NJ Title Transfer After Buying a Car in New Jersey

This procedure sits in the records family covered by New Jersey name change, records, and ID documents. A title transfer in New Jersey is a counter transaction: the seller signs the back of the certificate of ownership and pulls the plates, the buyer signs the same document, and a Motor Vehicle Commission agency issues a new title in the buyer’s name once the fee and the sales tax are paid.

What the seller and the buyer each do

The Motor Vehicle Commission splits the transaction into two sets of obligations. A seller signs the seller’s section on the reverse of the title, removes the license plates from the vehicle, and gives the buyer a bill of sale showing the buyer’s name and address, the date of sale, the odometer reading, and the sale price, according to MVC guidance on transferring vehicle ownership. Plates belong to the seller, not the car. A seller can move them to another vehicle or surrender them at an agency.

The buyer signs the buyer’s section on the same side of the title and enters a driver license number, or an Entity Identification Number when a business is buying. Nothing in this transaction works by mail. The buyer appears at a motor vehicle agency in person with the assigned title and the rest of the paperwork.

Mileage is not optional paperwork. 49 U.S.C. § 32705 requires the person transferring a vehicle to disclose its mileage in writing, and the implementing rule at 49 C.F.R. § 580.5 places that disclosure on the title itself, signed by the seller and then acknowledged by the buyer.

The ten-working-day clock

New Jersey does not leave the timing to the parties. The buyer carries the deadline, and the penalty lands on the buyer rather than on the seller who already walked away with the plates.

Until the title is in the buyer’s name, the buyer has no registration and no plates for the vehicle. That is the practical pressure behind the deadline: the car sits until the paperwork is done.

Documents and fees at the agency

Every pre-owned title transfer starts with the same short stack of documents. The MVC pre-owned vehicle title requirements list the properly assigned title, a completed Vehicle Registration Application (Form BA-49), proof of New Jersey insurance, and the buyer’s driver license or other identification document. A Power of Attorney is required when someone other than the purchaser signs.

As of 2026, the title fees published by the MVC are $60 for a standard vehicle, $85 for a financed vehicle with one lien, and $110 for a financed vehicle with two liens. A registration fee is charged separately and varies by vehicle type. Agencies take cash, check, money order, and major credit cards.

1. Check the assignment on the back of the title

   Both signatures belong on the reverse of the certificate of ownership: the seller’s in the seller’s section, the buyer’s in the buyer’s section. The assignment also carries the sale date, the purchase price, the odometer reading, and the buyer’s license number. An erasure or a correction in white-out on the assignment is the most common reason a transfer gets rejected at the counter.

2. Complete the Vehicle Registration Application

   Form BA-49 registers the vehicle in the buyer’s name at the same visit. The MVC pre-owned title checklist treats the registration application as part of the same transaction rather than a separate errand.

3. Bring proof of New Jersey insurance

   The insurance identification card must show the buyer as the insured and the vehicle being titled. Coverage has to be in place before the agency issues plates.

4. Add the Universal Title Application if there is a lien or a lease

   Form OS/SS-UTA records the lienholder or lessor on the new title. A financed vehicle carries a higher title fee, and the lender receives the title while the loan is open.

5. Pay the title fee, the registration fee, and the sales tax

   The clerk calculates sales tax from the purchase price written on the title assignment. A price that looks understated for the vehicle invites a later notice from the Division of Taxation.

Sales tax, gifts, and family transfers

Sales tax is collected at the agency, not by the seller. The Division of Taxation’s motor vehicle casual sales guidance puts the rate at 6.625% of the purchase price of a new or used vehicle, effective January 1, 2018. The figure written on the purchase price line of the title assignment is what the clerk taxes, and the Division sends questionnaires when a reported price looks far below the vehicle’s value.

A vehicle handed over as a gift is treated differently. The casual sales guidance exempts a gift from sales tax when the vehicle carries no lien, and the transfer is marked as a gift on the purchase price line of the title. Where a loan balance rides along with the vehicle and the recipient was not already a co-owner, tax is due on the principal loan amount assumed.

Plates are a separate question from title. A registration already in force can be transferred to an immediate family member for a $4.50 fee, which the MVC ownership transfer page lists alongside the standard $60 title fee.

When the owner on the title has died

An inherited vehicle follows the estate, and the documents the agency wants depend on whether the title was held jointly and whether there was a will. Every one of these paths starts with a New Jersey death certificate, so ordering certified copies early keeps the rest from stalling.

Where a spouse or partner was a co-owner on the title, the surviving owner signs the existing title and presents it with a copy of the death certificate, a notarized affidavit on Form BA-62, and the $60 title fee, as set out on the MVC ownership transfer page. The notarization is a real requirement rather than a formality, and the affidavit has to be signed in front of a New Jersey notary rather than signed in advance.

Where there was no co-owner, the estate’s representative signs. An executor named in a will presents the title, a Surrogate’s Short Certificate, and identification. When there is no will, the MVC ownership transfer page allows an Affidavit of Surviving Spouse, Domestic Partner or Civil Union Partner, bearing the county surrogate’s raised seal, for an estate of $50,000 or less, and an Affidavit of Next of Kin for an estate of $20,000 or less passing to heirs. Larger estates move through an administrator with an Administrator’s Short Certificate. Any lien noted on the decedent’s title is paid before a new title issues, unless the lien is being carried over to a sole owner.

An owner who wants to skip probate for a vehicle entirely can file a Transfer on Death Beneficiary Form during their lifetime. The named beneficiary later presents that form with the title, the death certificate, and a Universal Title Application.

Liens, leases, and vehicles bought outside New Jersey

A lienholder holds the title while a loan is open, so a buyer financing a purchase does not walk out of the agency with the document. The lien is recorded through Form OS/SS-UTA, and the MVC pre-owned title requirements treat a one-lien and a two-lien vehicle as separate fee categories.

Vehicles bought out of state add documents rather than change the procedure. A vehicle purchased from an out-of-state dealer needs the dealer reassignment paperwork and the purchase order when no New Jersey dealer tax stamp appears on the title. A vehicle from a state that does not issue titles needs a notarized statement from the seller describing the vehicle, a VIN tracing or photograph, and the last registration card. An auction purchase adds the auction house’s Power of Attorney and the dealer reassignment documents.