How to Submit the Texas Vehicle Transfer Notification (VTR-346)

The Texas Vehicle Transfer Notification, Form VTR-346, is a free one-page filing you submit to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles after selling, gifting, or trading a vehicle. File it within 30 days of handing the vehicle over, and state records show the buyer as the presumed owner, which gives you a complete legal defense against anything that happens with the vehicle afterward. You can file online at TxDMV.gov/VTN, mail the form, or drop it off at a TxDMV regional service center.

What Filing Actually Does for You

When TxDMV receives your notification within 30 days of the transfer, the buyer becomes the presumed owner on state records. That presumption means the buyer, not you, is treated as responsible for parking tickets, toll violations, and any civil or criminal liability tied to the vehicle’s use, operation, or abandonment. The statute goes further and gives you a complete defense in any action brought against you for what the new owner does with the vehicle.¹

Without the filing, your name stays on the vehicle in state records. If the buyer never gets around to titling it in their own name, you can end up hearing from toll authorities, insurance companies, or law enforcement about incidents you had nothing to do with.

Filing is technically voluntary for a private seller. The statute doesn’t penalize you for skipping it, and skipping it doesn’t create liability on its own.¹ But without it, you lose the statutory protections. Since the form is free and takes only a few minutes, there’s no real reason not to file.

The 30-Day Deadline

The 30-day clock starts on the date you deliver the vehicle to the buyer, not the date you sign the title or receive payment.¹ Filing within those 30 calendar days is what triggers the liability presumption. If you mail the form, the deadline refers to when TxDMV receives it, so online submission is safer late in the window.

If you’re already past the 30-day mark, file anyway. The form itself notes that TxDMV will still update your record after 30 days.² You won’t get the full statutory shield of a timely filing, but having a dated record of the sale on file is far better than nothing.

What You Need Before You Start

Gather these details before you sit down with the form or open the online portal:

The full 17-character VIN, from the driver-side dashboard or the door jamb sticker. The online portal only asks for the last four characters, but the paper form requires the complete VIN.
The Texas license plate number that was on the vehicle at the time of sale.
Year, make, body style, and model. Year and make are required; body style and model help TxDMV match the record.
The title or document number from the face of your Texas title. Optional, but useful if the system has trouble matching your vehicle.
The exact date you delivered the vehicle to the buyer.
Whether you kept your plates.
Your full legal name as it appears on the title, plus your address and phone number.
The buyer’s full legal name, address, and phone number. If two people bought the vehicle, both names go on the form.²

The statute specifically requires the buyer’s full name, address, and telephone number for the 30-day protections to apply.¹ If any of those three fields is blank, TxDMV may not treat the notification as a qualifying filing. Ask for the buyer’s phone number and address at the time of sale and write them on your bill of sale so you have them when you file.

One warning printed on the form: falsifying information on the VTR-346 is a third-degree felony under Texas law.²

How to Submit the Notification

TxDMV asks you to use one method only. Don’t file the same transfer both online and by mail.²

Online

The fastest option. Go to TxDMV.gov/VTN, which routes to the online portal.³ You’ll enter the plate number, the last four characters of the VIN, and the current owner’s name as shown on the title. The system pulls up the vehicle record so you can confirm it, then walks you through the remaining fields. Online submissions do not require a signature or a date of signing; the statute exempts electronic filings from those requirements.¹ You get an immediate on-screen confirmation to save.

By Mail

Print and complete the paper form, sign and date it, and mail it to:

TxDMV Vehicle Titles and Registration Division
PO Box 26417
Austin, TX 78755-0417²

Because the 30-day clock ends when TxDMV receives the form, not when you drop it in the mailbox, give yourself several days of cushion or file online instead.

In Person

TxDMV operates 17 regional service centers across the state that accept the notification in person.⁴ These are TxDMV facilities and are separate from your county tax assessor-collector’s office. Check hours before you go.

Keep Your Confirmation

Once TxDMV processes the notification, its records show the transfer date and the buyer’s information.⁵ Save the online confirmation as a screenshot or printout. If you mailed the form, keep a copy along with any postal tracking.

This confirmation is your proof if anyone later tries to hold you responsible for the vehicle. If a toll authority, insurer, or law enforcement agency contacts you about a vehicle you already sold, respond in writing with a copy of the filing confirmation and your bill of sale. A timely filing is a complete defense under the statute.¹

Filing Does Not Transfer the Title

The VTR-346 tells the state that the vehicle changed hands. It does not transfer the title. The buyer still has to apply for a new title at their county tax assessor-collector’s office, and TxDMV will not issue a title or register the vehicle until the buyer takes that step on their own.¹ That’s exactly why the notification matters: if the buyer drags their feet on titling, your filing is what keeps the vehicle off your record.

Other Things to Handle When You Sell

The notification is one piece of the sale. A few other tasks belong on the same day:

Sign over the title. Fill in the buyer’s name, sale price, odometer reading where required, and your signature on the back of the title. Don’t leave ownership fields blank; an open title creates problems for the buyer and is a hallmark of title fraud.
Record the odometer reading. Federal law requires an odometer disclosure for any vehicle with a 2011 or newer model year; vehicles from model year 2010 and older are exempt under the previous 10-year threshold.⁶
Keep a bill of sale. Texas doesn’t require one by statute, but a bill of sale showing the buyer’s name, address, phone number, sale price, and date protects both sides and is where you’ll pull the buyer information you need for the VTR-346.
Handle your plates. Texas plates belong to the owner, not the vehicle. You can transfer them to another vehicle you own or return them to your county tax assessor-collector’s office.
Cancel or move your insurance once the title is signed and the notification is filed. Have the bill of sale ready so the insurer can confirm the vehicle is no longer yours.
Remove the vehicle from any toll accounts, including TxTag, NTTA TollTag, or EZ TAG, so you aren’t billed for the new owner’s travel.

Handle all of this the same day you complete the sale and you won’t need to chase the buyer for information later. The worst case is selling a vehicle, forgetting to file, and finding out months down the road that the buyer never registered it, leaving you as the owner of record with no easy way to reach them.

1
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code Section 501.147
2
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Texas Motor Vehicle Transfer Notification
3
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Buying or Selling a Vehicle
4
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Regional Service Centers
5
Legal Information Institute. 43 Texas Admin Code 217.8 – Second-Hand Vehicle Transfers
6
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Consumer Alert – Changes to Odometer Disclosure Requirements