Two questions decide everything about selling a car in New Hampshire, and the first one is how old it is. Built for the 2000 model year or later, there is a certificate to sign over. Built in 1999 or earlier, there is no certificate and never was - the state does not title those - and what the buyer needs from you instead is a bill of sale and the registration out of your glovebox. Here is the whole thing, taken from the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles' own pages and the forms themselves.
Start hereHow to fill out a New Hampshire titleWhat the Bureau of Title requires in the assignment block, drawn as a diagram - because New Hampshire publishes no picture of its own certificate.Open the walkthrough →Most states print exception boxes: leave them alone and the reading is taken as true. New Hampshire does the opposite. The strip on TDMV 12 and on the back of the certificate offers ACTUAL MILEAGE, EXCEEDS MECHANICAL LIMITS and NOT THE ACTUAL MILEAGE as three positive choices, and the first of them is a box you have to tick rather than a default you fall into. A seller who writes the number and ticks nothing has not certified anything, and the clerk who spots it has to send the paperwork back.
The state requirement carries no age limit at all. The Bureau of Title's own rule says the assignment space on the back of the existing title shall contain the buyer's name and address, the odometer reading in actual mileage at the time of the sale, and the seller's signature and printed name - full stop, no exemption for an old car. The only age exemption that exists is the federal one, and it is federal rather than something the Division publishes. On a New Hampshire form the reading is written in whole miles: TDMV 22A prints NO TENTHS beside the box in case there was any doubt.
Model year 2010 or earlier: Federally exempt once the sale happens at least ten years after 1 January of the model year, so a 2010 became exempt in 2020. In New Hampshire this overlaps almost completely with the cars the state does not title at all, and the exemption does not stop TDMV 22A asking for the reading.
Model year 2011 or later: Not exempt for twenty years. A 2011 reaches that on 1 January 2031 and a 2018 on 1 January 2038 - well past any car changing hands privately this year.
Anything rated over 16,000 lb gross vehicle weight, and anything without an engine of its own: Exempt whatever its age under the same federal section - these two carve-outs never had a birthday attached to them in the first place.
Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 580.17, which lists the exemptions
You, the seller: Turn the certificate over and work through the assignment block. The Bureau's rule lists what has to end up in it: the buyer's name and address, the odometer reading in actual mileage at the time of the sale, and your signature with your name printed beside it.
The buyer: The buyer signs too, and on the separate odometer forms their signature sits under a printed line saying they are aware of the odometer certification the seller has just made. That line is the point of their signature - they are acknowledging your mileage statement, not agreeing a price.
Nothing about a New Hampshire sale is sworn. Saf-C 1903.02 sets out the three things the assignment must carry and an oath is not among them, and RSA 261:14 asks the owner to execute an assignment and warranty of title with nothing said about a notary. What the rules do insist on is that the signature be real: each signature required on an application or form shall be the original, and no facsimile or stamp of a signature shall be accepted.
Two exceptions, and neither of them is an ordinary sale. A power of attorney the Bureau accepts has to be notarised. And the Affidavit of Ownership for Antique Vehicles carries a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace acknowledgement, because what it certifies is that the owner holds no prior title and no prior registration - a person asking the state to take their word for ownership, rather than a seller signing away a certificate they are holding.
The Bureau's rule is a single sentence with no softening in it: the bureau shall not accept more than one assignment on the back of an existing title between non-dealers, except if it is an unrepaired salvage vehicle. There is one space and one attempt. If the entry goes wrong the way out is a Voided Assignment Letter explaining which of eight things happened, signed under penalty of unsworn falsification - and that letter has to be accompanied by an assignment form the Division does not publish and that you will have to ask a clerk or a dealer for.
New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, title requirements
The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.
A certificate to sign over if the car is a 2000 or newer, a bill of sale and an odometer statement if it is not, and a buyer who needs your old registration more than they realise.
The lender holds the certificate and has to let go of it in writing. Three of the four forms in this group belong to somebody else, and knowing which is which saves a wasted trip.
Lost in a house move, spelled with the wrong name, written on twice, or never issued because the car is older than the title law. Four different answers and only one of them costs $35.00.
Flood, wreck, home-build and street conversion. Salvage is the one branch of New Hampshire titling where a second assignment on the same certificate is allowed, which tells you how the Bureau expects these cars to move.
The registration expired the moment you sold; the metal is yours and the expired certificate is worth money against your next car.
RSA 261:66 disposes of this in one clause: upon the transfer of ownership of any vehicle, its registration shall expire. From the moment the buyer takes the keys the plates on that car are covering nothing, and RSA 261:77 says plainly that no expired number plates shall be displayed. So they come off, and they come off before the car leaves.
