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Signing Over A Car

ORC 4505.06 — a signed title is not a transferred one

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Handing somebody a signed title and taking their money feels like the end of a sale. On the record it is the middle of one, and the gap that follows is where the problems live.

The assignment has to be notarised, not just signed. Signatures on the assignment of ownership have to be affirmed or sworn in the presence of a notary public or somebody else authorised to administer oaths. A title signed across a kitchen table with nobody watching is not an assigned title, whatever both parties intended by it.
The transfer completes when a new title is issued, and that is the buyer's step. The seller assigns; the buyer applies. Until the buyer goes and gets a new certificate issued, the record still shows the seller. There is a late filing fee where the new title issues more than thirty days after the date the assignment was notarised, which tells you the state expects it to happen inside that window rather than whenever the buyer gets round to it.

The date of notarisation is therefore doing two jobs. It makes the assignment effective, and it starts the thirty days. A notary date left blank, or filled in later, moves both.

The odometer statement is required, with named exceptions. A completed odometer disclosure is required from a seller, and the exceptions are specific rather than general: a bequest, a transfer under the laws of intestate succession, a transfer to a survivor or to a transfer on death beneficiary, one made in connection with creating a security interest, and a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating over sixteen thousand pounds.
StepWho does it
Complete the assignment of ownershipThe seller, before a notary
Odometer disclosureThe seller, unless a named exception applies
Apply for a new certificate of titleThe buyer
Thirty days from the notarisationAfter which a late filing fee applies

“What date was the assignment notarised, and has a new title been issued.”

Titles for vehicles bought out of state, salvage and rebuilt salvage titles, liens recorded on a title, transfer on death designations, and what to do about a lost title each have their own provisions and forms and are not on this page. Every county clerk of courts runs its own title office and publishes its own fees. What a particular transfer requires, and what happens where a buyer never applies, are questions for the title office in the county or for a licensed Ohio attorney.

Sources for this section (1)
  1. ORC 4505.06 — Applying for a certificate of title, and the notarised assignment it takes

Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.

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