Vehicle sale agreement, private used car sale
Vehicle sale agreement template
A dual cab ute is changing hands between two people on the Central Coast for $28,500. No dealer, so no statutory warranty and no guarantee of clear title. What the buyer gets instead is five written warranties, a register certificate number, and a mechanic's report obtained before the balance moves.
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Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Cover and parties
- A contract cover naming the vehicle, the seller and the buyer, dated, then a paragraph confirming neither party is a motor dealer and this is a private sale.
- The vehicle
- A seven row identification table: make and model, year, body and colour, registration and expiry, vehicle identification number, engine number and the odometer reading at sale.
- Price and payment
- A stats row for price, deposit, balance and handover date with a note that no GST applies, then the deposit clause, the cleared funds rule and what happens if either side walks away.
- What the seller warrants
- Five numbered warranties: sole ownership, no money owing with the certificate number and date, no write off or theft or hire use, a genuine odometer, and no undisclosed structural damage.
- No statutory warranty in a private sale
- A warning panel comparing a licensed dealer sale with a private one, and naming the three things that protect a private buyer instead.
- Condition and disclosure
- Both inspection dates including the independent mechanical report, four faults disclosed by name, what is included and what is being removed before handover, and no warranty after that.
- Handover and registration
- A four step timeline: checks against this agreement on the day, the seller's notice of disposal, the buyer's fourteen day transfer with duty, and what happens to the compulsory third party cover.
- Risk, tolls and plates
- Risk passing when the balance clears and the keys change hands, who wears a toll or fine on either side of that moment, and confirmation the plates are standard issue.
- General
- Whole agreement so nothing in the advertisement or a text message survives, New South Wales law, signed copies, who pays what, changes initialled on both copies, and warranties surviving handover.
- Execution
- A paragraph confirming the disclosures were read and the inspection obtained, then a signature block each with a line for the licence number.
- Handover receipt
- A block completed on the handover date once the balance has cleared, recording the odometer on the day so it can be compared with the reading in the identification table.
Clauses in this document
What makes this document work
The certificate number sits inside the warranty
Warranty two does not say the vehicle is free of finance and leave it there. It quotes the register certificate obtained by the buyer on 10 October 2026, number 74102889B, searched against the vehicle identification number, and says it returned no registrations. If that later turns out to be untrue, there is a dated document showing exactly what was relied on.
The deposit clause cuts both ways
If the buyer misses the 19 October deadline the seller keeps the $2,000 and moves on. If the seller sells it to someone else first, the deposit comes back within two business days and the seller pays a further $500 towards the wasted inspection. Most private sale documents only punish one side of that.
The document does not expire at the handover
Clause 2.4 ends any general warranty once the keys change hands, and clause 4.6 keeps the five specific warranties alive and recoverable after it. Underneath, a handover receipt records the odometer on the day, which is the number that proves the reading in the identification table was still true a week later.
Questions people ask
Do you need a written agreement for a private car sale?
Nothing forces one, but a private sale gives the buyer no statutory warranty and no dealer guarantee of clear title. A written agreement is what turns the seller's spoken assurances about finance, write off history and odometer into terms that can be enforced afterwards, and it gives both people a dated record of what the car had and did not have on the day.
Who pays stamp duty on a used car in New South Wales, and how much?
The buyer pays it when the registration is transferred. Duty is worked out on the purchase price or the market value, whichever is higher, at $3 for every $100 up to $44,999, then $1,350 plus $5 for every $100 above $45,000. On the $28,500 in this agreement that comes to $855, which clause 4.4 puts squarely on the buyer.
How long does the buyer have to transfer the registration?
Fourteen days from acquiring the vehicle, after which a late transfer fee applies on top of the transfer fee and duty. The seller has a separate job: lodging a notice of disposal, which is what takes them off the record so later tolls, fines and infringements follow the car rather than the previous owner.
When should a buyer run the register search?
As close to handover as possible. The buyer protection in the personal property securities law is measured against what a search by serial number would have shown between the sale and the start of the previous day, so a search run a fortnight early can miss a registration made since. Note too that a commercial interest may be registered against the owner's name rather than the vehicle identification number, in which case a serial search alone will not reveal it.
Why does the agreement cover tolls and plates?
Because both keep running after handover and both bill the registered owner. This document deals with them in the risk clause, alongside insurance. A seller who does not settle the toll tag and the plates on the day is the person who receives the fines from a car they no longer own.
What is the handover receipt at the end for?
It records the moment the car and the keys actually changed hands, which is usually days after the agreement was signed. This document closes with one, signed by both parties. It fixes the odometer reading and the date, and those two facts settle most disputes that arise afterwards.
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