You have just sold your car and are wondering if the transfer has been properly recorded in the registration system. This concern is legitimate: as long as the transfer certificate is not registered, you remain legally responsible for the vehicle. Fines, parking violations, infractions: everything falls back on the previous owner listed in the SIV file. Checking the registration of the transfer with the ANTS (now France Titres) is therefore a step not to be overlooked.
France Titres Portal: the verification process has changed
Since the end of 2023, the National Agency for Secure Titles has changed its name to France Titres. The online portal has been revamped, and the user journey is no longer what is described in most guides published before 2024.
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Specifically, the verification now takes place through the “My Vehicles” menu in your personal space on the France Titres website. This menu displays the history of your actions, including the registration status of each declared transfer. If the transfer appears in this history with a validated status, the registration has indeed been recorded in the SIV file.
To understand how to know if a transfer certificate has been registered by the ANTS, you need to distinguish between two elements: the transfer code generated at the end of the process, and the downloadable registration acknowledgment from your space.
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The transfer code is a sequence of numbers and letters automatically transmitted when you validate the online declaration. If you have obtained this code, the declaration has been submitted. The registration acknowledgment confirms that the SIV file has indeed been updated.
Verification via Histovec: what the seller can actually check
Histovec is a service from the Ministry of the Interior that allows you to check the administrative status of a vehicle. Many sellers use it before the sale to provide a certificate of administrative status (formerly a non-pledge certificate). But Histovec is also useful after the sale.
By logging in with the vehicle information, you can check if the holder displayed in the file has changed. If your name no longer appears as the owner, the transfer has been recorded and the buyer has indeed made their request for a registration certificate.
Be careful, a point often misunderstood: Histovec does not update in real-time. There may be a processing delay, especially during peak times on the France Titres portal. Do not panic if the change does not appear in the first few hours.
When Histovec is not enough
If the vehicle still appears in your name several weeks after the transfer, two situations are possible:
- You have indeed declared the transfer online, but the buyer has not yet made their request for a registration certificate. In this case, your declaration protects you, but the vehicle technically remains in your name in the file until the buyer finalizes their process.
- The transfer declaration was never validated. This is the most problematic case: without a registered declaration, you remain the legal holder and will receive any potential fines.
- The France Titres portal encountered a bug or unavailability at the time of your process. Reports of outages and extended maintenance have been reported, particularly related to security incidents on the site.
Prefecture and CERT: why you can no longer verify at the counter
Before the complete digitization of registration processes, a seller could go to the prefecture to verify the registration of a transfer. This is no longer the case.
Since the generalization of the Title Expertise and Resource Centers (CERT), prefectural services no longer have control over the SIV file. If you call your prefecture or send an email regarding an unregistered transfer certificate, you will be redirected to France Titres support.
This loss of a local contact is a frequent source of frustration. Reports on the Services Publics+ platform show an increase in complaints related to the inability to trace a transfer certificate or obtain a quick response from online support.
Contacting France Titres support
The only operational channel to resolve a blockage remains the contact form accessible from the France Titres portal, under the “Help and Contact” section. Prepare the following elements before submitting your request:
- The registration number of the transferred vehicle
- A copy of the CERFA 15776*02 form (transfer certificate) completed at the time of sale
- The transfer code if you have kept it
- The date and time of the sale as recorded on the crossed-out registration certificate
Without these elements, the processing of your file will be delayed. Always keep a copy of the CERFA and the transfer code after each sale.
Transfer declaration not made within the deadlines: concrete consequences
The seller has a period of fifteen days after the sale to register the transfer online. Missing this deadline without a declaration exposes you to receiving fines for infractions committed by the buyer, as the vehicle remains linked to your identity in the file.
In case of delay, nothing prevents you from making the declaration late. The France Titres portal accepts late declarations. It is better to declare late than to never declare. The date recorded on the CERFA serves as proof of the actual date of the sale.
If the buyer refuses to cooperate or remains unreachable, you can contest the fines received by attaching your copy of the transfer certificate to the contestation letter. The document proves that you were no longer in possession of the vehicle on the indicated date.
The reflex to adopt after any sale: declare the transfer online on the same day, keep the transfer code, download the registration acknowledgment, and check on Histovec a few days later that the change of holder is indeed effective. These four actions take a few minutes and save you months of administrative hassle.