Buying a used car in Sweden 2026: check the car, pay safely and change the owner

Are you buying a used car in Sweden? Check the car before you pay. Some unpaid debts follow the car, so that you as the buyer can be affected, and if you buy from a private person you are less protected than with a dealer. As a newcomer, you also need to know two things: the online change of owner requires both you and the seller to have Swedish driving licences, and the new owner needs a personnummer or an active samordningsnummer (coordination number). Here is how to check the car, pay safely, change the owner and what applies after the purchase.

Transportstyrelsen (the Swedish Transport Agency) registers the change of owner in vägtrafikregistret, the register of vehicles and their owners. Konsumentverket (the Swedish Consumer Agency) gives guidance on your rights as a buyer, but cannot decide a dispute. We checked the details on the pages of Transportstyrelsen, Konsumentverket, Polisen (the Swedish Police) and Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) and in the law on 11 October 2026.

Will you drive on a foreign licence? First check that it is valid in Sweden. Read Foreign driving licence in Sweden 2026: when you must exchange it, and how.

How buying a car works

1. Look the car up in the register. Text the registration number to 71640 or search Transportstyrelsen’s e-service. Check the car’s status, owner and inspection, and whether it says, for example, LEASING, KREDITKÖP or STULET.
2. Check debts and loans. Go through the e-service Fordonets skulder (the vehicle’s debts) together with the seller, or call 0771-14 15 16 and say “ägaruppgifter”. Ask whether there is a loan on the car.
3. Meet the seller and inspect the car. Check that the seller is the car’s owner and has the latest registration certificate. Inspect the car carefully and take it for a test drive.
4. Write a contract and pay safely. Write two identical contracts that you both sign. Avoid paying in advance, and check who the money goes to if you pay by Swish.
5. Take out traffic insurance. If the car is påställd, you must have traffic insurance from the day of the change of owner.
6. Report the change of owner. If you are both over 18 and have valid Swedish driving licences, the seller can report the change on Mina sidor. Otherwise you fill in the yellow part 2 of the registration certificate and send it to Transportstyrelsen, 701 81 Örebro, so that it arrives within 10 days.

Look the car up in the register

Start with the registration number. At Transportstyrelsen you can check a car that someone else owns in three ways.

• Text message. Send the registration number, without spaces, to 71640. The service is free, but your phone operator may charge for the text. The reply shows, among other things, the make and model, colour, year, status (I TRAFIK, AVSTÄLLT or AVREGISTRERAT: in traffic, off the road or deregistered) and the owner’s name and town. If you instead send bes. followed directly by the registration number to the same number, you get details of the inspection.
• The e-service. In Fordonsuppgifter, sök med registreringsnummer (in Swedish) you can see, among other things, the inspection, the vehicle tax per year, technical details and whether the car is påställd or avställd. Påställd means that the car is registered for use in traffic. For an avställd car, one taken off the road, you pay no vehicle tax and need no traffic insurance.
• Phone. Call Transportstyrelsen’s customer service for vehicles on 0771-14 15 16. The line is voice-controlled. If you say “ägaruppgifter” (owner details), you reach an automatic service that reads out, for example, who owns the car, whether the tax is paid and whether the car has been inspected.

The text reply also says whether the car has special conditions, for example LEASING, KREDITKÖP, STULET or HYRBIL (rental car). Also compare the owner’s name in the reply with the seller’s.

A credit purchase also shows in the e-service: under Sammanfattning (summary), the field Upplysningar (notes) says Kreditköp. The automatic phone service also tells you, if the information is available.

Check debts and loans

Some unpaid debts follow the car. They are called fordonsrelaterade skulder (vehicle-related debts):

• vehicle tax,
• congestion tax,
• parking fines,
• infrastructure charges, which are used to finance new roads,
• penalty fees for these taxes and charges, and Kronofogden’s fees.

As a rule, the person who was the owner when the tax or charge was decided must pay it, even after a sale. But Kronofogden (the Swedish Enforcement Authority), the agency that collects unpaid debts, can take the car from you as the new owner. A car can also have an användningsförbud (a ban on use) because of debts. Then it may not be used, and if you drive it anyway, the police can stop you and take the registration plates.

