Buying and selling a vehicle means making a major purchase. Depending on your budget and the car you are buying, that could be anything from a few hundred dollars to many thousands, so you need to make sure everything is above board and legal.
What do we mean by a Bill of Sale? This is a document that records transfer of the vehicle from one owner to another, and copies should be kept by both the seller and the buyer. Note that the Bill of Sale is different and in addition to the Title papers, which you need to complete by law to transfer ownership of the car.
If this sounds daunting to you, don’t worry. An excellent website called Off-Road Freedom has templates for Bills of Sale for every state in the USA, and you can download and use the appropriate one free of charge.
Is it necessary to draw up a Bill of Sale? If you want to be safe in your transaction it is, so let’s look at why.
Is It Really Necessary?
A Bill of Sale uses simple, everyday language to confirm that the vehicle has changed hands. Let’s consider a possible problem: the new driver injures a pedestrian, or a passenger, and lays the ownership of the vehicle on you. If you did not have the Title to the car, and did not provide a Bill of Sale, this could be a tricky situation and one you don’t want to be in.
A Bill of Sale effectively forms a contract between buyer and seller. If done correctly, this contract is legally binding. The manner of setting out the contract may differ from state to state, but there are four basic factors a contract needs to cover to be valid in the eyes of the law, these being: an Offer, Consideration, Acceptance, and Competence and Legality.
Let’s deal with the last one first, as it is very important. Each party in the transaction must be of legal age and competent to take part in such a transaction, and they must be willing and not forced. That should be pretty clear!
What constitutes an ‘Offer’? It is actually the full agreement to exchange the vehicle, applied to both sides of the deal, for either money or other goods. Consideration comes next, and is the actual amount of money or goods that are require to complete the deal. And finally, Acceptance which is where you both sign the Bill of Sale.
It’s not a complex transaction and with help from Off-Road Freedom you can find templates for every state, for cars and other vehicles such as a Trailer Bill of Sale, and make sure that your sale goes through without any hindrance.
Have a look at the range of templates now and remember, if the Title is present, you need to sign that and register it by law, so don’t forget to do this while completing your Bill of Sale!