Transferring a vehicle title in Colorado

1. Check that the VIN printed on the title matches the VIN on the vehicle before you hand over any money, and look the vehicle up on the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System and the Motor Vehicle Verification System.
2. Print your name in the "Buyer's Printed Name" area of the Assignment of Owner section exactly as it appears on your Secure and Verifiable ID, and sign in the "Buyer's Signature" area. A first initial with a last name, and a "doing business as" name, are not accepted here.

• Check that the VIN printed on the title matches the VIN on the vehicle before you hand over any money, and look the vehicle up on the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System and the Motor Vehicle Verification System.Official page
• Print your name in the "Buyer's Printed Name" area of the Assignment of Owner section exactly as it appears on your Secure and Verifiable ID, and sign in the "Buyer's Signature" area. A first initial with a last name, and a "doing business as" name, are not accepted here.DR 2841Official page
• Complete a DR 2421 Statement of One and the Same if the name in the Assignment of Owner section does not match your Secure and Verifiable ID exactly.Applies when: Your name on the title and on your ID differ.DR 2421Official page
• Buy Colorado-compliant insurance before you drive the vehicle - at least $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident and $15,000 property damage. You cannot be issued a registration without proof of it.Official page
• Complete the DR 2395 Application for Title and/or Registration. You sign it under penalty of perjury in the second degree, record your Secure and Verifiable ID on it, and the person who checks that ID prints and signs as witness - most buyers complete it at the county counter.DR 2395Official page
• Complete a DR 2383 Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship Acknowledgment of Intent if the title will name more than one owner. Without it Colorado issues the title as tenancy in common, which sends a dead co-owner's share to their estate rather than to the survivor.Applies when: Two or more people will be named on the new title.DR 2383Official page
• Take the endorsed title, the DR 2395, the bill of sale, your Secure and Verifiable ID, proof of Colorado insurance and any passing emissions certificate to the motor vehicle office of the county where you live, within 60 days of the purchase date.Official page
• Pay the $7.20 title fee, the state and local sales tax on the purchase price, the registration fees and the specific ownership tax at the counter. The county clerk cannot issue title or registration until the tax is paid.Official page
• Ask for a temporary registration permit if you cannot title and register straight away - a temporary permit is what makes the vehicle legal on the road in the meantime, and it has no grace period when it expires.Official page
• Collect your green-and-white passenger plates and registration at the counter; any other plate type is printed on demand and mailed to you with the registration. The certificate of title is mailed afterwards - to your lienholder if you financed the purchase.Official page

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• Sign the Assignment of Owner section on the back of the Colorado Certificate of Title in the "Seller's Signature" area, and print your name in the "Seller's Printed Name" area exactly as it appears on the face of the title. A first initial with a last name is not accepted for a seller or a seller's agent.Official page
• If every owner is named on the front of the title, make sure all of them print and sign their names as seller.Official page
• Enter the odometer reading in the Assignment of Owner section and tick one of "actual mileage", "not actual mileage" or "mileage in excess of mechanical limits".Applies when: The vehicle is model year 2011 or newer and less than 20 years old. Vehicles 20 years or older, vehicles rated over 16,000 lbs gross weight, and trailers are exempt.Official page
• Write the date of sale and the purchase price on the back of the title - you can leave them off only if you also give the buyer a separate bill of sale.Official page
• Give the buyer a bill of sale showing the purchase price, date, VIN, year, make, model and both parties' names and signatures. It is required if the sale price is not written on the title, and the secure DR 2173 form is the only bill of sale that can carry the federal odometer disclosure.DR 2173Official page
• Complete a DR 2421 Statement of One and the Same if the name you printed as seller is not exactly the name shown on the face of the title.Applies when: Your printed name and the name on the face of the title differ.DR 2421Official page
• Get a passing emissions certificate and hand it to the buyer at the sale. It has to be one that has not already been used to register or renew a vehicle.Applies when: The buyer will register the vehicle in the emissions program area and the vehicle is more than seven model years old for petrol, or four for diesel - including the final year of the exemption, where a change of ownership triggers a test.Official page
• Take your license plates off the vehicle before the buyer drives away. Colorado plates expire on the transfer of title and cannot go to the new owner; leaving them on links you to the buyer's tolls, fines and any crime committed with the car.Official page
• Return the plates to your county motor vehicle office or recycle them with a metal recycler - or, if they are personalized, ask the county about moving them to your next vehicle.Official page
• Report the sale within 5 days through "Report Release of Liability" on myDMV, or at your county motor vehicle office. You need the plate number and the VIN or the verification code from your registration card. This is voluntary, but it is what removes you from liability for what the buyer does with the vehicle.Official page

