The one document in a Washington sale that belongs to the seller alone. It tells the Department of Licensing that the car has gone, and it is what stands between you and the next owner's parking tickets, tolls and towing bills. Nothing on it is signed and nothing on it is sworn - it is a notification, and the only thing that matters about it is that the department has it inside five business days of the sale.
Written against 420-062 (R/7/21), issued under RCW 46.12.650(2) and WAC 308-56A-525.
There is no fee printed anywhere on this form, and no amount is quoted on this page for that reason: it simply says to see dol.wa.gov for fee information and to include Report of Sale fees with this form when you post it. The figure is on the Washington paperwork page, sourced to the department's own fee table.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 420-062 from the dol.wa.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 420-062, rendered from the PDF the Washington State Department of Licensing publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Rendered from DOL's own PDF and completed end to end. Every name, address, plate and number on it is invented for the sample. Note what is missing: no signature line, no notary block, no witness - Washington asks the seller to file this, not to swear to it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Plate, decal or metal tag number
The number off the plates you are removing, letters and digits together.
Watch out: Read it off the plate itself rather than off memory. A transposed character files a report against somebody else's vehicle record.
2
You fill this in
Vehicle identification number
Seventeen characters, copied from the certificate of ownership.
Watch out: Take it from the certificate, not from the door jamb sticker. If the two disagree that is a problem to settle before the sale, not after.
3
You fill this in
Model year, make and model
Three boxes on the top row, matching what the certificate says rather than how the car is advertised.
Watch out: Trim levels belong in the advert. The department wants the make and the model, and nothing about the specification.
4
You fill this in
Certificate of title number
The number printed on the certificate you signed over.
Watch out: Write it down before the certificate leaves your hands. Once the buyer has it there is no way back to this number except by asking them.
5
You fill this in
Date vehicle sold
The date the buyer took the vehicle. Everything on this form runs off it.
Watch out: Count the five business days from this date and not from the day you got round to the paperwork. A Friday sale over a long weekend gives you until the following Friday; a Monday sale does not.
6
You fill this in
Sale price
What you were actually paid. A gift, an inheritance or a scrapping goes in as a zero.
Watch out: Leaving it blank is not the same as entering a zero. The instruction on the form is to enter 0, and the department's use-tax side reads this number.
7
You fill this in
Today's date
The date you are completing the report - a different box from the date sold, and usually a different day.
Watch out: Filling both boxes with the same date on a report you are filing four days later is the small inconsistency that makes a licensing agent read the rest more carefully.
8
You fill this in
Seller name and address
Your name as the department holds it on the vehicle record, and your current address.
Watch out: If you have moved since the tabs were last renewed, put the address the department can reach you at - this is the record they will use if the vehicle turns up abandoned.
9
You fill this in
Buyer name and driver licence number
Whoever took the vehicle. The licence number is marked if available and the report is complete without it.
Watch out: Ask for it anyway and copy it off the licence. It is the only identifying detail on the form that is not already in the department's system.
10
You fill this in
Buyer address
Street number and name, apartment number if there is one, city, state and postcode.
Watch out: A post office box on its own is allowed by the statute, but a box number tells you nothing if the car is later towed from somewhere and you are asked who has it.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Plate/Decal/Metal tag #
The number on the plates you are about to take off the car, including every letter and digit exactly as they appear on the plate.
Vehicle identification number
Copied off the certificate of ownership rather than off the dash, so that what you file agrees with what the department already has on the record.
Model year, Make, Model
Three separate boxes across the top row, next to the plate and the identification number.
Certificate of title number
The number printed on the certificate you have just handed over. Copy it before it leaves your hands - there is nowhere else to get it afterwards.
Date vehicle sold
The single most important entry on the page. Every deadline attached to this form counts forward from this date.
Sale price (enter 0 if gift or inheritance)
What actually changed hands. A gift, an inheritance or a car handed to a wrecking yard is entered as a zero rather than left blank.
Today's date
The date you are filling the report in, which is not the same box as the date sold and is frequently a different day.
Seller name, Address, City, State, ZIP code
You, as the registered owner the department currently has on the record - not the name you use socially.
Buyer name and Driver license number (if available)
The person or business taking the vehicle. The licence number is genuinely optional and the report is still properly filed without it.
Buyer Address, City, State, ZIP code
A complete address. The statute asks for street name and number, and apartment number if applicable, or post office box number, city or town, and postal code.
What gets this one rejected
•Arriving late. The report must be received within five business days of the sale, and Saturdays, Sundays and state and federal holidays do not count towards the five.
•A part-filled page. An incomplete report is still put on the record, but the rule warns that one which does not meet the requirements of the law may not protect the seller from any civil or legal action if the vehicle is subsequently abandoned or involved in illegal activity.
•A guess in the buyer block. Filing one without the knowledge of the transferee is fraudulent filing, and the form prints the statute for it on its own face.
•An address with no street in it. The statute asks for the street name and number, and the apartment number where there is one.
•Assuming the postmark counts. The clock stops when the department receives the form, not when you post it.
•Fixing a mistake by writing a second one. An error means going to a vehicle licensing office to explain it, having the report deleted, and filing a new one.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The deadline is in business days and three sources say so. The statute says within five business days, this form says within 5 business days of the sale on its own face, and the rule spells out that the five exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and state and federal holidays. Only the department's Sell a vehicle web page drops the word.
•Three ways to file, and only two of them leave you a receipt. Online, and you can print one. Over a counter at a vehicle licensing office, and you are handed one. By post, and there is nothing - the rule states in terms that when you mail a vehicle seller's report of sale to the department, you will not receive a confirmation or receipt.
•It covers far more than a sale. The same form is used for a vehicle given as a gift, traded privately or to a dealership, donated to charity, sold out of state, turned over to an insurance company or a wrecking yard, or simply disposed of.
•A dealer may file it for you, and may not have. A registered Washington vehicle dealer is allowed to file on behalf of an owner who trades a vehicle in, but it is not required to. The department's instruction is that it remains the owner's responsibility to confirm the report was submitted.
•It can be taken back off the record. As registered owner you may have a report of sale removed through a licensing office or by writing to the department, with a reason. That is the route for an error, not a second report filed on top of the first.
•It is not, by itself, proof the buyer took the car. Where nothing shows the buyer knew of or accepted the transfer, the statute says a report of sale is not proof of a completed vehicle transfer for the purposes of towing, storage and auction costs. A signed bill of sale is what closes that gap.
Every line here was read off 420-062 (R/7/21) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Washington State Department of Licensing pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
