California seller guides
Paperwork Checklist for Selling Your Car in California
Two mistakes account for most of the expensive pain in California car sales: skipping the release of liability, so toll violations keep arriving in your name, and sloppy title or odometer entries that void the forms outright. This checklist is built to prevent exactly those two.
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The two expensive mistakes, named up front
Mistake one: no Release of Liability. After you sell, the car can collect parking tickets, red-light notices, and toll violations — and on Orange County's toll roads and express lanes, violations chase the registered owner. If you never filed REG 138, that owner is still you, and unwinding it takes far longer than the five minutes the filing would have. The release does not transfer the title; it releases you from liability for what happens after the sale date, which is precisely the window where a stranger is driving your old car.
Mistake two: errors on the title or odometer forms. A wrong name, a corrected figure, a mismatched mileage entry — some of this paperwork cannot be fixed with a pen stroke. REG 262, used when the title is unavailable, cannot be corrected at all: an error voids it and a fresh form is required. Sellers in Anaheim and Irvine who slow down for ten minutes at signing save themselves a second round of forms, signatures, and a buyer whose patience expired in round one.
The complete checklist
- Signed title, in your name, with buyer details, price, date, and odometer entered carefully at signing
- Valid smog certificate dated within 90 days before the transfer (unless an exemption applies)
- REG 135 Bill of Sale, completed and copied for your own records
- Odometer recorded on the title — or REG 262 when the title itself is unavailable
- REG 138 Release of Liability filed within 5 days of the sale, fastest online at dmv.ca.gov/nrl
- License plates handled correctly: standard plates stay with the car; personalized plates can be kept through the DMV
- Copies or photos of everything you signed, kept after the car leaves
The title: sign it like it cannot be edited — because it can't
The title is the ownership document, and every entry on it should match the buyer's identification and the actual sale: name, date, price, and the odometer reading you record as seller. Federal odometer disclosure is not required for vehicles 20 or more model years old, but accuracy matters for every car regardless. If your title is lost, order the duplicate before selling: REG 227 costs $28, arrives by mail usually within 15-30 days, and issuing it cancels the original — and if a lienholder is on record, the lienholder release section must be notarized. Our duplicate title guide covers that detour in full.
REG 135, the smog certificate, and REG 262
REG 135 is the Bill of Sale — the simple record of who sold what to whom, for how much, and when. Complete it even when a buyer says it is unnecessary; it is your cheapest evidence if the transfer is ever disputed. The smog certificate rides with the sale paperwork inside its 90-day validity window. REG 262, the Vehicle Transfer and Reassignment Form, steps in when the title itself is not available, such as while a lienholder holds it: it combines the odometer disclosure and a power of attorney on secure paper, and because it cannot be corrected, complete it last, slowly, and only with final figures.
After the car leaves: REG 138 and the plates
Within 5 days of the sale, file the Release of Liability (REG 138) — online at dmv.ca.gov/nrl is fastest — and keep the confirmation. That filing is your boundary line: violations after the sale date belong to the buyer, and in a county stitched with toll roads, that boundary is money. Full detail lives in our release of liability guide. On plates, the rule is simple: standard license plates stay with the car when it sells. If you have personalized plates you want to keep, you can retain them, arranged with the DMV — decide before the sale day in Santa Ana or Fullerton, not while the buyer waits with the keys in hand.
Paperwork questions
What happens if I forget to file the Release of Liability?
Tickets, toll violations, and other notices dated after the sale keep coming to you, because the DMV still sees you as the registered owner. On Orange County toll roads that exposure is real money. File REG 138 within 5 days of the sale, online at dmv.ca.gov/nrl. The filing releases your liability after the sale date — it does not transfer the title itself.
I made an error on the odometer form. Can I cross it out and initial it?
Not on REG 262 — that form cannot be corrected; an error voids it and a fresh form is needed. That is why odometer and title entries deserve a slow, final-figures-only pass at signing. Check the mileage, the buyer name, and the date before ink touches paper, because secure forms punish haste in a way ordinary paperwork does not.
Do the license plates go with the car or stay with me?
Standard license plates stay with the car when it sells. The exception is personalized plates: a seller can keep them, arranged with the DMV. Sort that out before sale day so the buyer is not waiting while you decide. Everything else about your post-sale duties is in the <a href="/guides/how-to-sell-your-car-in-california/">full selling guide</a>.
My title is lost. What do I need before I can sell?
A duplicate title through REG 227, which costs $28 and usually arrives by mail within 15-30 days; requesting it cancels the original, and if a lienholder is on record, the lienholder release section must be notarized. Order it before listing the car. Our <a href="/guides/california-duplicate-title/">duplicate title guide</a> walks through the form and the timing.
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