Sell your car in Minnesota: plates stay, report it in 10 days
Minnesota is honest about what it does to cars: a ten-year-old vehicle here has survived a decade of salt, cold starts, and freeway miles. Whatever your odometer or your rocker panels say, there's a real cash number waiting — and the paperwork is simpler than most sellers expect, with no notary and no inspection anywhere in the process.
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Selling in Minneapolis? Start with our Minneapolis page. The title steps on this page are the same in every Minnesota city.
How to sell a car in Minnesota
- 01Find the current green title. Minnesota prints its titles on green security paper, and you have to sign over the most current one: a duplicate cancels every title issued before it. Lost yours? Apply for a Minnesota duplicate title on PS2067A. Most deputy registrar offices print one while you wait, and by mail it's $21.50. If something on the title is printed wrong or has been written over, fix it before the sale with PS2025A. There's no Minnesota vehicle inspection or emissions test to book first. Rather not list the car at all? You can get an instant cash offer here instead.
- 02Bring the lien card or a notarized release. A Minnesota lien never carries over to the next owner. If a lender is printed on the front of the title, the buyer needs a release for each one: the lender's lien card, a notarized letter on the lender's letterhead, or a notarized PS2017. That Minnesota lien release is the only notarized paper in an ordinary sale.
- 03Leave the plates on the car. In Minnesota the plates and the registration tax you've already paid go to the buyer (Minn. Stat. 168.15), so don't unbolt them. There are two exceptions. A special plate you paid extra for, such as a personalized one, can move to another vehicle you own for $5 with PS2010; do that before the sale. And if the buyer lives in another state, the plates come off, you report the car as removed from the state, and the buyer gets a 60-Day Non-Resident Permit to drive it out.
- 04Hand print, sign, and never correct. The Minnesota title transfer happens in the assignment of ownership block on the title. Hand print your name, then sign. Every owner named on the front does the same, whether the names are joined by OR or AND. Add the date of sale, the purchase price in the sales tax declaration area, and the damage disclosure, which every vehicle needs. On a 2011 or newer model, write the mileage in whole miles and tick one of the three odometer boxes; 2010 and older are exempt. No notary, no witness. Don't sign until everything is filled in, because any alteration voids the title. If you're handed a PS2000A application, its section B repeats this assignment and is the only part you sign.
- 05Keep the Notice of Sale stub and photograph the buyer's ID. Have the buyer fully complete the Seller's Notice of Sale portion of the title, then keep it for your records. Take a copy or a picture of the buyer's ID, as DVS asks. Photograph the whole assignment block too: the stub carries the buyer's details but not the mileage, the price or the disclosures.
- 06Report the car sold online, the same day if you can. Minn. Stat. 168A.10 gives you 10 days to report the buyer's name, address, driver's license number and the date of sale. Minnesota DVS (the office many people still call the Minnesota DMV) now wants that done by reporting the vehicle sold online. Don't leave it to day ten: subdivision 5 of the same law says an owner who has delivered possession and complied within 48 hours is not liable as owner for damages from the buyer's driving. Reporting doesn't transfer ownership; only the buyer's filing does. Sold to a licensed dealer? You don't need to mark it sold. Then cancel your insurance on the car.
- 07Tell the buyer about their 20 days at a deputy registrar. The buyer fills in the application half of the same title and takes it to any deputy registrar office within 20 calendar days. After that there's a $2 late transfer penalty, and DVS will suspend the registration if the paperwork and fees aren't in within 30 days. The buyer pays the Minnesota vehicle sales tax, 6.875% of the price you wrote (or $10 on a passenger car 10 or more model years old when the price and the market value are both under $3,000), plus about $37 in fees. You collect none of it. If the price was below the car's value, the buyer explains why on PS2080A.
Checked against Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services in August 2026.