How to check the debts:

• Ask the seller. The seller knows best whether there are unpaid debts. Transportstyrelsen recommends that you talk about it when you do the deal.
• Go through the e-service Fordonets skulder together. The seller logs in with an e-ID (e-legitimation) or with the car’s access code (behörighetskod), which is on part 1 of the registration certificate, and can then show you whether the car has debts.
• Call 0771-14 15 16 and say “ägaruppgifter”. The automatic service tells you about vehicle-related debts and can be reached day and night.
• Kronofogden. If a debt has been handed over to Kronofogden, contact them for the full amount, on 0771-73 73 00.

Neither Transportstyrelsen nor Kronofogden can give a fully up-to-date picture of all debts. For example, congestion tax is only decided the month after the passages, and in some cases it takes about a week before a parking fine reaches the register.

A loan on the car. Ask the seller whether there is a loan on the car. If the loan isn’t paid off when the car is sold, the bank or whoever lent the money may have the right to take the car, even if you are registered as the new owner. It is easiest if the loan is paid off before you buy, Konsumentverket writes.

Inspect the car and the seller

• The right seller. Transportstyrelsen reminds you to check that the seller is who they say they are, and that you are dealing with the car’s owner.
• The latest registration certificate. The registration certificate (registreringsbevis) is the car’s official document from Transportstyrelsen, in two parts. Only the most recently issued one is valid. You can see when it was issued in the e-service Fordonsuppgifter, under Fordonsidentitet (vehicle identity). The seller needs it if you report the change of owner on paper.
• The inspection. In the e-service and by text message you can see whether the car has been inspected. The inspection (besiktning) is the regular check of the car at an inspection company.
• Test drive. No law says you must inspect the car, but Konsumentverket writes that it can be a good idea, for example to take it for a test drive. If you buy from a private person and inspect the car, do it carefully, because you can’t complain afterwards about faults you should have discovered. If the seller asks you to inspect the car and you don’t, you can’t complain about those faults either.

Write a contract

If you buy from a private person, always write a contract, Konsumentverket advises. Without a contract it is hard to prove what you said before the purchase. Write two identical contracts and make sure that both you and the seller sign both. Include:

• the buyer and the seller,
• the car,
• the mileage,
• the car’s condition,
• what equipment comes with it, for example winter tyres,
• the price,
• the payment,
• anything else you have agreed.

When you buy from a private person, you have no ångerrätt (right of withdrawal) by law, meaning no right to change your mind. If you want to be able to cancel, you must agree on it in the contract.

If you buy from a dealer, make sure that everything you have agreed is in the contract, for example the delivery date, warranties and accessories. Also make sure that what the seller promises orally is confirmed in writing, preferably in the contract, otherwise for example in an email or a text message.

Pay safely

Polisen and Konsumentverket give this advice when you buy from a private person:

• Avoid paying in advance.
• Meet the seller if possible, and get the car handed over to you.
• Don’t let yourself be rushed. Be alert if the seller pressures you to complete the deal.
• Check the recipient. If you pay by Swish, check that the money goes to the person you have been in contact with. Banks have different rules for how much you can send by Swish.
• A personnummer doesn’t protect you. A seller giving you their personnummer or account number doesn’t protect you from being cheated.
• Ask your bank if you are unsure how to pay another private person.

Polisen gives examples of how fraud can happen. If you buy from a private person, you may pay for something you never get. If you buy from a company online, fraudsters may use fake or cloned web shops that look real. Check the web address carefully, don’t click links in social media, emails or text messages but look up the company yourself, and be alert to offers that seem too good to be true.

Have you been cheated? Contact your bank first, so that they may be able to stop the payment. Then report it to the police: call 114 14 or go to a police station. Save everything in writing, such as transfers, emails and text messages. Call 112 if the crime is happening right now.

A loan for the car. If you borrow money for the car, the loan can be at most 80 percent of the price. You pay the rest, the kontantinsats (cash deposit), yourself.

Insure the car from day one

All motor vehicles used in traffic must have trafikförsäkring (traffic insurance) under trafikskadelagen (the Traffic Damage Act). The car’s registered owner must take it out.

• From which day? If the car is påställd, your traffic insurance must apply from the day of the change of owner, the same date you complete the deal. If the car will be put into traffic later, the insurance must apply from that day. If the car is avställd, you need no traffic insurance.
• The seller’s insurance is cancelled automatically when the change of owner has been registered.
• What it covers. Traffic insurance pays compensation for certain damage in traffic: injuries to people, and as a rule damage to other people’s property when your car caused the accident. Damage to your own car is not covered. If you only have traffic insurance, you also get no compensation for, for example, theft, fire or vandalism. Konsumentverket writes that you should add a halvförsäkring or helförsäkring (part or comprehensive insurance) that covers other damage.
• Without insurance you are automatically reported to Trafikförsäkringsföreningen and must pay a trafikförsäkringsavgift (traffic insurance fee). It is much higher than the premium for ordinary traffic insurance.

