Bill of sale generator.

What a bill of sale does

A bill of sale is a short written record that one person sold something to another: who the parties are, what changed hands, what was paid, when, and what the seller promised about it. It is useful to the buyer as evidence of ownership and to the seller as evidence that the item is gone and was paid for. This generator turns your answers into a one-page PDF, built in your browser with nothing uploaded.

What the generated document contains

You fill in the seller and buyer names and addresses, the date, an item description, the sale price, how it was paid, the governing jurisdiction (it opens as "Ontario, Canada") and a condition note. The PDF is titled Bill of Sale and has five numbered clauses:

• Item Sold: your description, word for word.
• Sale Price and Payment: "Buyer has paid Seller [price] by [payment form]. Seller acknowledges receipt of the full sale price."
• Transfer of Ownership: the seller transfers all right, title and interest to the buyer, free and clear of liens, encumbrances and claims, subject to the disclosures below.
• Condition and Warranties: your note, which opens as "Sold AS-IS, WHERE-IS, with no express or implied warranties."
• Governing Law: the laws of the jurisdiction you entered.

Signature lines for the seller and buyer finish the page.

Because clause 2 says the full price has been paid, use the document at the moment of handover, once money has actually moved. Do not sign it for a deposit or an instalment plan.

How to describe the item

The description is the most important box, because it is what the buyer actually owns. Be specific enough that nobody could confuse it with another item:

• Vehicles: year, make, model, colour, VIN, licence plate and odometer reading with units.
• Electronics: make, model, serial number, accessories included.
• Equipment and tools: manufacturer, model, serial number, hours of use if shown.
• Other goods: a count and a clear description, and a note of anything excluded.

Price and payment

Write the price both in numbers and in words, with the currency, for example "CAD $4,500.00 (four thousand five hundred dollars)". Words make it harder for a figure to be altered after signing. In the payment box, say how it was paid: "Interac e-Transfer, reference 123", "bank draft", "cash". Keep the bank record, because the document alone does not prove money moved.

Worked example: a private vehicle sale in Ontario

A seller and a buyer agree on 4,500 dollars for a used car. In Ontario, the Government of Ontario's page on the used vehicle information package (UVIP) says the seller is legally required to give the buyer a UVIP when selling a pre-owned car, van, light truck, motor home, motorcycle or light farm vehicle, and that it is an offence under the Highway Traffic Act not to. The package contains the vehicle details, Ontario registration history, lien information, Retail Sales Tax information, the average wholesale value on which tax is based, the last known condition status and a bill of sale section. The buyer needs the UVIP to register a vehicle bought from a private seller. At the time checked, the package cost 20 dollars.

So the sale has three pieces of paper, and this tool covers one of them. The UVIP is the official transfer record. The bill of sale generated here is your own written record of the deal terms, the price, the as-is wording and the lien-free promise. Use the item description box for the VIN, plate and odometer reading, put the price in words, and attach a copy of the UVIP when you keep your records. For anything not covered here, ask ServiceOntario what the registry requires.

What the as-is clause does, and does not do

In Ontario, the Sale of Goods Act implies certain terms into a contract of sale unless the parties agree otherwise. For example, section 13 implies a condition that the seller has a right to sell the goods, a warranty of quiet possession, and a warranty that the goods are free from any undeclared charge or encumbrance. Section 15 implies that goods bought by description from a seller who deals in goods of that description are of merchantable quality, unless the buyer examined the goods. Section 53 allows implied terms to be negatived or varied by express agreement. That is the legal idea behind "as is, where is": it records the buyer's agreement that the quality terms are not promised.

It does not remove the seller's duty to be honest about the item or erase the promise that the seller owns it. Clause 3 of this document says the seller transfers good title free of liens, and that promise matters most for vehicles, where unpaid loans can stay attached to the vehicle. If you are the seller, make sure the statement is true, and if there is something the buyer should know about (accident damage, a known fault) write it in the condition note. If you replace the pre-filled as-is sentence with disclosures only, the as-is wording will be gone, so type it again if you still want it.

Dealers and consumer protection law work differently from private sales, so treat this as a private-sale document.

What this tool does not do

It does not register or transfer anything with a government registry, calculate sales tax, check liens, verify identity or witness signatures. It has no clause for instalments, trade-ins, delivery, risk of loss in transit or a cooling-off period. Boats, firearms, livestock, real estate and regulated goods often have their own required forms.

Related tools

If you also need a payment record, use the receipt generator. For a sale paid over time, a promissory note records the debt. Add signatures to the finished PDF with the sign PDF tool.