Sell your car in Kentucky - notarized, recorded, and off your hands
Kentucky sells cars the notarized way: every signature on the title gets a stamp, the deal isn't finished until the buyer records it with a county clerk, and since 2024 your license plate stays with you when the car goes. None of it is hard once you know the order of operations - and if you'd rather skip the counter choreography entirely, a cash offer handles the paperwork for you.
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Louisville is Kentucky's busiest city, and our Louisville page covers selling a car there. Wherever you are in the state, the notary, plate and 15-day rules below are the same.
How to sell a car in Kentucky
- 01Turn the title over before you list the car. A Kentucky title issued since February 2000 has the transfer section, the odometer block and the price affidavit printed on the back. An older one needs a completed TC 96-182 to go with it. Read the front too: if the owners are joined by AND, every one of them signs and every one is notarized. Every Kentucky sale, even one where you skip the listing and take an instant cash offer here, ends with this certificate signed in front of a notary.
- 02Clear the lender and the property tax. A lender still named in the lien block on the front stops the sale until the loan is paid off. The paperwork that takes the lender off runs through the TC 96-187 Title Lien Statement, which you get from a county clerk's office - the state no longer posts it online. Whoever owned the car on January 1 owes that year's vehicle property tax, and if yours is unpaid the clerk can't process the buyer's transfer.
- 03Fill in the back of the title, but leave the signature lines empty. In blue or black ink, print the buyer's name and address, the mileage in whole miles, the date and the sale price. Write the real price: it is the figure the buyer's 6% usage tax is charged on, and a false one is a Class D felony with a minimum $2,000 fine. No white-out, cross-outs or erasing - a mistake is fixed with a notarized affidavit or a duplicate title. There is no exempt box for mileage, so never tick a warning box just because the car is old.
- 04Sign in front of a notary, usually at the county clerk's counter. A notary can't stamp a signature that was already on the page, so sign only when they are watching. The buyer signs their own half in front of a notary as well; each signature is notarized separately. County clerk staff notarize while you wait, which is why most Kentucky handovers finish there. KRS 186.190(3) also charges the seller a small transfer fee: $2 for the state and $6 for the clerk. An owner who can't get to a notary in person signs a TC 96-336 limited power of attorney in front of one wherever they are.
- 05Unbolt your plate: since 2024 it's yours. Since January 2024 the plate stays with you, and KRS 186.190(1)(a) says it may not remain on the vehicle. Move it to another vehicle of the same class that you own or lease for a one-time $11 fee, or hold it until its registration runs out. It goes back to the county clerk only if the registration had already expired when you sold (personalized plates excepted). Your buyer drives home on a temporary tag from a dealer or a county clerk, or on a plate they already own; a buyer who lives outside Kentucky can get a $5 transit tag, good for 15 days, from the state in Frankfort.
- 06Keep your insurance on it for about two weeks. The car stays registered to you until the buyer files, and Kentucky checks insurance against the VIN every month. A registration with no policy behind it gets cancelled, and reinstating it costs $40 at the county clerk.
- 07Your buyer records the transfer at their own county clerk within 15 days. There is no Kentucky DMV counter for this. The buyer takes the notarized title to the county clerk's office where they live, and the Kentucky title transfer has to be recorded within 15 days of the sale. They bring original proof of Kentucky insurance in their name issued within the last 45 days, a Kentucky driver's license, ID card or Social Security card, and money for the $9 title fee, the registration and the 6% motor vehicle usage tax - Kentucky's version of a car sales tax. A $25 speed title is printed and mailed the next business day.
- 08On day 16, file TC 96-3 if the buyer hasn't. Kentucky has no notice of sale or release of liability to file at the handover. If the buyer misses the 15 days, swear the TC 96-3 Affidavit of Incomplete Transfer in front of a notary and file it with the clerk in your own county, not the buyer's. The clerk then locks the record so nothing can be registered on the car until the transfer goes through. To see what happened to it later, request the vehicle record with TC 96-16A.
Checked against the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing in August 2026.