The requirement applies as long as the car is påställd, even if it is, for example, stolen, has a ban on use or can’t be driven. The car must be taken off the road for the requirement to stop.

Change the owner: on Mina sidor or with the registration certificate

A change of owner must be reported to Transportstyrelsen. There are two ways.

With a foreign licence. The e-service requires both you and the seller to have valid Swedish driving licences, and the licences’ validity date and reference number must be filled in. If you or the seller has a foreign licence, you therefore report the change on the registration certificate, even if the licence is valid in Sweden.

How to fill in part 2. Part 2 is the yellow part of the registration certificate. The notification must include:

• the date of the change of owner,
• the buyer’s personnummer or another number the buyer has been assigned,
• the buyer’s name,
• the buyer’s address in Sweden,
• the signatures of both the seller and the buyer.

Send it to Transportstyrelsen, 701 81 Örebro. You are both responsible for making sure the notification is actually sent. It must reach Transportstyrelsen within 10 days of the sale. Otherwise the day it arrives becomes the date of the change of owner.

After the change Transportstyrelsen sends you the registration certificate, parts 1 and 2. They are documents of value. Keep part 2 safe, and never in the glovebox.

If you buy from a dealer, the dealer can often do the change of owner for you, digitally. Unless you have agreed otherwise, Konsumentverket says you should expect the dealer to do it when you receive the car. Transportstyrelsen reminds you to check debts and status anyway, even when a dealer sells the car.

Without a personnummer

For the change of owner to be registered, the new owner must have a Swedish personnummer or a samordningsnummer (coordination number) that is active. A coordination number is a number from Skatteverket for people who are not and have not been folkbokförd (registered as living) in Sweden. Active means that the number is not vilande (dormant). The number must also have the identity level styrkt (verified) or sannolik (probable), meaning that Skatteverket has verified your identity or judged it probable.

If you have no such number, Transportstyrelsen applies to Skatteverket for a coordination number, or for your number to be activated, when the notification of the change arrives. Here is what you do:

1. Enclose a colour copy. Send a clear colour copy of all pages of a valid passport from your home country or a national ID card. National ID cards are only issued by some EU/EEA countries and Switzerland.
2. Write your place of birth. Is your place of birth not in the ID document? Write it on a separate sheet of paper with your signature and your name written clearly, and send it along.
3. Go to Skatteverket. Skatteverket then sends you a letter asking you to come in person to one of its service offices and show your original ID document. The letter goes to the address you gave, and it states the last date for the visit. Book a time at the service office.

A dormant coordination number. A coordination number that is not used becomes dormant in some cases, automatically after five years. A dormant number must be renewed before the change of owner can be registered. Either you visit one of Skatteverket’s service offices, or you send the colour copy of your passport or ID card to Transportstyrelsen, as above.

It takes time. According to Skatteverket, it takes about 3 weeks before an agency’s request for a coordination number gets a case officer, and after that it can take another 6 weeks before you get a decision. If the car is påställd, you still need traffic insurance from the date of the change of owner.

Waiting for your personnummer? Read How long does it take to get a personnummer in 2026?

After the purchase: tax, inspection and winter tyres

• Vehicle tax (fordonsskatt). The last digit of the registration number decides which month you pay. The payment slip comes in the middle of that month, first of all to your digital mailbox and otherwise on paper. If the tax isn’t paid on time, the car may not be used. Tax that has already been paid follows the car at the change of owner, if the car stays påställd. If the change happens in the month when the tax is due, the obligation to pay it does not pass to you. If a dealer puts the car into traffic when the change is reported, the tax is sent to you, and it must be paid within 21 days.
• Inspection. Transportstyrelsen does not send a reminder when it is time to inspect the car. It is your responsibility to have it inspected on time, and you book a time yourself with an inspection company. Swedac has information about which inspection companies are approved. If the car is not inspected on time, it automatically gets a körförbud (driving ban). Then it may only be driven the shortest suitable route to a workshop or to an inspection company, if it is påställd.
• Congestion tax. In Stockholm and Gothenburg (Göteborg), cameras photograph the registration plates, and Transportstyrelsen sends a notice of congestion tax to the owner.
• Winter tyres. From 1 December to 31 March, a passenger car must have winter tyres or equivalent equipment when there are winter road conditions, with a tread depth of at least 3 mm. Winter road conditions means snow, ice, slush or frost on any part of the road. The police decide whether there are winter road conditions where you are driving.

