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When a car changes hands, the seller completes the NCO form to notify the registering authority.
The form sets out the timing plainly: the seller must furnish this notice to their registering authority within 21 days of the date the vehicle was sold. Separately, the buyer must apply for registration on the RLV form within 21 days of purchase.
Two people. Two deadlines. Two forms.
TrafficForms fills the NCO in for you — for both parties, from your own documents.
Takes a few minutes · Your documents stay yours · Deleted after processing
NCO stands for Notification of Change of Ownership / Sale of Motor Vehicle. It's how the register is told that a vehicle has changed hands.
The form is divided into parts, and this is where most of the confusion lives: the seller completes parts A and C, the buyer completes part B, and the seller hands over the current registration certificate to the buyer.
Both sides have to be filled in. A form with only one half completed doesn't do its job.
Two people, two sets of documents, and a form that has to keep them straight — this is where mistakes happen.
Upload the seller's ID, the buyer's ID, and the vehicle's registration papers. TrafficForms reads them all and places each party's details in their own section of the official form — the seller's information into the seller's fields, the buyer's into the buyer's.
You review it together on screen, adjust anything, preview it, and download it ready to print and sign.
Your source documents are deleted the moment they're read. Nothing is stored, and nothing is submitted on your behalf.
Two things the form makes clear, and they're easy to miss.
The seller has 21 days. The notice must reach the seller's registering authority within 21 days of the sale. Until that's done, the register still shows the car in the seller's name.
The buyer has 21 days too — but a different form. The buyer applies for registration on the RLV form, within 21 days of the purchase, and that application must be accompanied by the current registration certificate.
So the NCO alone doesn't complete the transfer. The seller notifies; the buyer registers. Both steps, both deadlines.
The NCO carries a note worth knowing: in terms of regulation 53, no person may buy, sell, or trade an unregistered or unlicensed motor vehicle.
If the car's licence has lapsed, that's worth sorting out before the sale rather than after.
The form states the notice must be furnished to the seller's registering authority within 21 days of the date the vehicle was sold.
No. The seller notifies with the NCO; the buyer applies for registration separately, on the RLV form, within 21 days — with the current registration certificate attached.
The seller completes parts A and C. The buyer completes part B. The seller hands the current registration certificate to the buyer.
The form notes that regulation 53 does not permit buying, selling or trading an unregistered or unlicensed vehicle. Worth resolving before the sale.
The form makes provision for an executor, proxy or representative, and acceptable identification for that person is needed.
Yes — NCO stands for Notification of Change of Ownership. It's what people usually mean when they search for a "change of ownership form" or "transfer of vehicle ownership form" for the seller's side of a sale. The buyer's side is a separate form, the RLV.
The buyer's next step? See the RLV guide.
Licensing the vehicle once it's yours? See the ALV guide.
Want the whole seller + buyer process in one place? See the full walkthrough guide.
Takes a few minutes · Your documents stay yours · Deleted after processing