How to fill out North Dakota SFN 2877

This is the seller's half of a North Dakota transfer, published as a sheet of its own. Normally you never touch it: Part 1 is printed on the face of the certificate of title and that is where an ordinary sale happens. The loose version exists for the cases where the certificate's own Part 1 cannot carry the assignment - the Registration Manual names one outright, a repair-lien facility signing off as seller after a foreclosure sale. It is laid out in five numbered sections rather than the certificate's single banded panel - the vehicle first, then the buyer, the co-buyer, the seller and the co-seller - and it is headed with the department's instruction that it is to be completed by the seller and delivered to the buyer within 30 days of the date of sale.

Written against SFN 2877 (4-2026), issued under North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division; the assignment and warranty of title required of a transferring owner by NDCC 39-05-17(1). The single most important line on this sheet is the one that tells you not to use it. North Dakota requires an odometer disclosure on every vehicle of model year 2011 or newer, and this form excludes odometer-required vehicles in its own second note. That leaves a narrow band of vehicles it legitimately covers - which is why the completed example below is a 2009, not a modern car. If yours is newer and the certificate's Part 1 is unusable, the answer is the secure reassignment and odometer disclosure, which the department does not publish and will only issue on request.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SFN 2877 from the dot.nd.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SFN 2877 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Section I, the vehicle line

   Year, make, model, vehicle identification number and title number, copied off the certificate you are assigning.

   Watch out: Take the VIN from the certificate rather than the door pillar. If the two disagree, that is a conversation with the department before a sale, not a box to fudge.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Section II, the buyer's legal name

   Their legal name as their licence shows it, or a firm name for a lessor or trust, plus the driver's licence or FEIN number and a telephone number.

   Watch out: Tick which identifier you used. A number with neither box marked is one of the incomplete entries the footer says may be returned to the owner.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Section II, the buyer's address and county

   Mailing address, city, state, ZIP code and county - and the county is not optional decoration on a North Dakota form.

   Watch out: Print it legibly. The department reads this block as the record of where the vehicle went, and it is the address the new certificate is built from.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Or, And, or And/Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship

   One box, and only where the vehicle is going to more than one new owner.

   Watch out: Ask the buyers which they want. And means both must sign to sell it on; Or means either can; the joint tenancy box is the one that lets a survivor sell alone with a certified death certificate, and it is what couples usually intend.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Section III, the co-buyer

   A second buyer's legal name or firm name with their own identifier and telephone number. Left blank where there is only one buyer.

   Watch out: Two names with no conjunction ticked above is the commonest fault on this sheet - the department cannot print the new certificate until it knows how the two owners are joined.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Section IV, your signature and the date of sale

   Sign as the certificate names you, and date the day possession actually changed hands.

   Watch out: Sign nothing before the buyer's details are in. This sheet is the whole assignment, and a signed one with an empty buyer block is a transferable document you no longer control.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Selling Price (Required)

   The price the vehicle actually sold for, in the box the form labels Required.

   Watch out: This is the excise tax base and the department checks prices against an industry guide. A genuinely low price is explained on the bill of sale, which invites the explanation - not by writing a rounder number here.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Printed names, business name and telephone

   Every seller's printed name, a daytime telephone number, and a business name where the title stands in a company's name.

   Watch out: Print the name exactly as the face of the title has it, even if you have changed it since - the manual makes signing under the name on the title a rule of its own.

9. 9
   You fill this in

   The seller's address block, and Section V beneath it

   Your mailing address, city, state, ZIP and county. Below it, Section V takes the co-seller's signature and printed name.

   Watch out: Section V is required when the current title joins its owners with and. If your co-owner cannot attend, arrange it first - North Dakota publishes no power of attorney form, and the secure kind only works for a transfer when the title is lost or held by a lienholder.

What gets this one rejected

• •Using it on a modern car. The form's second note bars itself from odometer-required vehicles and sends you to the secure reassignment and odometer disclosure instead - which in North Dakota means anything model year 2011 or newer cannot go on this sheet at all.
• •Treating it as the buyer's application. The first note is equally blunt: this form cannot be used to replace the application for certificate of title and registration. It transfers your interest; it does not apply for anything.
• •Leaving the selling price blank. The label carries the word Required in brackets, and the department computes the buyer's excise tax from it.
• •A missing co-seller signature where the title says and. Section V spells out the trigger on its own face, and a single signature on an and title is an incomplete assignment.
• •Correcting an entry in place. The footer voids the form for an erasure or alteration - a fresh sheet is cheaper than the notarised statement that would otherwise be needed.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It is the seller who writes the buyer in. Sections II and III are the buyer's details and the seller's handwriting. The department wants the new owner's legal name and address typed or printed legibly because Part 1 is the record of who the vehicle went to, not a courtesy line for the buyer to fill in later.
• •The header is the shorter of North Dakota's two deadlines - and this sheet prints the longer one. This form says delivered to the buyer within 30 days of the date of sale, which is the statutory limit. The certificate of title itself heads its own Part 1 with fifteen days, and so does the Registration Manual. Where the two disagree, the fifteen printed on the paper in your hand is the one to work to.
• •Check One appears twice and means two different things. Once beside each name, choosing between a driver's licence number and a FEIN, and once in the middle of the buyer block, choosing the conjunction. They are unrelated, and ticking the wrong pair is one of the incomplete entries the footer warns about.
• •A company sells through a named agent. The Business Name line exists so a title held by a firm can be signed off by a person. The manual's rule is that a company title must be countersigned, with the agent's own title and the business name shown.

Every line here was read off SFN 2877 (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.