It arrives as a reasonable question, usually from a perfectly pleasant person. They can pay part now and the rest when their salary comes in. Could they take the car and settle the balance then. Or the smaller version: could they leave a deposit so you stop showing the car to anybody else.
The answer to the first one is no, and the reason is not distrust. It is that a Dutch car sale has two moving parts, the money and the register, and the whole arrangement only works while they move together. For the mechanics of the register half, the guide to the RDW transfer covers who does what. This article is about what happens when somebody asks you to split the payment away from it.
One owner, one line in the register
The register does not do halves. On any given day the car is registered to exactly one person, and the switch happens in a single step.
The RDW sets out the consequences of that step on its page covering a transfer into a person’s name. The buyer performs the transfer, using your registration card (kentekencard) and the registration code (tenaamstellingscode), and once the vehicle stands in their name they carry all the obligations that come with it, insurance and the roadworthiness test (APK) included. Until that moment, those obligations are yours.
There is no version where the buyer owns half a car, or where the registration moves across in proportion to what has been paid. An instalment plan therefore does not slow the transfer down. It forces you to pick a side of that line to stand on while you wait for money, and both sides are bad.
Transfer now and wait for the rest
If you let the transfer go through on a part payment, you have handed over the only thing you had.
The car is registered to the buyer, legitimately. The keys are gone. What you are left with is a private debt owed by somebody who already has everything they wanted from you, and the car itself has stopped being yours to withhold. Collecting it is now a matter of letters, then of a court, over an amount that will not feel worth the effort while you are chasing it.
The parts that work in your favour work too well, in a sense. The road tax stops for you immediately: the Belastingdienst page on selling a motor vehicle explains that the RDW knows straight away once a vehicle has left your name, and that whatever you have overpaid comes back to you automatically. Your duty to insure ends with the transfer as well. Everything tidies itself up except the part you actually care about.
Keep it in your name and let them drive it
The other half of the choice is worse, and it is the one people drift into without deciding.
The buyer takes the car, the registration stays with you until the balance is paid, and for that whole period the car is legally yours. Road tax is billed to you, under the same Belastingdienst rule read the other way round: you pay for as long as the vehicle is registered in your name. The duty to insure it stays with you for as long as it stands in your name. Any fine the car picks up arrives on your doormat. You would also be insuring a car that somebody else drives daily, which is a conversation with your insurer you would have to have honestly.
You also stop knowing where the car is. That position carries every cost of ownership and none of the possession.
What a deposit actually binds
A deposit is not a reservation. It is evidence that you have agreed to sell.
The Rijksoverheid page on rights and duties under a purchase agreement is useful here, because it says two things that matter. The agreement comes into being when the two of you agree, and not when the money is paid. And a spoken agreement is an agreement. So the moment you say yes to a deposit, there is a deal, and the obligations run in both directions: the buyer owes you the price on receipt of the car, and you owe them the car.
That cuts against you as often as it helps. Take a deposit, then sell the car to the next person who offers more, and you are the one who has broken an agreement. The same page notes what a seller can claim when a buyer fails to pay, which includes collection costs and statutory interest, so the law is not indifferent to a buyer who walks away either.
What a deposit does not do is cap your exposure or buy the buyer an option on the car. Whether you may keep it when a buyer disappears depends on what the two of you agreed and on what the broken sale cost you, which is a factual question in every case. The free advice service Juridisch Loket covers that ground and answers in English.
Holding the car for somebody, written down
If you do want to hold the car for a week while a buyer organises their money, the arrangement is fine. Vagueness is the problem.
Write down, in an email or a short signed note, the things that will be argued about later:
- Both full names, and the number plate (kenteken)
- The mileage on the day you agreed
- The date the full amount must be in your bank account
- What happens on that date if it is not: the car goes back on the market
- That the car stays with you, in your name and on your insurance, until the whole amount has cleared
Then keep showing the car, and tell the buyer that is what you are doing. A viewer who knows there is a conditional agreement ahead of them either moves faster or stops wasting your evenings.
A buyer borrowing from a bank or a lender is a different case. There the lender pays the price in one payment and the instalments are between the buyer and the lender, which changes nothing about the order of events at the handover.
If you have already agreed to instalments
Nothing is lost while the card and the code are still in your pocket.
Those two items are what makes a transfer possible, so the register cannot move without you. Tell the buyer that the handover happens when the full amount shows in your own bank account, and that you will meet them on any day that is true. Most people accept it. The ones who argue hardest are the ones you were right to worry about.
If the car has already gone across and the second payment has not arrived, it belongs to the buyer and you are owed a debt. Write to them, keep it factual, set a deadline, and keep every message. The Juridisch Loket publishes sample letters for this sequence.
If one payment and one appointment is what you were after in the first place, ask us for an offer. The offer is free, nothing binds you until you accept, and you are paid before the car is loaded.
Frequently asked questions
Can I transfer the car and let the buyer pay me the rest later?
You can, and you would be giving away your only security. Once the vehicle is in their name they hold the car and all the rights to it, and your claim becomes an ordinary private debt.
Is taking a deposit a bad idea?
No, as long as you understand that it commits you as well. Accepting a deposit means you have agreed to sell, so write down the deadline for the balance and what happens if it passes.
Who pays the road tax if the car is still in my name?
You do. Road tax follows the registration, and the Belastingdienst refunds what you have overpaid for the period after the car has left your name.
What if the buyer never pays the second instalment?
If the car has already been transferred, it is theirs and you are pursuing a debt. Put the demand in writing, keep the correspondence, and get advice from the Juridisch Loket before deciding how far to take it.
The buyer says their bank transfer takes a few days. Should I hand over the car?
No. Wait until the amount is in your account and you have seen it in your own banking app. A payment that is on its way is not a payment that has arrived.
Can I ask for part of the money up front to cover a repair?
You can ask, and you are then in the same position as with any other split payment. Describing the fault and selling the car as it stands is simpler.