How to fill out Alabama MVT 5-5

A single page that carries the mileage certification when the certificate of title cannot. Alabama prints an odometer block inside the assignment on the back of every title, so on an ordinary sale this form is not needed at all - it comes out when the block has been spoiled, when the title is being replaced, when a power of attorney is doing the signing, or when the certificate simply has no assignment space left. It is signed by both of you, and both halves have to be there.

Written against MVT 5-5 (4/25), issued under Federal Truth in Mileage Act of 1986; 49 CFR 580. Do not treat this page as the mileage disclosure on an ordinary Alabama sale. The disclosure that matters is the one printed inside the assignment block on the back of the certificate, and a title arriving with that block blank and this form attached invites the question of why the block could not be used. Where the answer is a good one - the block was spoiled, the title is a replacement, an attorney-in-fact is signing - say so in the paperwork that goes with it.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT 5-5 from the revenue.alabama.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank MVT 5-5 — Odometer Disclosure Statement PDF at revenue.alabama.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual MVT 5-5, rendered from the PDF the Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.

Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below

The Alabama MVT 5-5 Odometer Disclosure Statement filled in for a 2016 Toyota Tacoma: the seller Darnell R. Pettway named in the opening certification, an odometer reading of 71528 with MILES ticked and neither exception statement checked, and the seller and buyer blocks completed underneath. — Filled in for the same sale that runs through the rest of this section. Neither exception box is ticked, which is what an honest Alabama mileage statement looks like - the sentence above them has already certified the figure as actual.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
I, ___
Your printed name, on the rule at the top, above the label SELLER (TRANSFEROR'S) NAME (PLEASE PRINT).
Watch out: Print it the way the front of the certificate has it. This form travels with a title application, and the Department compares the names on every document in the packet.
2
You fill this in
Odometer reading (no tenths)
The whole-mile figure off the dashboard, in the wide box left of the label.
Watch out: Read it, do not remember it. This figure will be compared with the one already recorded on the face of the certificate and with the one on the buyer's application.
3
You fill this in
Miles or kilometers
Tick MILES for an ordinary American car. KILOMETERS exists for vehicles imported with a metric instrument.
Watch out: An unticked pair leaves the reading ambiguous, and on a car imported from Canada that ambiguity is a forty percent difference.
4
You fill this in
The two exception statements
Leave both empty if the reading is genuine. Tick 1 if the odometer has rolled past its mechanical limit; tick 2 if the reading is not the actual mileage.
Watch out: Statement 2 brands the vehicle. It follows the car onto every certificate issued afterwards, so it is not a box to tick out of caution about a cable that was replaced years ago.
5
You fill this in
Make, model and body type
Three fields across the middle of the page, taken off the certificate of title.
Watch out: Body type is the Department's abbreviation from the face of the title, not a description. Copy what is printed there rather than writing pickup or estate.
6
You fill this in
Vehicle identification number and year
The full seventeen characters and the model year, on the row below.
Watch out: Check the VIN against the dashboard plate as well as the title. A designated agent will do exactly that at the counter, and a mismatch found there stops the whole application.
7
You fill this in
Seller (Transferor) Information
Printed name, street address, city, state and ZIP, then sign on the line marked X and date it.
Watch out: The date of this statement is the date you signed, which should be the date of sale on the title. Two documents in one packet giving two different days is a question the buyer will have to answer without you.
8
The buyer fills this in
Buyer (Transferee) Information
The buyer prints their name and address, signs on their own X line and dates it.
Watch out: They are certifying under penalty of perjury that what you wrote is what they were told. Get it signed before the car leaves - chasing a signature afterwards is how a sale turns into three weeks of telephone calls.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The opening certification	Your printed name in the gap after the word I, then a sentence you are adopting by signing: certify to the best of my knowledge that the ODOMETER READING on the vehicle described below is the ACTUAL MILEAGE of the vehicle unless one of the following statements is checked.
Odometer reading, and the unit	One box for the figure, labelled ODOMETER READING (NO TENTHS), then two small boxes beside it - MILES and KILOMETERS. Almost nobody ticks the second one and almost everybody forgets to tick the first.
The two exception statements	Numbered 1 and 2. The first is that the mileage stated is in excess of the mechanical limits of the odometer; the second is that the odometer reading is not the actual mileage, with WARNING - ODOMETER DISCREPANCY printed under it in capitals.
Vehicle description	Make, model and body type on one row; the vehicle identification number and the year on the row beneath. Four fields and a VIN, taken off the certificate rather than off the advert.
Seller (Transferor) Information	Printed name, address, city, state and ZIP, then a signature line marked with an X and the date of this statement. Under it: I, hereby, certify under penalties of perjury that all information provided in statement(s) above are true and correct.
Buyer (Transferee) Information	The identical block again, in the buyer's hand, with its own perjury certification. The form is not complete with only the top half done.
The exemption note at the foot	Three lettered exemptions: a vehicle that is 20 model years old or older, a vehicle with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of more than 16,000 lbs, and a vehicle that is not self-propelled, with trailers given as the example.

What gets this one rejected

•A reading that does not match the one written into the assignment on the title. The Department's rule is that the mileage on the application must agree exactly with the mileage listed in the title assignment.
•Tenths. The label says NO TENTHS and the box is sized for whole miles.
•Both statement boxes ticked. They are alternatives - a mileage past the mechanical limit and a mileage that is simply not actual are two different admissions.
•The buyer's half left empty because the car has already gone. Both blocks carry their own perjury certification and the form is a two-party document.
•Using it instead of the block on the title. This is a supporting document, not a substitute - the assignment on the certificate still has to be completed unless something has made that impossible.
•Leaving the unit unticked. MILES or KILOMETERS is a real question on an imported vehicle and a formality on every other one, and an unticked pair is an incomplete certification either way.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is the transferor's statement, not the buyer's. The opening line names you: requires that you (the transferor) state the mileage in connection with the transfer of ownership. The buyer's block underneath is an acknowledgement of what you wrote, which is why yours goes in first.
•The exemption on this form is not the federal one. The note prints a flat 20 model years old or older. The federal rule this form exists to satisfy splits at model year 2011 - ten years for anything older, twenty for anything newer. On a 2008 car the two disagree, and writing the reading in anyway costs nothing.
•Failure to complete is an offence in itself. The header sentence says so: failure to complete or providing a false statement may result in fines and/or imprisonment. That is the federal Act speaking, not the Department.
•A trailer has nothing to disclose. Exemption (c) is that the vehicle is not self-propelled, and the form puts trailers in brackets after it. Alabama titles travel trailers and campers under twenty model years old; none of them needs a mileage figure.

Every line here was read off MVT 5-5 (4/25) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Alabama seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Alabama involves.

How to fill out Alabama MVT 5-5

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

I, ___

Odometer reading (no tenths)

Miles or kilometers

The two exception statements

Make, model and body type

Vehicle identification number and year

Seller (Transferor) Information

Buyer (Transferee) Information

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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