Selling a car privately in Australia: what every state actually requires

This is a guide. General information, not legal advice — the rules differ in every state and territory and change, so check your own transport department. Full note

Selling a car privately in Australia isn't one process. It's eight.

The inspection rules differ, the deadline for telling your state you've sold the car differs, the transfer fee differs, and duty is calculated on a completely different basis depending on which side of a border you're standing. No federal rule governs any of it.

That's why so much of the advice online is wrong somewhere: it's written for one state and presented as national. The most common error is the claim that a roadworthy certificate is required to sell a car in Australia. In four of the eight jurisdictions, it isn't.

Here's what each one actually requires, taken from its own transport department.

If you remember one thing: your state's notice of disposal is the step that protects you. Until it's lodged, your state still has the car in your name — and so does everyone issuing fines and tolls.

Do you need an inspection to sell?

This is where the myth lives, and the true answer has two parts.

Victoria is the only state where the seller must supply the certificate. Consumer Affairs Victoria is unambiguous: you must provide a Certificate of Roadworthiness that is less than 30 days old if you are selling a registered vehicle. That's the seller's obligation and the seller's cost.

But Victoria isn't the only state that requires one at all. Three others do, on their own terms:

Queensland requires a safety certificate to complete the sale — valid 2 months or 2,000 km for a private seller. It removed the older requirement to hold one merely to advertise in 2021, and a lot of pages still describe the old rule.
The ACT requires an inspection for any vehicle over six years old, or an imported vehicle. The certificate is valid one month.
The Northern Territory requires one for light vehicles seven years and older. Either the buyer or the seller can obtain it, and it's valid six weeks. This regime changed on 9 February 2026, so older guides describe something that no longer applies.

Four jurisdictions require nothing. In New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, no inspection is needed to sell a registered light vehicle privately. NSW is emphatic about it — transferring a current NSW registration needs no safety inspection report, despite the persistent belief that a "pink slip" is required. Tasmania's position covers a Tasmanian-registered vehicle sold within Tasmania; an interstate sale is a different question, and worth checking before you agree to one.

How long you have to notify your state

Every jurisdiction wants the seller to lodge a notice. The deadlines are not uniform, and two of them are half the length of the rest.

7 days — Western Australia and Tasmania

Western Australia is the tightest and the most explicit about consequences: lodge the seller's copy of the transfer form within seven days, or face a $100 infringement (Department of Transport). It's the only jurisdiction where we could confirm a specific dollar figure — other states warn that penalties apply without publishing an amount, so don't read WA's clarity as leniency elsewhere.

Tasmania also gives you seven days.

14 days — NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the NT

New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory all give you fourteen days.

The ACT — check before you rely on a deadline

Access Canberra sets out the notice of disposal on its selling page, and we could not find a stated deadline for lodging it. That isn't the same as there being none — confirm with Access Canberra directly. Either way, lodge it the day you sell and the question doesn't arise.

Who lodges first, and can you do it online?

A detail that causes more confused phone calls than anything else on this page.

Queensland's online transfer is a strict two-step, and the seller goes first. If you haven't lodged your disposal notice, the buyer literally cannot complete their transfer.

New South Wales is similar: the buyer can transfer online but needs a NSW licence, and your notice has to be in first.

Victoria's transfers are now seller-initiated through myVicRoads, so the whole process starts with you.

The ACT has no online transfer for private individuals — it must be done in person. The Northern Territory is in person, by email or by mail.

Western Australia (DoTDirect), South Australia (mySA GOV) and Tasmania all support online transfers.

Transfer fees and duty

The transfer fee is the buyer's, and the spread is real: at the low end, the Northern Territory at $20 and Western Australia at $20.50; at the high end, the ACT at $51.70, where lodging late adds a substantial non-refundable fee on top. South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria sit between. New South Wales indexes its fees periodically, so read the current figure rather than one quoted elsewhere.

Duty is where the states diverge most, and not by a little. The basis of the calculation differs, not just the rate:

New South Wales — per $100 of value, with a higher rate above a threshold
Victoria — per unit of value, with different rates by vehicle class
Queensland — by engine cylinder count, so a four-cylinder and a V8 of the same value pay different duty
Western Australia — a sliding percentage of value
South Australia and Tasmania — value bands, with different rates by vehicle type
The Northern Territory — a flat 3%
The ACT — banded by the vehicle's CO₂ emissions, not value alone. The ACT Revenue Office has recently revised these, so treat any rate you find elsewhere as out of date.

The buyer pays duty, but it's real money to them and it will come up in the negotiation. Rates change often enough that you should read the current figure on the state's own revenue page rather than trusting any third-party summary — including this one.

Your state, in detail

Each of these covers one jurisdiction end to end — what to do before you advertise, the paperwork, the deadline, what the buyer pays, and the local traps:

How to sell a car privately in NSW — no pink slip needed, 14 days
How to sell a car privately in Victoria — you supply the roadworthy, under 30 days old
How to sell a car privately in Queensland — safety certificate to sell, not to advertise
How to sell a car privately in WA — 7 days, and form MR9 asks more of you than most
How to sell a car privately in SA — no inspection, 14 days
How to sell a car privately in Tasmania — 7 days, and the EV duty concession has gone
How to sell a car privately in the ACT — inspection over six years, in-person transfer
How to sell a car privately in the NT — rules changed in February 2026

Two things worth knowing wherever you are

Write a receipt. No state requires it. It's still the document that establishes who owned the car and from when, which is what you'll want if a fine arrives or a buyer comes back weeks later. Names, date, price, VIN, odometer reading, both signatures. Two minutes.

Take the buyer's details from their licence. You need their name and address for the notice of disposal anyway. If the name doesn't match what they told you, that's a reason to stop the sale.

Where the online advice goes wrong

Worth naming, because it'll save you a bad decision:

"You need a roadworthy to sell a car in Australia." Wrong in NSW, WA, SA and Tasmania.
"You need a pink slip to sell in NSW." Wrong. It's a renewal requirement.
"Queensland needs a safety certificate before you advertise." Out of date since 2021 — and still stated on at least one Queensland government page, which is why we cite the regulation instead.
"The notice of disposal deadline is 14 days." Not in WA or Tasmania, where it's seven.
NT inspection rules published before February 2026 describe a regime that no longer exists.

Check the date on anything you read about this, including this page.

What this means if you're selling on MotorLoop

The paperwork is between you and your state — no marketplace changes that. What we can do is the rest: listing a car on MotorLoop is free, and buyers message you in the app so your phone number stays private until you choose to share it.