Sold Your Car but Still Getting Toll Bills in California?

If you sold your car in California but still receive toll bills, use your sale records and DMV Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability (NRL) to dispute the later travel with the toll operator. The NRL reports the sale to DMV. It does not, by itself, resolve a toll notice.

Start with your saved NRL confirmation and the sale messages or payment records you already have. These may help document the sale without ordering another record first. Check each notice's response deadline while you verify the DMV record. Ask the operator how to submit your dispute before that deadline if supporting documents are missing.

This guide covers a completed California sale followed by toll notices for travel after you delivered the vehicle to the buyer. A disputed sale, travel before the handover, or a vehicle or plate you never owned needs a different explanation and evidence.

Compare the travel date with the sale date

Read the notice and its reverse side. Record the details that identify both the charge and the procedure for challenging it:

• The issuing operator and notice ID.
• The license plate, state, and vehicle identification number (VIN), if shown.
• The alleged travel date, time, and location.
• The notice mailing date and response deadline.
• The current stage: an invoice, violation notice, delinquent notice, or decision on an earlier dispute.

Compare the travel date with the sale and handover date. A bill mailed after the sale can still concern a trip made before it. If the trip and handover happened on the same day, look for messages or other records showing the handover time. State what you can establish rather than guessing.

Use the operator named on the notice to find the dispute route. A response to one operator does not establish that another operator received it, even when the notices concern the same vehicle.

Check what your NRL actually records

Find the online confirmation or the copy of the paper notice you sent. Compare the plate, VIN, sale date, buyer's name and address, and submission date with your other records. Missing or incorrect information can prevent DMV from updating the vehicle record and can affect the liability protection you are relying on.

California requires the seller to notify DMV within five calendar days after selling or transferring the vehicle and delivering possession. Check when you submitted the notice. A copy obtained later can document the earlier filing; it does not establish that every filing was timely or complete.

Use DMV's customer service options to ask whether your NRL was received and recorded for the correct vehicle and sale date. Keep the response. If information is wrong or missing, ask how to correct the record and preserve evidence of the original submission.

Your name can remain on the vehicle record after an NRL because the buyer still has to complete the ownership transfer. That distinction explains why checking the seller's notice matters even when DMV still lists your name. The buyer's failure to respond does not replace your response to a toll notice.

No bill of sale? Assemble the records you kept

You can explain the sale using the records you actually have. Whether those records satisfy the operator's requirements depends on what it requests and what they establish. Gather available copies of:

• Your NRL confirmation, submitted notice, or DMV copy.
• The signed title or transfer paperwork, if you retained a copy.
• Original messages or emails identifying the buyer, vehicle, agreed sale, and handover.
• A payment receipt or transaction record connected to the sale.

Keep dates and sender information visible in messages. A payment entry alone may not identify the vehicle or establish when you handed it over, so connect it to the other records. Send relevant copies through the verified dispute channel and leave out unrelated financial information.

Tell the operator that you do not have a separate bill of sale. Ask which alternative documents it will consider and what remains missing. You may write a dated explanation of your recollection, clearly identified as a statement prepared now. Do not backdate it, sign for the buyer, or present it as an agreement signed at the sale.

A buyer who stops answering does not turn a voluntary sale into theft. Report the transaction accurately.

Request an NRL copy only if you need one

Start with records you already have. A paid DMV copy is useful if it fills a specific gap in your dispute.

To request a copy of the NRL you submitted, use DMV's Request for Record Information, INF 70. Select Vehicle/Vessel information. In Section 3, identify the vehicle and select the Release of Liability (REG 138) document, including the year submitted.

Follow the instructions for the requester information, purpose, signature, and remaining required fields. Mail both Part I and Part II to the address on the form with the applicable fee. Check the current copy fee before ordering. An automated vehicle record and a copy of the submitted release are different record requests; choose the document you need.

Receiving INF 70 from DMV means you have a route to request a record. It does not mean DMV has decided your toll dispute. Ordering the record also does not extend the operator's response deadline.

Submit the dispute to the issuing toll operator

Follow the instructions for a vehicle sold before the alleged travel. Identify the notice and explain the sale date, handover, and NRL filing. Attach the documents required by that operator. If several notices arrived, list each notice ID and confirm whether one submission can cover them all.

405 Express Lanes: an operator example

For a notice issued by 405 Express Lanes, its nonownership dispute instructions provide an online route using the notice ID and license plate. The paper alternative is Section A, “Affidavit of Non-Liability,” on the reverse of the violation notice. Return it to the address on that notice with the required supporting documents.

For that paper affidavit, the response period runs from the notice mailing date. Check the cutoff on your notice before sending it. This form and timing instruction belong to 405 Express Lanes; use the issuing operator's instructions for any other notice and the correct procedure for its current stage.

If a required document is missing or a portal will not accept your available evidence, contact the operator promptly through its verified customer service route. Identify the missing item and ask how to submit or supplement the dispute. Ask for any extension in writing. A phone call, an incomplete packet, or a pending DMV copy request does not establish that you met the dispute requirements.

A short explanation to adapt

Use this preparation text with the operator's required form or online process. Replace the brackets with accurate details; it does not replace a required affidavit or supporting document.

I am disputing notice [ID] for [plate and vehicle]. I sold and delivered the vehicle to [buyer's name and address, as known] on [date; time if documented]. The alleged travel occurred on [date and time], after that handover.

I submitted an NRL to California DMV on [date]. I am attaching [list the actual records]. I do not have a separate bill of sale. [Identify any other missing document and explain what you have requested.]

Please review the attached evidence and provide a written determination for the listed notice. If further proof is required, please identify the document and how I can supply acceptable evidence.

Writing this statement does not submit a dispute. Send it through the operator's required process and keep the confirmation.

Track each notice until you receive a written decision

Keep a separate entry for each notice: its ID, travel date, response deadline, submission date, documents sent, confirmation number, and written result. Save the notice and envelope as well. If a new bill arrives, compare its ID and travel date with the disputed notices before assuming it is the same charge.

Ask how the operator will handle the disputed charges while review is pending. Filing alone does not guarantee cancellation, a collection pause, or a refund. Keep any written answer about the account status with your submission records.

If the dispute is denied, follow that operator's next review instructions and deadline in the written determination. If the deadline appears to have passed, ask promptly which review, if any, remains available. A court judgment, tax interception, or collection lawsuit needs individual legal help rather than a repeat of the initial notice response. Ask a California attorney about the records, available procedure, and fees.

If your transaction was a dealer trade-in and the old loan also remains unpaid, use the separate trade-in payoff guide to trace the lender's payment record. Resolving toll notices does not settle that loan.

For an open toll-notice deadline, the next action is to match the notice to your sale evidence and submit through the operator's required route. If proof is missing, obtain specific instructions for supplying it and retain that response with the notice.