Free Car Sale Receipt Template (UK): Private Sale PDF & Excel
The two-signature receipt that settles a private car sale: mileage, price, VIN and condition, recorded on the day by both parties.
A private car sale has no paperwork requirement beyond telling DVLA. That is exactly why disputes happen: weeks later the buyer says the mileage was different, or that you promised something you did not, and neither of you has anything in writing. This receipt takes two minutes and removes the argument.
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What's in the template
- Sale receipt: date and time of sale, make and model, registration, VIN, colour, mileage at handover, agreed price, payment method, deposit and balance, MOT expiry, V5C document reference, confirmation the V5C/2 green slip changed hands, and name, address and signature for both parties
- Condition noted at sale: bodywork, wheels and tyres, glass, interior, warning lights, service history, spare wheel, keys, declared faults and declared outstanding finance, each initialled by both sides
How to use it
Print two copies and complete both together, at the car, before money changes hands. Both parties sign both copies and each keeps one. Record the mileage from the odometer in front of the buyer rather than from memory, and photograph the dashboard showing the reading next to the completed form.
Then do the DVLA part properly. The seller tells DVLA the vehicle has been sold, and the buyer keeps the V5C/2 green new keeper slip until the new V5C arrives. Our guide to transferring the V5C when you sell covers the order to do it in, and the used car documents checklist covers what else should change hands.
Who must keep this record
Both of you, and for different reasons. The seller wants dated proof of the mileage and condition at handover, and proof of when responsibility passed. The buyer wants the price and the seller's declarations in writing, particularly the answers on outstanding finance and known faults. If the car turns out to be on finance, that written declaration is what a court will look at.
A private sale is not covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in the way a trade sale is, so a buyer has fewer routes to complain about quality. But the car must still match how it was described. "Sold as seen" does not protect a seller who described the car inaccurately, and it never covers a false mileage or a hidden finance agreement.
How long to keep it
Keep it for at least six years. That is the ordinary limitation period for a contract claim in England and Wales, and it is also long enough to cover the period when a mileage discrepancy would surface at a later MOT. Scan it the same day: paper receipts kept in a glovebox go with the car.