Selling your car privately

Selling your car privately is not a matter of exchanging cash for keys, Its a matter of paperwork, following the correct procedures and most importantly, being SAFE.

Im going to skip the part of cleaning and prepping a vehicle, in this article I will only discuss the technicalities.

Heres a Free Private Sale Agreement for selling a car.

If you decide to sell you car privately this is what you need to know:

• First of all, make sure you have the following
  • A yellow form, available at your local traffic department.
  • The original registration document
  • An agreement of sale, you can find one here
  • If you are not the title holder, make sure they are present.
• Secondly, advertise your car. There are lots of classified websites that offer a free service, you can also list your vehicle for sale here and we will advertise it for you free of charge
• One you've found a buyer and a price has been agreed upon you need to consider payment options very carefully,
  • Cash payments are unsafe, your life is worth much more than your car.
  • Online EFT is safer but in most cases transfer from different banks could take up to 48 business hours to clear and a transfer can be cancelled.
    Unless you can really trust the buyer, do not hand over the vehicle until you are certain the funds have been cleared.
  • Cheques can bounce.
  • In my opinion, the best method of payment is for the buyer to do a direct deposit into your account, this way the funds are available immediately, it is non reversable and you can safely hand over the vehicle and neccesary documentation. 
• Complete all the paper work
  • Complete Section A,B and C of the yellow form, A is for the seller, B for the buyer and C for the vehicle (This is for the traffic department)
  • Complete an agreement of sale or receipt (This is for the buyer and seller as proof of purchase and sale)
  • Copy buyers ID, if the buyer is purchasing a vehicle for the first time, the traffic department will require his or her ID for the change of ownership.
• Finishing up
  • Supply the buyer with the original registration document and agreement of sale
  • Say your good-byes
  • Furnish the yellow form (change of ownership) to the local traffic department immediately or atleast within 21 days of sale

Some tips

Keep a copy of the registration document, on your copy write the following and let the buyer sign below: Original received buy: buyers name .

Furnish the yellow form to the traffic department immediately, failure do to so could result in unwanted traffic fines.

Be transparent with the buyer, if there are faults with the car, inform the buyer clearly and note the faults down on the "Agreement of sale"