The paperwork sorted by what it actually does
Dutch law puts very little paper between you and a sale. Two items are not optional, because the RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, will not move the car into a buyer's name without them. The rest of the drawer is about what the buyer believes, and a thin file makes a careful buyer nervous.
- Moves the car out of your name: the registration card (kentekencard), or on an older car the paper registration documents.
- Also moves the car out of your name: all nine digits of the registration code (tenaamstellingscode), which arrive in two separate pieces of post.
- Shows the car passed its test: the report from the most recent APK, the Dutch roadworthiness inspection, if the car has had one.
- Shows how the car was treated: the service book, invoices for recent work, and the full set of keys.
- Shows the car is yours to sell: your own passport or ID card, which a buyer may reasonably ask to see.
The kentekencard and the number printed on it
If your registration document is a plastic card about as big as a bank card, it was issued on or after 1 January 2014, when the Netherlands moved away from paper. A fresh card goes out with every change of owner, so the one in your wallet was printed for you, and it will be replaced the day your buyer registers the car. You are expected to have it with you when you drive.
Look at the bottom right of the front. That is the document number, and the RDW uses it to decide whether a card is the live one for that number plate. Order a replacement card at any point and the earlier card stops being valid immediately, which matters if you have two cards in a drawer and no idea which is which.
Three numbers, and only one of them sells the car
Three different numbers sit on or near the card, and sellers mix them up constantly. The document number identifies the card. The reporting code (meldcodeThe last four characters from the vehicle identification number, and they are printed on the card itself. Insurers want it, and the RDW will accept it when you order a replacement code by post.) repeats the final four characters of the vehicle identification number, and it is what your insurer asks for. Only the third one, the registration code (tenaamstellingscode), lets a buyer put the car in their own name, and it is the one number the card does not print anywhere.
The code runs to nine digits and it reached you in two deliveries. Four digits sit on the registration report (tenaamstellingsverslagThe slip handed to a new owner at the moment of a transfer. It is where the first four digits of their code are printed, which is why it still matters years later.), the slip you were handed the day the car went into your name. The other five came in the letter the card was posted with. Joining them up is your job, and nobody will do it for you. The registration code has a guide of its own.
Two situations break that pattern. A car bought new has its complete code posted separately, a day behind the card. A leased or financed car never had a code in your name at all: the lease or finance company holds it, and only they can ask for another.
If you still hold a paper registration (kentekenbewijs)
Cars that have kept one owner since before the card arrived may still run on the paper registration (kentekenbewijsThe registration document used before 2014. Still valid, still accepted, and still impossible to transfer online. It disappears the next time the car changes owner.). It is a valid document and nobody will force you to upgrade it. One practical consequence follows: the transfer cannot be done online, so your buyer has to take the original papers to an RDW location or a municipal registration counter in person. Say that out loud before you agree a handover time.
Which parts you are holding depends on the year the number was issued. The oldest numbers carry a part I and a part II, plus a transfer certificate, which on anything issued before 1995 is labelled copy part 3. Numbers issued from 1 June 2004 onwards, until the card replaced paper on 1 January 2014, carry three pieces instead: part IA lists the car, part IB lists its owner, and part II is the transfer certificate (overschrijvingsbewijs), which belonged at home and out of the glovebox.
Of those pieces, the transfer certificate and the original registration part (tenaamstellingsbewijs) are the two your buyer cannot work without. Both have to be the originals.
Verify the card and the code before you agree anything
There are two ways this goes wrong, and both are cheap to rule out now and painful to discover on handover day. Either the card in your hand is no longer the live one for the plate, and a dead card blocks both a transfer and a suspension until the RDW issues you another, or the card is fine while the nine digits you have written down belong to a card that was replaced, in which case you order a code and keep the card.
The RDW publishes a free online check that answers both questions. It wants three things from you: the plate, the nine digits, and that document number off the card. The verdict comes back at once. A paper registration carries no document number, so there is nothing to look up and you are relying on the papers in front of you.
Replacing a code or a card you cannot find
A lost code can be replaced, and so can a lost card. Both carry a fee, the current amounts are on rdw.nl, and in both cases the number plate stays exactly as it is. The part that catches people out is that issuing a new code kills the old one, so once you have ordered, the letter you unearth the following week is worthless. Pick the route below by how soon you need the digits in your hand.
- Soonest: in person at an RDW inspection station, or at the RDW desks in Veendam and Zoetermeer. Take the card and valid ID and you leave with the code.
- Online with DigiD, if the car stands in your own name. The code arrives as an emailed file. Download it straight away, since the link dies 40 days later.
- By post, which is the route without DigiD. The card's reporting code (meldcode) is what identifies you, and the digits go to whatever address your municipality holds for you.
A card that is lost, stolen or damaged goes the same way through the RDW, for a fee, again on the strength of the reporting code. A fresh code follows the fresh card by itself, in the post a couple of working days behind it. Both land at your registered address, so order before a buyer is holding a date for you.
The file that changes what a buyer will pay
Start with the keys, because that is the gap a buyer notices fastest. Collect every key that belongs to the car, including the one in a coat pocket from two winters ago, and say so in advance if one has gone for good. You will be asked either way.
Then the history and the test. A service book with stamps in it, and invoices for whatever was done recently, tell a buyer how the car was looked after, which nothing visible in a car park can. The RDW also asks sellers to pass on the report from the most recent APK when the car has had one, and our APK guide covers what that test looks at. None of this decides whether the sale is legal. It decides what the car is worth to the person standing in front of you.
What you are left holding, and who asks for it
A sale sends every document you have been gathering off with the buyer, and sends exactly one back. The proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijsThe one document that travels towards you in a sale. It records the date and time the car left your name, which is what your insurer wants to see.) carries the date and the time the registration changed, and it is your only evidence that the car stopped being yours at that moment. File it somewhere you will find it again. Our guides to the proof of transfer and to the RDW transfer cover the document and the process behind it.
Your insurer will want to see it when you end the policy. The Belastingdienst, the Dutch Tax Administration, does not ask for it: the RDW passes the transfer on, and road tax you had paid ahead comes back without a request. What happens to your road tax goes through it.