8-135, from the Division's titling instructions, or from the form that references it, and the drawing reproduces no typography, colour or security printing of the real document.

• Amber — you write it, in pen
• Grey — not yours to fill
• Numbered — matches the steps below

Every box, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Purchase price

   Your entry, and a certified one - the statute has the seller insert and certify the mileage and the purchase price, and the county treasurer computes the buyer's sales tax from the actual selling price written here.

   Watch out: Kansas needs no separate bill of sale when the price is on the title - Pub. KS-1526's rule is that a bill of sale is not required if the sale price is entered on the vehicle title. Write it plainly; a price the treasurer finds bears no reasonable relationship to fair market value invites the tax to be computed on value instead.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Date of sale

   The day possession changes. The Division's used-vehicle page counts the buyer's 60 days from the day the title was assigned to the new owner.

   Watch out: This date also starts the penalty clock - the county assesses it on and after the 61st day - and it is the date you will certify on the TR-216 notification, so all three must agree.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Odometer reading

   Whole miles at the moment of transfer, unless the vehicle is exempt: 2010 model year or older vehicles are exempt at ten years, 2011 or newer at twenty.

   Watch out: Your signature below this line is the certification, and the buyer's is the acknowledgement - which is why Kansas will not let one person sign both halves of a disclosure-age sale even with a power of attorney, unless it is the dealer-stock secure form.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Your printed name and signature

   Both, and for every owner the and/or rule requires: names joined by and all sign, names joined by or need only one, and no connector means and.

   Watch out: Sign exactly the name the face of the certificate carries. The TR-720B's parallel rule for replacements - signatures of the owners must match the names on the face of the current Kansas title record - is how the county reads every signature you give it.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   The buyer's printed name and signature

   The only two entries the Division leaves to the buyer, and the statute gives their signature a job: acknowledging the odometer and purchase price certification made by the seller.

   Watch out: Never hand over a certificate with these blank and the rest complete - that is an assignment in blank, and the statute you are relying on voids sales that travel without a proper assignment.

6. 6
   The lienholder fills this in

   The lien statement, and the release

   The assignment carries a statement of all liens or encumbrances on the vehicle at the time of assignment, and a lien printed on the certificate must be released - in the lien release section on the face, on a notarized TR-150, or by the lienholder's letter.

   Watch out: If the loan is still open there is usually no paper certificate at all: the Division holds liened titles electronically and will not print one until the lien clears. That sale runs on the TR-39a, not on this page.

7. 7
   Dealers only

   The dealer reassignments

   Two further assignment forms printed on the reverse, which the statute reserves to dealers - the first for dealer-to-dealer sales, the second for a dealer selling to another dealer or the ultimate owner.

   Watch out: A private seller never writes here. If a previous sale filled your assignment block and you are not a dealer, stop and call your county treasurer before anyone signs anything.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Then the plate, then the filing

   Not on the certificate at all. The plate comes off at delivery because the registration and the right to use it expired at the moment of transfer, and the optional TR-216 notification goes in online for $10.

   Watch out: The plate is worth money twice over - $1.50 moves the number to your next vehicle, or the county treasurer refunds the unused registration and property tax from the day the plate reaches the counter.

What Kansas sellers get told that is not true

Three confident claims Kansas sellers hear that the Division's own pages contradict. Each correction links its Kansas source.

Once it is signed

Two things follow a completed Kansas assignment. The plate comes off before the car leaves - the registration died at the moment of transfer - and ten dollars on the iKan portal files the notification that ends your liability for what the buyer does next.

The two things that follow a signed title — what happens to the plates and telling the Division of Vehicles the car is gone — are set out in full on the Kansas paperwork page rather than repeated here.

The forms that go with it: the TR-312 bill of sale, which the 120-day tax rule now asks for, a notarized TR-150 if a lender is printed on the certificate and the TR-720B, if the certificate itself is lost.

Every field description here is taken from the Kansas Division of Vehicles, Titling a Used Vehicle and the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles title pages, current as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

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