Your car is on paper for one reason: nothing has changed its registration since the plastic card came in. The paper is still a valid registration document. The RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, will not make you replace it, and a buyer can put the car into their own name on the strength of it. What the paper changes is where the transfer happens, and how much slack the handover day needs.
The full list of what crosses the table on the day sits in the paperwork for a sale. This is about the paper itself.
Work out which pieces you are holding
Open the envelope before you open a conversation with a buyer. Paper registrations (kentekenbewijs) came in two generations and the labels are not the same, which is why sellers describe their own documents wrongly over the phone.
A number issued between 1 June 2004 and 1 January 2014 came as three pieces: Vehicle Certificate part IA for the car, Certificate of Registered Ownership part IB for the owner, and Transfer Certificate part II. A number issued before that came as Vehicle Certificate part I, Certificate of Registered Ownership part II, and a Transfer Certificate, which on a number issued before 1 January 1995 is labelled Copy Part 3. The RDW sets all of this out on its page about the registration certificate, with pictures of the older documents.
Two of those pieces move the car. The RDW asks a buyer at the counter for the original Certificate of Registered Ownership and the Transfer Certificate, and originals is the operative word. Photocopies and photographs achieve nothing.
The vehicle part and the ownership part are also the two you are supposed to be carrying when you drive. The transfer certificate belongs at home, which is exactly why so many of them are lost: it has spent a decade somewhere other than the car.
Nothing about a paper registration goes through a website
The RDW is blunt about it. With a paper registration certificate you cannot transfer the registration online, and the buyer has to go to a registration desk (kentekenloket) or an RDW service desk. The same page lists what they take with them: the original documents, plus a valid Dutch driving licence, identity card or passport.
Say that out loud before you agree a time. A buyer who has read about doing this on their phone in ten minutes needs to hear that their afternoon includes a counter, because the version where they turn up, discover the problem and leave annoyed is the one that wastes your day as well.
There is an upside, and it is worth engineering for. Go with them. Stand at the counter, watch it happen, and walk back out holding the proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs). A paper registration forces the one route where you do not have to chase that document out of somebody afterwards.
Converting to a card first is allowed, and usually beside the point
The RDW runs a voluntary exchange. Its page on exchanging a paper registration for a card attaches two conditions: you hold the complete three part paper registration, and no card has ever been issued for that vehicle. It is not compulsory, and nobody at the RDW is going to chase you about it.
Read the next line twice, because it is the part that catches sellers who are trying to be helpful. During the exchange period, which the RDW caps at fourteen days, you cannot sell or export the vehicle. Suspending it is still possible. The old paper has to be destroyed once the card and the new registration code have arrived.
So the sequence people reach for, convert it so the buyer can do everything online, puts a locked door between you and the sale at precisely the moment you have a buyer interested. If you have a date in the diary, leave the paper alone. If the car is going nowhere for months and you would rather be on a card for your own reasons, convert it then, while the calendar is empty.
We do not need you to convert anything. A car on paper is a car we buy.
If one of the pieces has gone missing
Then the car leaves paper behind, whether you wanted that or not.
The RDW puts it plainly on its page for a lost registration certificate: losing part of the paper registration, the transfer certificate being the usual casualty, means you need a new registration certificate. What arrives is a card, with a new nine digit registration code (tenaamstellingscode) following it automatically. Paper is not reissued.
Three details on that request matter to a seller.
It is identified by the reporting code (meldcode), four digits, which the RDW warns is not the nine digit registration code. The documents travel by post to the address the municipality (gemeente) holds for the registered owner, and the RDW notes that an old address printed on a certificate is not a problem in itself. And the request cannot be cancelled or refunded, so the transfer certificate you unearth the following week is already worthless.
The RDW also accepts a request filed by somebody you have authorised, if going online or into a counter yourself is not possible. The documents still go to the registered owner’s address.
Your number plate (kenteken) is untouched by any of this.
What happens to the paper on the day
It is surrendered and it does not come back. The RDW issues a registration card every time a vehicle changes owner, so your buyer leaves the counter with a registration report carrying the first part of their new code, with their card and the rest of the code to follow by post. You leave with the proof of transfer.
That document is the only thing in the whole errand that travels towards you, and it is the one that decides whether a parking fine dated next week is yours or theirs. Documents first, proof of transfer second, car and keys last. The order is not negotiable, and a counter visit makes it easy to keep.
If you would rather hand the whole thing to a buyer who does this every week, ask us for an offer and tell us the car is still on paper when you do.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to convert the paper registration before I can sell?
No. Paper is a valid registration and the RDW does not require an exchange. Converting also closes the sale off for up to a fortnight, because the RDW does not allow a sale or an export during the exchange period. Leave it as it is.
My transfer certificate is missing. Can the sale still go ahead?
Yes, after a request to the RDW. Losing any part of the paper registration means applying for a new registration certificate, and what you receive is a card plus a new registration code. It comes through the post to your registered address, so order it before you promise anyone a date.
Can my buyer do the transfer online if I hand them the paper?
No. The RDW does not allow an online transfer on a paper registration at all. The buyer goes to a registration desk or an RDW service desk with the original ownership and transfer certificates and valid identification. No appointment is involved.
Does a paper registration make the car harder to sell privately?
It narrows your buyer slightly, because some private buyers want the online route and will not make a counter trip. It has no effect on the condition of the car, the APK, the Dutch roadworthiness test, or what the car is worth. A trader or a buying service treats it as routine.
Which parts am I meant to have in the car?
The vehicle part and the ownership part, which is part IA and part IB on the later documents and part I and part II on the older ones. The transfer certificate stays at home. That is the RDW’s own instruction on its page about the registration certificate.
Do you buy cars that are still on the old paper registration?
Yes. The number plate and the mileage are enough for us to work out an offer, and photographs help without being required. Bring the original ownership and transfer certificates to the handover and the rest is our problem.