Sell your car in Massachusetts — no notary, no forms to mail, and money back on your excise
Massachusetts keeps a private sale simple: no notary and no notice-of-sale form, and a properly completed title assignment is what protects you once the car is gone. The jobs after the handshake are about money: cancel the registration, hand the receipt to your insurer, and apply to your local assessors for the excise abatement on the rest of the year. Here's the whole thing, checked against the RMV's own instructions.
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Boston is the busiest Massachusetts market, and our Boston page covers selling a car there. Wherever you live, the excise abatement is claimed from your own city or town's assessors, not the RMV.
How to sell a car in Massachusetts
- 01Get the paper certificate in your hands. While a loan runs, Massachusetts usually holds the title electronically, so a paid-off car may have no certificate in your drawer yet. The lender has three days after you ask, and ten days at most, to release the lien and send it. If it doesn't, file the TTL100 Lienholder Complaint Form. Lost the title? A Massachusetts duplicate title is $25 on the TTL117, and the RMV won't issue your buyer a title on a duplicate until 15 days have passed. Once the title is in hand, you can list the car or get an instant cash offer here instead.
- 02Fill in the owner's assignment once, in ink. Everything you write goes in the block on the back headed Assignment of Certificate of Title by Owner: the price, the buyer's name and address, the mileage in whole miles (the No Tenths cell stays empty), your signature, your printed name and the date. The buyer signs and prints on the row below. No notary is involved. Don't tick the box saying the reading exceeds its mechanical limits unless it's true: on a car that isn't antique, the RMV adds 100,000 miles. Never leave the buyer's name blank, and stay out of the dealer-only blocks. Any alteration or white-out voids the assignment; the fix is a notarized TTL102 affidavit of correction or a $25 duplicate.
- 03Make the price provable. The buyer's TTLREG100 asks for the sale price with proof. The price on your assignment is that proof. Leave it off and you'll be writing a bill of sale after the car has gone. Write the real number: the Massachusetts car sales tax is 6.25% of the price or the clean trade-in book value, whichever is higher, and the RMV adjusts that value for mileage but never for condition. Gifting a car in Massachusetts? Close family use the MVU-26; anyone else, the MVU-24.
- 04Hand over the car and keep your plates. The plate is registered to you, not the car, and the registration expires the moment ownership transfers. So the plates come off, and nothing you hold passes to the buyer. Once the assignment is done properly and the buyer has the car, state law says you aren't liable for how it's driven, even before a new title is issued.
- 05Send the buyer to an insurance agent, then an RMV Service Center. The Massachusetts title transfer is the buyer's job. Their insurance agent, who must be licensed in Massachusetts, sells them a policy and stamps and signs Section K of the TTLREG100; that stamp is good for 30 days. They have 10 days from the sale to apply for the title, with $75 for the title fee and the sales tax, which is due by the 20th of the next month. Within 7 days of registering, they need the $35 Massachusetts vehicle inspection. The RMV's TTLREG105 checklist lists what they bring.
- 06Cancel the registration on myRMV. Massachusetts has no notice of sale or release of liability. Instead the law says the registration goes back to the Registrar forthwith, which today means cancelling it online. It's free and takes a few minutes; download the Registration Cancellation Receipt. If two owners are named on the registration, the online route is closed and both sign the REG100 affidavit. There's no Massachusetts license plate return: once the registration is cancelled, cut the plates in half or recycle them (the RMV's cancellation page).
- 07Tell your insurer second, not first. Send your insurance company a copy of the cancellation receipt, as the RMV asks. Drop the policy while the registration is still live and you invite a revocation, and the RMV charges $50 to reinstate after an insurance cancellation.
- 08Claim back the excise and part of the plate fee. Cancelling alone doesn't earn an excise abatement. Apply at your local assessor's office, with documentation. The plate fee is a separate claim on the REV105: a full refund if you cancel within 10 days of the registration's effective date, otherwise half of what's left minus a $15 charge, as long as you cancel before the first day of the seventh month.
Checked against the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in August 2026.
