Vehicle handover record for a private car sale (Germany)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
A handover record for a car sold privately in Germany, the companion to the sale contract. It records the date and hour of handover, the mileage, the fuel or charge level, visible damage, the keys and papers handed over (registration certificate Parts I and II, roadworthiness test report) and the price paid. It matters because tax, insurance and the registration stay with the seller until the notice of sale reaches the registration office. In German, for seller and buyer to print and sign.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Seller
- Seller's address
- Buyer
- Buyer's address
- Date of the contract
- Make and model
- Chassis number
- Registration plate
- Handover date
- Time of handover
- Whether the car is registered when handed over
- Odometer reading
- Fuel level
- Visible damage
- Notes on condition
- Number of keys
- Other documents and items handed over (service book, invoices, winter tyres)
- Price
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- Why does the German handover record note the time of handover as well as the date?
- Until the notice of sale reaches the registration office, the seller stays registered as keeper and owes the motor vehicle tax (§ 5(5) KraftStG). If the car is caught speeding or parked wrongly in that time, the date and hour of handover show that the buyer already had it. So report the sale the same day.
- Why describe the car's condition at handover in the German record?
- Whether there is a defect is judged by the condition at handover, when the risk passes to the buyer (§§ 434 and 446 BGB). If both sides record the mileage, visible damage and warning lights and sign, there is little room later to argue whether a scratch or a fault was already there or came afterwards.
- Should the hidden security codes of the German vehicle papers go into the handover record?
- No. The concealed codes on the registration certificate Parts I and II and on the plate stickers are used for online registration through i-Kfz, and whoever knows them can deregister or transfer the car online. The record therefore notes only that the papers were handed over; do not write down or photograph the codes.
- Is a handover record needed in Germany on top of the sale contract?
- It is not required by law. It is worth having when time passes between signing and handover, or when the price is paid only at handover: it then acts as a receipt for the papers and keys, the price paid and the exact moment of handover. Both sides sign and each keeps a copy.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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