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• Complete the odometer disclosure together in the Assignment of Owner section on the title, or on a secure DR 2173 bill of sale: the seller states the reading and certifies it, and the buyer looks at the vehicle's odometer to verify it before signing. If it is wrong, the seller has to obtain a new title to correct it - the Department warns this can end in "unfixable issues".DR 2173Official page
• Complete the DR 2710 Branded Title Disclosure Statement together before the sale - the seller lists every brand and signs, and the buyer signs to acknowledge receiving a copy.Applies when: The vehicle carries any title brand - salvage, rebuilt from salvage, non-repairable, flood, odometer tampered with, a brand from another state, or lemon law buyback.DR 2710Official page

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• The Colorado Certificate of Title, with the Assignment of Owner section completed by both partiesSigned and printed names for every owner named on the face of the title, the odometer reading and indicator, the buyer's printed name and signature, and the date of sale and purchase price unless a separate bill of sale carries them.
• DR 2395DR 2395 Application for Title and/or RegistrationSigned under penalty of perjury in the second degree, with the applicant's Secure and Verifiable ID recorded on it and a witness signature from whoever checked that ID.
• DR 2841Secure and Verifiable identification for the buyerDR 2841 is the Department's list of what counts - a Colorado or out-of-state photo license or ID current or expired a year or less, a U.S. passport or passport card expired less than ten years, a valid I-551 or I-766 card, a U.S. military ID, or a tribal ID with an intact photo.
• Proof of active Colorado vehicle insurance meeting the 25/50/15 minimumRequired before a registration can be issued, and because Colorado titles and registers in one transaction you need it at the title appointment.
• Payment for the title fee, sales tax, registration fees and specific ownership taxMost counties take cash, cheque, Visa, MasterCard and Discover; Weld and Yuma also take American Express, and card payments may carry a processing fee. Confirm with your own county before you go.

• Deadline60 calendar days from the date of the sale or transfer of ownership — Buyer: Apply for the Colorado title and register the vehicle within 60 days$25 for each month or portion of a month the vehicle stays unregistered, up to $100, plus prorated registration taxes and fees. C.R.S. 42-3-103(1) also makes failing to register within 60 days a class B traffic infraction.
• DeadlineYou may drive an unplated vehicle home for up to 36 hours after a private-party purchase from the time of a private sale made on a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday, or between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. — BuyerOnly if you are driving it from where the seller stored it to where you intend to store it, and you carry in the vehicle a bill of sale signed by both parties showing the time and date of sale, plus proof of insurance. Outside those conditions you need a temporary registration permit.
• Deadline5 calendar days from the date of the sale or transfer of ownership — Seller: Optionally report the sale within 5 days using "Report Release of Liability"

Colorado charges 2.9% state sales or use tax on a vehicle purchase plus whatever the buyer's city, county and special districts levy, and the county clerk cannot title or register the vehicle until it is paid - but a gift, and a vehicle a new resident brings in with them, are not taxed.