What Massachusetts requires when you sell
| Notary | Not required. The RMV's private-sale instructions ask both parties to sign and hand-print their names on the title assignment and date it, with the seller disclosing the mileage — a notary appears nowhere in the process. |
|---|---|
| The title form | The assignment lives on the certificate of title itself, and it has a line for the sale price. Fill it in: if the price is left off, the buyer needs a separate bill of sale showing the amount. The buyer then files the Registration and Title Application (RTA) — stamped by a licensed Massachusetts insurance agent — and must title the car within 10 days of purchase; their title fee is $75. |
| Bill of sale | Only sometimes. A Massachusetts bill of sale is needed in two cases: when the assigned title shows no sale price, or when the car is outside the title law, like a model year 1980 or older bought before 26 November 1990, which transfers on its old registration plus a bill of sale. The RMV publishes no bill-of-sale form of its own; our bill of sale guide covers what to put on one. Source: the RMV's private-sale checklist (TTLREG105). |
| Lost your title? | A duplicate costs $25, ordered online through the RMV's portal or by mail to the Title Division in Boston. Allow time: a duplicate posted from Boston can take longer than 30 days, and the RMV won't issue your buyer a title on a duplicate until 15 days have passed. If a long-paid-off loan still shows on the record, the RMV wants an original signed lien-release letter on the lienholder's letterhead — no faxes, no photocopies. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | There is no notice of sale or release-of-liability form in Massachusetts. What protects you is a properly completed title assignment and handing over the car: Chapter 90D section 15 then says you aren't liable for damage from its operation or for any motor vehicle law violation, even before a new title is issued. The registration expires on transfer and has to go back to the RMV forthwith, which today means cancelling it online the day the car leaves. Then give a copy of the cancellation receipt to your insurance company, and cancel the policy only after the registration. |
| Sell mid-year, get money back | Massachusetts charges an annual motor vehicle excise of $25 per $1,000 of value — and selling can earn a refund. Cancel the registration first, but that alone won't get it: you apply to your local assessors, with documentation, for an abatement for the months remaining in the calendar year. Sell in July, and August through December comes back. Keep proof of the transfer and the cancellation. |
| License plates | They stay with you, never the car: the registration expires the moment ownership transfers. Move the registration to your next vehicle within the 7-day grace period (owner 18 or older, same vehicle type, transfer documents carried in the vehicle), or cancel it. Once it's cancelled, cut the plates in half or recycle them. Don't mail them to the RMV. The RMV issues no temporary plates, so an unregistered buyer can't legally drive their purchase home. |
| Sales tax | Entirely the buyer's bill: 6.25%, and on a private sale it's charged on the greater of the actual price or the clean trade-in book value (adjusted for high mileage by the RMV), due by the 20th day of the month after the purchase. You collect nothing and owe nothing. |
| Inspections | Annual, statewide: one $35 Massachusetts Vehicle Check ($15 for motorcycles) covers the safety inspection and, for most vehicles under 15 years old, the emissions test in the same visit. A newly purchased vehicle needs its sticker within 7 days of registration — an obligation that lands on your buyer, not you. |
Every fee and rule above was checked against the RMV's private-sale instructions on Mass.gov current as of August 2026; the RMV's own page governs if a rule shifts after that.
No notary needed here, unlike a handful of states; a replacement title runs $25 — compare all fifty; what protects you after handoff; selling when the title is gone; or price the Massachusetts transfer in the fee calculator.
Asked by Massachusetts sellers
Do I need a notary to sell a car in Massachusetts?
No. Both parties sign the title assignment, hand-print their names, and date it, and the seller writes in the mileage. That's the entire ceremony — the RMV's private-sale instructions never mention a notary.
How do I protect myself after selling a car in Massachusetts?
Complete the title assignment properly and hand over the car. Under Chapter 90D section 15 you then aren't liable for how the car is driven, even before the buyer gets a new title. Next, cancel the registration, which takes a few minutes online and costs nothing. Massachusetts has no release-of-liability or notice-of-sale form; the cancellation is how the registration goes back to the RMV. Give a copy of the cancellation receipt to your insurance company, and cancel the policy only after the registration. Cut your plates in half or recycle them (the RMV doesn't want them back), then apply to your local assessors for your excise abatement for the months you no longer own the car.
Can the buyer drive the car home after I sell it?
Only on their own registration. Massachusetts issues no temporary plates, and your plates leave with you — so a buyer with no current registration can't legally drive the car on any public way. Buyers replacing a vehicle can run their existing plates on the new purchase for 7 days with the transfer documents in the car; everyone else needs an insurance-agent-stamped RTA processed first.
I lost the title. Can I still sell my car?
For a private sale, not until it's replaced, because the sale happens on the title itself. Order a $25 duplicate (form TTL117) through the RMV online or by mail to the Title Division in Boston, and allow time: a duplicate posted from Boston can take longer than 30 days, and the RMV won't issue your buyer a title on a duplicate until 15 days have passed. Selling to a dealership is the exception: the back of the TTL117 lets you assign the car to the dealer before the replacement is printed. If an old loan still shows on the record, budget extra time to get an original lien-release letter on the lender's letterhead, because the RMV rejects faxes and photocopies.
Can I get money back on my plates after selling a car in Massachusetts?
Yes, if the timing works, from the RMV's REV105 Rebate/Refund Application. Cancel within 10 days of the registration's effective date and the plate fee is refunded in full. Cancel later and half the remaining fee comes back after a $15 administration charge, as long as you cancel before the first day of the seventh month. The clock runs from the registration's effective date, not the sale date. The excise is a separate claim: cancelling doesn't abate it by itself, so apply at your local assessor's office.