GEARED – Car Registration – Making it yours

Home > Cars > Car Registration – Making it yours

Registering Your Car

Registration! It’s one of those things every vehicle on the road in NSW needs to have. Why you may ask? Registration protects everyone against fraud and theft, as well as ensuring that vehicles are insured for any damage they might do to other people in a crash.

If you have bought a car or are planning to buy one, first of all congratulations. Secondly before you can make the car offically yours you’ll need to register it in your name. This needs to be done within 14 days of buying the car – and the sooner it’s yours, the better, right?

Depending on whether you’ve bought a brand new car, or picked up a great second-hand deal, you’ll need to do either of two options:

Transfer the car registration into your name (if it’s a used car), or
Organise a new registration (if it’s a new car)

Transfer registration

Transferring registration or 'rego' is simple and easy, when you transfer the rego online at myRTA.com – as long as the seller lodges a Notice of Disposal first. So before you part ways, it’s best to make sure the person selling you the vehicle has completed the Notice of Disposal.

How to transfer the rego online

Once you know the Notice of Disposal (NOD) has been lodged, visit myRTA.com
Click on Pay rego now (beneath the heading Need to renew your rego?)
Beneath the Transfer registration option, click on the green Go button

Note: If you don’t have a myRTA.com online account, this is the time to set one up. You can do it quickly and easily while you’re already online. You’ll just need your driver licence.

If you haven’t done business with Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) before, you’ll need to go to a motor registry, provide proof of identity and be set up as an RMS customer.

Follow the prompts to transfer the rego. Make sure you’ve got the rego papers handy with all the details.

Register a new car

If you’ve decided to buy a new car from a dealer, most of them will be able to organise the rego forms for you. They’ll provide you with the relevant forms and details when you buy the car.

The dealer will ask you to complete an Application for Registration form and provide you with a Certificate of Registration once registration is completed.

Registering an unregistered car that you want to drive

If you buy an unregistered car, or if your own car has been unregistered for more than three months, you’ll need to go to a motor registry and set up a new registration.

You’ll need to take the following:

A completed application registration form (you can get this from any registry)
Proof of your identity
Proof of your address
A valid green slip – click here for details
A blue slip – click here for details
Proof that you have bought the car. This can be:
- The Certificate of Registration completed and signed on the back by the previous owner
- A bill of sale from an auction house or motor dealer;
- A completed Notice of Disposal signed by the last owner of the car.
- A letter or receipt from the person or organisation you bought the vehicle from that clearly shows;
  - Seller’s name
  - Seller’s address
  - Seller’s signature, and which also includes
  - Your details
  - The date the vehicle was sold,
  - The selling price.
- The letter or receipt must also include;
  - The plate number (unless there are no plates on the car)
  - VIN or chassis number,
  - Engine number of the vehicle.

As well as the registration fee, you’ll need to pay stamp duty if the car wasn’t previously registered in your name. Stamp duty is usually three per cent of the price of the car.

So whether it’s a new or a used car, as long as you follow the steps above, the car will be offically yours in no time.

If you need to cancel your rego, click here to find out how.

TALK TO US

Here at GEARED, we love to read your comments and suggestions – even your complaints! You can send us questions, suggestions for articles... anything you like, to geared@rta.nsw.gov.au