Inspection

Sometimes required

• Not required for an ordinary in-state sale of a vehicle that already carries a Colorado title.
• A DR 2698 VIN verification is required if the vehicle is coming into Colorado from another state.
• A DR 2704 Certified VIN Inspection is required if the title is missing, was never delivered, was signed by someone other than the owner on record, or is missing signatures or the odometer disclosure - that is the bonding-for-title route.

Colorado has no periodic safety inspection, but a vehicle arriving from another state needs a DR 2698 VIN verification before a Colorado title will be issued, and a vehicle with missing or defective ownership documents needs a full certified VIN inspection.

Emissions

Sometimes required

• The buyer will register the vehicle in Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas or Jefferson county, or in the program-area portion of Adams, Arapahoe, Larimer or Weld county.
• The gasoline vehicle is more than seven model years old - or is in the seventh and final year of its exemption, because a transfer of ownership in that last year triggers a test.
• The diesel vehicle is more than four model years old - or is in the fourth and final year of its exemption, for the same reason.
• The certificate must be a passing test "that has not been used previously to register a vehicle or renew a vehicle registration".
• Not required for kit cars, all-electric vehicles, motorcycles and autocycles, horseless carriages, street rods or farm vehicles.

Emissions testing applies only in the Denver-metro and North Front Range program area, and only to older vehicles - but where it applies the seller must hand the buyer a fresh passing certificate at the time of sale.

Notarization

Sometimes required

• Someone other than the owner of record will sign the title, the DR 2395 or the registration - the DR 2175 Power of Attorney for Motor Vehicle Only must be signed before a notary, and a photocopy of a general power of attorney is accepted only if the notary seal is visible on it.

Colorado does not notarize the title itself. The seller's assignment, the buyer's application and almost every DMV form are signed "under penalty of perjury in the second degree" instead - a notary is needed only for a power of attorney, a small-estate affidavit, and some lien releases.

Odometer disclosure

Required, unless you are exempt

• Required on every transfer of a model-year 2011 or newer vehicle for the first 20 years of that vehicle's life.
• Exempt: vehicles that are 20 years or older.
• Exempt: vehicles with a gross weight rating of more than 16,000 lbs.
• Exempt: trailers, which are not self-propelled.

The odometer disclosure is made in the Assignment of Owner section on the back of the title - or on the secure DR 2173 bill of sale - and for model-year 2011 and newer vehicles it is required on every transfer for the vehicle's first 20 years.

Colorado plates belong to the owner, not the vehicle: on a transfer of ownership the plates expire, the seller takes them off, and the buyer is issued new ones.

• The seller keeps the plates
• The seller surrenders the plates
• The buyer gets new plates
• The seller may move the plates to a replacement vehicle

Senate Bill 21-069 made the plates of Class C personal property expire on the transfer or assignment of the owner's title or interest, and they cannot be moved to another vehicle. The Department warns sellers to "ALWAYS remove their license plates to avoid liability for future accidents, tolls, and crimes committed with the vehicle." Old regular plates go back to your county motor vehicle office or to a metal recycler. Personalized, distinctive, group special and alumni plates, plates carrying a valuable registration number reserved under the Laura Hershey Disability Support Act, horseless carriage plates and fleet plates are carved out of the expiry rule and may follow the owner to another vehicle through the county office. An owner who wants to keep the same letter-number combination can surrender the expired plates and apply for personalized plates with that combination, at a one-time $60 personalization fee plus $25 at each renewal. Unexpired registration credit from a previous vehicle can be transferred, but only in person at the county - never online.

• In person at a county office

Colorado titles and registers in one transaction at the county motor vehicle office: "You must apply for a Colorado title for your vehicle before or at the same time you register it." A private-party buyer or a new resident does both in the same visit on a single form, the DR 2395 Application for Title and/or Registration.

• Start here on the Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) - certificates of title are issued by the county Clerk and Recorder's motor vehicle office in the county where the owner lives site
• Colorado Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) - certificates of title are issued by the county Clerk and Recorder's motor vehicle office in the county where the owner lives