What Kentucky requires when you sell
| Notary | Kentucky is a notary state, and a strict one: signatures on the title assignment must be notarized, and the state warns flat-out that a signed, stamped title does not by itself transfer the vehicle - the buyer still has to record the transfer at a county clerk's office, and you remain legally liable until they do. Also: no white-out, no cross-outs. Any correction to a title requires a notarized affidavit, not a pen swipe. |
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| The title form | If your Kentucky title was issued since February 2000, the transfer application is printed on the title itself - nothing extra to hunt down. Older titles need form TC 96-182. The counter math is mercifully small: a $9.00 title fee, a transfer fee that KRS 186.190(3) puts on the seller - $2.00 for the state plus $6.00 for the clerk's services - and $2.00 per signature if the clerk handles the notarizing. Titling has to happen within 15 days of the sale, and an optional $25.00 speed title exists for the impatient. County clerks add some charges of their own; the Kenton County Clerk publishes its list. |
| Bill of sale | Kentucky has no official bill of sale form. The price record the state works from is the notarized affidavit of total consideration printed on the back of the title - or on TC 96-182 for a title issued before February 2000 - and the buyer's usage tax is charged on the price written there. A Kentucky bill of sale isn't on the list of what the buyer brings to the county clerk; if you want one as your own receipt, our bill of sale guide shows what to put in it. Source: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, vehicle titling. |
| Lost your title? | Replaced through your county clerk using form TC 96-182 for $6.00 plus the notary's cut. If the sale can't wait on normal processing, the $25.00 speed title option gets the replacement moving fast. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | Kentucky hands sellers a real weapon: form TC 96-3, the Affidavit of Incomplete Transfer. If your buyer hasn't completed the transfer the law requires within 15 days, swear the affidavit before a notary and file it with the county clerk in your own county, not the buyer's. It states that you assigned the title to a named buyer on a named date and asks the clerk to revoke the vehicle's registration until the buyer finishes the paperwork. The clerk's authority for that is KRS 186A.215(4); the KRS 186.180(4) printed on the 2020 form has covered reinstating insurance-revoked registrations since June 2025. One calendar note with teeth: whoever owns a vehicle on January 1 owes that year's vehicle property tax on it. |
| License plates | Since January 2024, the plate belongs to you, not the car - remove it at the sale. Move it to another vehicle of the same class that you own or lease for a one-time $11 fee, or hold onto it for the rest of its registration period. It goes back to the county clerk only if the registration had already expired when the car changed hands (personalized plates excepted). The buyer gets the car home on a temporary tag from a dealer or a county clerk, or on a plate they already own. |
| Sales tax | The buyer's bill, not yours: Kentucky's 6% Motor Vehicle Usage Tax is collected by the county clerk when ownership transfers, and the clerk cannot register the vehicle or issue plates without it. On a used car it's figured on the price written in the notarized affidavit of total consideration printed on the back of the title (on TC 96-182 for a title issued before February 2000). Leave the price blank or unsworn and the Department of Revenue values the car from its own reference manual instead - and may bill the buyer additional tax plus penalty and interest. Details at the Kentucky Department of Revenue. |
| Inspections | None to sell a Kentucky-titled car to a Kentucky buyer - no safety test, no emissions test, nothing. The only inspection anywhere in the titling process is a sheriff's VIN inspection, and it applies solely when a vehicle arrives in Kentucky on an out-of-state title; the Kenton County Clerk lists it at $15.00. |
Form numbers and the 15-day clock above were checked against the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's vehicle titling page as of August 2026. The Cabinet publishes no fee page for an ordinary transfer, so the title and transfer fees come from Kentucky statute (KRS 186A.130 and KRS 186.190) - county clerks add some charges of their own, so confirm locally before you drive over.
Kentucky is one of the few states that wants a notary — see the full list; a replacement title runs $6 — compare all fifty; what protects you after handoff; whether you need a bill of sale; or price the Kentucky transfer in the fee calculator.
Asked by Kentucky sellers
Do I need a notary to sell a car in Kentucky?
Yes - the signatures on the title assignment must be notarized, and an un-notarized transfer gets bounced at the clerk's counter. Any notary works, and the county clerk will stamp it for $2.00 per signature while the buyer is there recording the transfer anyway. Two warnings from experience: don't sign anything before the notary is watching, and never touch a Kentucky title with white-out - corrections require notarized affidavits.
How do I protect myself if the buyer never transfers the title?
File form TC 96-3, the Affidavit of Incomplete Transfer, with your county clerk. It's built for exactly this: once the buyer blows past the 15-day transfer window, the notarized affidavit puts on record that you assigned the title and asks the state to revoke the vehicle's registration until the buyer completes the paperwork. And watch the calendar - whoever owns a vehicle on January 1 owes that year's property tax, so a buyer who stalls into the new year is stalling on your dime.
What happens to my license plate when I sell my car in Kentucky?
Since January 2024, it stays with you - take it off before the car leaves. You can move it to another vehicle of the same class that you own or lease for a one-time $11 fee, or keep it until its registration runs out if you have nothing to put it on yet. It only has to go back to the county clerk's office if the registration had already expired when you sold (personalized plates are the exception). Your buyer isn't stranded: they leave on a temporary tag from a dealer or a county clerk, or on a plate they already own.
Who pays the sales tax on a private car sale in Kentucky?
The buyer, at 6% - Kentucky calls it the Motor Vehicle Usage Tax, and the county clerk collects it at transfer and won't issue plates without it. Your part is the price: you write the real sale price in the affidavit of total consideration on the back of the title and sign it in front of a notary, and that figure is what the buyer is taxed on. Leave it blank or unsworn and the Department of Revenue taxes the buyer on its own reference-manual value, which is nearly always higher than a private sale price. Write a false figure and it's a Class D felony with a minimum $2,000 fine.