Then keep them, and keep the paperwork. The same section of the statute tells you why in its second sentence: the person in whose name such vehicle is registered shall retain the expired certificate of registration in order to obtain transfer credit. Take that certificate and your next vehicle's proof of ownership to your town or city clerk and the unused portion of what you already paid comes off the new registration - if the new fee is the same or less you pay nothing more, and if it is greater you pay only the difference.
The buyer sorts themselves out, and it costs them $20.00. A New Hampshire resident buying privately gets a 20-day temporary plate from a DMV drop box or appointment on production of a photocopy of the signed title or the bill of sale, their licence and the fee. A buyer from out of state gets a 20-day in-transit registration on the same terms.
Do not post the plates anywhere. New Hampshire has no cancellation transaction and no surrender address for an ordinary passenger plate: the registration has already expired by operation of law, so there is nothing left to cancel. The one refund the statute does offer is narrow enough to be worth knowing about only so you can rule it out - plates returned with an affidavit that they have never been used, within 90 days of purchase.
For a titled vehicle New Hampshire publishes no notice of sale and no release-of-liability form, and sets no deadline in days for the seller. For a vehicle the state does not title - which here means model year 1999 and older - it publishes exactly one, and the rule says who fills it in: each report of a sale or a transfer of a non-titled motor vehicle shall be completed by the seller on form TDMV 22A. Ten items, an odometer certification and both signatures.
What actually closes a titled sale is section 14 of the chapter, and it is worth reading to the end of the sentence. A transfer is not effective until the assignment has been executed and the fee paid; however, an owner who has delivered possession of the vehicle to the transferee and has complied with the provisions of this section requiring action by him is not liable as owner for any damages thereafter resulting from driving of the vehicle. Your protection comes from doing the assignment properly and handing the certificate over - not from the buyer getting round to the clerk.
There is no state insurance filing to unwind, which is its own kind of trap.
In most states the registration and the insurance policy are wired together, and cancelling one tells the other. Here they are not. The Division holds an insurance filing only for the drivers it has put under one, and it says so conditionally: it may require that persons have insurance, and if you fall under an insurance filing requirement it will notify you of this in writing. A driver record reads either no proof of financial responsibility is required or proof of financial responsibility is required, and for most sellers it is the first. So nobody at the Division is watching the policy on the car you have just sold, nobody will tell you to keep it, and nobody will stop you cancelling it a day early. Take the plates off, watch the buyer leave on their own 20-day plate, and only then ring the insurer - because until the assignment is complete and possession has passed, section 14 has not started protecting you. The exception is a seller who is already under a filing: for them the Division says operating and registration privileges cannot be restored or retained until the requirement is met, so cancelling cover puts the rest of their driving at risk rather than just this car. New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, registration cancellation.
New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, private party registration
Register at the clerk's office in the town or city where they live within 20 days of the purchase. Nothing. New Hampshire levies no general sales tax and no use tax - the Department of Revenue Administration's own list of every tax it administers runs to sixteen entries and there is no sales or use tax among them - so a private vehicle sale is not taxed at all. What the buyer pays is the $35.00 title fee, the town and state registration fees set by RSA 261:153 and RSA 261:141, and $8.00 for the plates the first time they order them. The certificate of title fee is $35.00 and it is the same $35.00 on any change of ownership. It has been $35.00 only since 1 January 2026; before that it was $25.00, and a page or a friend still quoting $25.00 is quoting an expired line of the statute. A duplicate title is also $35.00.
What they need to bring:
This is the one fact on this page with a short shelf life, so here is the state's own wording and its date. On 13 February 2026 the Department of Safety and the Department of Justice announced that the vehicle inspection program is suspended until further notice, that inspection stations will no longer be authorized to issue state inspection stickers, and that vehicles will not be required to obtain an annual state inspection at this time. It got there by an unusual route: a law passed in 2025 ended the programme on 31 January 2026, a federal court then ordered the state to keep it running, and the Executive Council then refused to extend the contract with the programme's vendor - leaving the state under an order to operate a programme it has no approved vendor for.
Watch the date on this. The Division's own page says the status of the program remains subject to change as the legal landscape continues to evolve, and the state has filed a Notice of Appeal to the First Circuit, so anything you read about New Hampshire inspections that carries no date is worth nothing. NH Division of Motor Vehicles, Inspections & Emissions, public guidance of 13 February 2026.
New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles · figures and rules as of 2026-08-24. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.
See also: selling a car in New Hampshire and the rest of the guides.