What Minnesota requires when you sell
| Notary | No notary needed. Minnesota titles transfer by handprinting your name and signing in the assignment area — no stamp, no witness. The single exception: if a lien still shows on the title, the transfer must travel with a lien release card or a notarized lien release form. |
|---|---|
| The title form | There's no separate one for the seller: the transfer happens in the assignment of ownership block on the certificate of title itself. You hand print and sign, add the date and the purchase price in the sales tax declaration area, and complete a damage disclosure (all vehicles) plus an odometer disclosure (model year 2011 and newer). The PS2000A application repeats that assignment in its section B, the only part a seller signs. Your own deadline is the 10-day Notice of Sale; the buyer then has 20 days to file the transfer. Typical transfer fees per DVS: $8.25 title fee, $10 transfer tax, $12 filing fee, plus a $3.50 public safety fee, a $2.25 tech surcharge and a $1 local office surcharge at a counter, about $37 before tax. Source: DVS vehicle fees. |
| Bill of sale | Not required, and there's no state form. Minnesota doesn't ask for a bill of sale on a car sale, and DVS publishes no official Minnesota bill of sale. What the law asks of you is the signed assignment on the title and the Notice of Sale within 10 days. If you want a written record of the price anyway, here's what a bill of sale should cover. Source: Minn. Stat. 168A.10. |
| Lost your title? | File form PS2067A — $21.50 total by mail: the $7.25 duplicate title fee plus the $12 filing fee and the $2.25 technology surcharge. Deputy registrar offices can print a duplicate the same day, and if a newly issued title never reached you, DVS waives the fee when you apply within six months of issuance. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | Minnesota's seller shield is the Notice of Sale under Minn. Stat. 168A.10. The law gives you 10 days to report the buyer's name, address, driver's license number and date of sale. DVS now asks you to have the buyer complete the Notice of Sale stub on your title, keep that stub, and report the vehicle as sold through DVS online services. Move fast: subdivision 5 says an owner who has delivered possession and complied within 48 hours is not liable as owner for damages from the buyer's driving. Reporting the sale does not itself transfer ownership; the buyer still has to complete the title work. Sold to a licensed dealer, you don't need to mark it sold. Source: DVS. |
| License plates | Plates stay on the car. When you sell, the plates and any remaining registration taxes are assigned to the new owner under Minn. Stat. 168.15, so don't unbolt them on the way out. Two exceptions: a special plate you paid extra for can move to another vehicle you own for a $5 transfer fee, and if the buyer lives in another state the plates come off and the buyer gets a 60-Day Non-Resident Permit. |
| Sales tax | The buyer's problem, not yours: Minnesota's 6.875% motor vehicle sales tax is paid by the purchaser when the title transfers at a deputy registrar office. Old cheap cars get a break — a flat $10 in-lieu tax covers passenger vehicles at least 10 model years old with both price and market value under $3,000, and collector-plated vehicles (Collector, Classic, Street Rod, Pioneer) pay a flat $150. |
| Inspections | None. Minnesota requires no safety inspection and no emissions test to sell or register a passenger vehicle — the Twin Cities' carbon monoxide testing program was repealed in 1999 and never came back. |
Rules current as of August 2026 — confirm the details on the official Minnesota DVS title transfer page before you sign anything.
No notary needed here, unlike a handful of states; a replacement title runs $7.25 — compare all fifty; what protects you after handoff; whether you need a bill of sale; or price the Minnesota transfer in the fee calculator.
Asked by Minnesota sellers
Do I need a notary to sell my car in Minnesota?
No. Minnesota asks you to handprint your name and sign the assignment area of the certificate of title, and that's the whole ceremony. In an ordinary sale the only notarized paper that can come up is a lien release, if the title still shows a lien, and even that can be the lender's lien card instead. Notary blocks appear only on forms for unusual transfers, such as the surviving spouse affidavit PS2071.
What is the Minnesota Notice of Sale, and what happens if I skip it?
It's the report that tells DVS who bought your car and when: the buyer's name, address, driver's license number and the date of sale. Minn. Stat. 168A.10 gives you 10 days. DVS now asks you to have the buyer fill in the Notice of Sale stub on the title, keep that stub, and report the sale through DVS online services. Do it quickly: the statute's protection from liability covers an owner who has delivered possession and complied within 48 hours. Skip it, and the state still has your name attached to a car you no longer control.
Can I sell my car in Minnesota if I lost the title?
Not without replacing it first, but replacement is fast. File form PS2067A — $21.50 total by mail — or walk into a deputy registrar office, where duplicates can print the same day. If a title you were owed never arrived at all, apply within six months of issuance and DVS waives the fee.
Do I take my license plates off when I sell?
Leave them on, in almost every case. In Minnesota the plates and any remaining registration taxes go with the vehicle to the new owner under Minn. Stat. 168.15. There are two exceptions: a special plate you paid extra for can move to another vehicle you own for $5 if you do it before the sale, and if the buyer lives in another state, the plates come off and the buyer gets a 60-Day Non-Resident Permit. Sellers who learned the rule in a plates-follow-the-owner state often assume otherwise, so it is worth checking before you reach for a screwdriver.