Dealer or private seller?

To reklamera means to complain about a fault to whoever sold you the car. It is a good idea to complain in writing, for example by email, and to keep a copy. Then you can show that you complained, and when.

Buying from a dealer

• Original faults. If a fault was there when you bought the car, even if it shows up later, you can demand that the dealer fixes it free of charge. This doesn’t apply to normal wear or to faults caused by handling the car the wrong way. The dealer usually has the right to try to repair the fault first.
• The varudeklaration. If the dealer is a member of the trade association Motorbranschens Riksförbund (MRF), a used car must come with a varudeklaration (product declaration) about the car’s condition, under an agreement between Konsumentverket and MRF. Read it carefully, and both sign a copy. Faults listed in it, or that the dealer told you about before the purchase, are hard to complain about.
• Warranties are voluntary for the company, and external warranties may cost money.
• Right of withdrawal. If you buy on the dealer’s premises, you have no right of withdrawal, but you can cancel the order before you have received the car. The dealer may then have the right to compensation for its costs. If you buy at a distance, for example online, you may have a 14-day right of withdrawal from the day you receive the car, if the company usually sells at a distance.
• Brokered sales (förmedlingsköp). If a private person sells their car through a company and you buy from the company, konsumentköplagen still applies.
• Disputes. You can report the dispute to Allmänna reklamationsnämnden (ARN, the National Board for Consumer Disputes), an agency that recommends how it should be resolved. It costs SEK 150. Dealers that are members of MRF have promised to follow ARN’s recommendations.

Buying from a private seller

• The agreement first. In the first place, what you and the seller have agreed applies, and after that köplagen.
• The right to complain. You can complain if the car doesn’t match the seller’s description, is in much worse condition than you could expect given the price, or if the seller has hidden something important.
• Faults you can’t complain about: faults you knew about before the purchase, faults you should have discovered on a careful inspection, and faults you caused yourself.
• “Befintligt skick”, meaning that the car is sold as it is, does not remove the seller’s responsibility. You still have the right to complain about faults.
• If you can’t agree, a court, in the first place the district court (tingsrätten), can review the dispute. Konsumentverket can only give basic information about purchases between private persons. It can be a good idea to contact a lawyer, and to check whether your home insurance includes rättsskydd (legal expenses cover), which can cover some costs.

Use our Buying a car tool

In our Buying a car tool, you choose whether you are buying from a private person or from a dealer, and get the steps from checking the car to changing the owner as a checklist. It can’t guarantee that a car or a seller is safe.

Summary

• Check the car before you pay. Text the registration number to 71640 or search Transportstyrelsen’s e-service. Don’t buy a car listed as STULET (stolen).
• Debts can follow the car. Go through Fordonets skulder together with the seller, and ask whether there is a loan on the car.
• Avoid paying in advance. Meet the seller and check who the money goes to.
• Traffic insurance must apply from the day of the change of owner if the car is påställd.
• With a foreign licence, you report the change of owner on the yellow part 2 of the registration certificate, and it must arrive within 10 days. If you have no personnummer and no active coordination number, enclose a colour copy of your passport or ID card.

Sources

• Transportstyrelsen: Jag ska köpa ett fordon (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Ägarbyte av fordon (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Sök fordons- och ägaruppgifter (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Sms-tjänsten Vem äger fordonet? (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Registreringsbevis (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Fordonsrelaterade skulder (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Trafikförsäkring (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Fordonsskatt (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Besiktning av fordon (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Trängselskatt (in Swedish)
• Transportstyrelsen: Vinterdäck (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Köpa bil av privatperson (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Fel på bil du köpt av privatperson (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Köpa bil av bilhandlare (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Reklamera bil, när bilen är trasig eller fungerar dåligt (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Ångerrätt vid bilköp (in Swedish)
• Konsumentverket: Ägarbyte och skulder när du köpt bil av bilhandlare (in Swedish)
• Polisen: Annonsbedrägeri (in Swedish)
• Skatteverket: Samordningsnummer (in Swedish)
• Riksdagen (the Swedish Parliament): Konsumentköplag (2022:260) (in Swedish)
• Riksdagen: Köplag (1990:931) (in Swedish)