How to fill out North Dakota SFN 2872

The department's master application: one sheet that titles a vehicle, registers it, changes a registration, or orders duplicates, with the box you tick at the top deciding which. In a private sale it is the buyer's form, not yours - but you will meet it twice. It is the form the buyer brings to the counter with your assigned certificate, and it is the form you complete yourself when you order a duplicate title or move a plate credit onto a replacement vehicle. Page two carries the thirty numbered excise tax exemptions and a damage disclosure statement.

Written against SFN 2872 (4-2026), issued under North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division, under NDCC 39-04 and 39-05, with the excise tax presumption at NDCC 57-40.3-08 printed on the form. This is the buyer's application in a private sale, and the seller's instinct to be helpful causes problems here more than anywhere else. The purchaser's certificate in section IV is the buyer's certification of the price they paid, the exemption number on the reverse is theirs to claim, and the penalty printed at section VI - a class B misdemeanor for any false statement on an application for licence or title - attaches to the person who signs. Give them the assigned certificate and the bill of sale and let them fill their own form in.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SFN 2872 from the dot.nd.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SFN 2872 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The buyer fills this in

   Section I, Title Process

   One box, ticked by the buyer. Title Process is the one an ordinary purchase needs; the duplicate column beside it belongs to a different job entirely.

   Watch out: Check only one is the form's own instruction. A sheet with Title Process and Registration Change both ticked comes back.

2. 2
   The buyer fills this in

   Section II, the applicant and co-applicant

   Applicant type, legal name, identifier type and number, telephone, and full address with county - then the same again for a co-applicant.

   Watch out: The names here must match the names the seller wrote into Part 1 of the certificate. Where they do not, the counter stops and asks which document is wrong.

3. 3
   The buyer fills this in

   The lease question and the conjunction

   Whether the vehicle is leased, and whether two owners are joined by And, Or, or And/Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship.

   Watch out: Must Select One, says the form, and it means it - this is the entry that decides who has to sign when the car is sold again.

4. 4
   The buyer fills this in

   Section III, the vehicle

   Title number, year, make, model, body style, VIN, fuel type, colour, registered weight, and the plate and credit plate numbers.

   Watch out: The credit plate number is where a buyer's own removed plate goes. Leaving it blank is how a licence fee credit quietly fails to arrive.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   Odometer Reading and Odometer Indicator

   The reading transferred from the certificate, and one of Actual Mileage, Exceeds Mechanical Limits or Not Actual.

   Watch out: It has to agree with what the seller certified on the title. A reading here that differs from the one on the certificate is the kind of mismatch that produces a corrected title months later.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   Section IV, the purchaser's certificate

   Full purchase price less rebate, less any trade-in or total loss allowance, down to the difference or subtotal that the tax is worked on.

   Watch out: The price must be the price on the bill of sale and on the certificate. The department checks values against an industry guide, and three documents with three numbers on them is an invitation to do exactly that.

7. 7
   The buyer fills this in

   The fee column

   Tax at 5% of the subtotal, the title fee of $5.00, the vehicle licence fee, any plate or credit transfer fee of $5.00, a branch fee, and total fees due.

   Watch out: The abandoned vehicle disposal fee of $1.50 printed above the title fee belongs to an initial North Dakota title, not to a car already titled in this state - and the form prints DO NOT SEND CASH beside the total for a reason.

8. 8
   The buyer fills this in

   Section VI, signature and printed name

   The buyer signs, dates and prints their name, certifying the vehicle will be insured and the information is correct.

   Watch out: Only the person applying signs. A seller signing here to speed things up is signing somebody else's certification, under a penalty clause that names a class B misdemeanor.

What gets this one rejected

• •Two boxes ticked in section I. The instruction is Check only one, and a sheet asking for both a title process and a registration change is a sheet the counter cannot process.
• •An applicant name that is not the buyer's legal name. Applicant Type and Applicant Number Type between them decide what identifier the department will accept, and a nickname with a driver's licence number attached is not one.
• •A co-applicant with no conjunction selected. The Must Select One block exists precisely for that, and the new certificate cannot be printed without it.
• •An odometer reading with no indicator ticked. Three boxes, one answer, and the department refuses a transfer without a completed disclosure where one is required.
• •Fees added up from another state's arithmetic. The tax line is 5% of the difference or subtotal, the title fee is printed on the form as $5.00, and the abandoned vehicle disposal fee of $1.50 belongs only to an initial North Dakota title - not to a car already titled here.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The credit plate number is how a seller's plate reaches the next car. Section III carries both an ND License Plate Number and a Credit Plate Number, and the second is the plate you removed from the vehicle you sold. Without it written here the department has nothing to calculate the credit from.
• •The signature is an insurance certification as well as an application. Section VI has the applicant certify that the vehicle will be insured as required by law and that the information set forth is correct, and it notes that submitting the application presumes the vehicle is being driven on North Dakota streets and highways.
• •A company applies through a person. If the vehicle is company owned, the company name and title of the authorized agent signing the application must be noted - the form says so directly above the signature line.
• •The exemptions live on the reverse and most of them need paperwork. Thirty numbered categories, from a gift between named relatives to a lease purchase, a tribal claim or a total loss settlement, and the majority carry a documentation requirement stated beside them.

Every line here was read off SFN 2872 (4-2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division 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 North Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in North Dakota involves.