How to fill out Alabama MVT 8-4

The document that lets a sale go ahead when the paper certificate is in a lender's safe or has vanished. It is not a general power of attorney: the restriction is printed in a single line under the title - this form may ONLY be used when title is physically held by lienholder or has been lost. It is in three parts, and it hands the mileage disclosure from one party to the other in a controlled way that federal law prescribes.

Written against MVT 8-4 (5/20), issued under Federal Truth in Mileage Act of 1986; 49 CFR 580.13. Alabama does hold liens electronically, but not everywhere and not by default. The Department's answer is conditional: if a designated agent (non-licensing official) is set-up for ELT, then any titles issued recording their lien will be issued as an ELT. Where the lender that financed your car is not on that system, the certificate is a physical document in somebody's file drawer and the payoff has to clear before it moves - which is the gap this form exists to cross. Where it is, there is no cost to print a physical title from an electronic one, but once an ELT is printed on physical title paper it can not be printed again, and a second copy is a replacement application at full price.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT 8-4 from the revenue.alabama.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   The vehicle row

   Vehicle identification number, year, make and model across the top of the sheet.

   Watch out: Take it from the certificate if you can see one, and from the dashboard plate if you cannot. On a lost title this row is what the replacement application will be built from.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Part A - I, ___ appoint ___

   Your printed name in the first gap, the buyer's printed name in the second.

   Watch out: The labels under the two gaps are SELLER (TRANSFEROR'S NAME, PRINT) and BUYER (TRANSFEREE'S NAME, PRINT). Getting them the wrong way round reverses the whole instrument.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   The date of the Statement

   The date this disclosure is being made, written into the sentence where it says the date of the Statement is.

   Watch out: It is inside the granting sentence rather than beside the signature, which is why it is the field most often left blank.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Part A odometer reading

   Whole miles, in the box marked with NO TENTHS.

   Watch out: Whatever goes here will be copied onto the title later by somebody who is not you. If it is wrong, it is wrong under your name and under a federal statute.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Part A statements 1 and 2

   Left empty unless the mileage is past the odometer's mechanical limit or is not the actual mileage.

   Watch out: The caution between them is printed in three lines and means it: READ CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU CHECK BLOCK.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Part A date of sale

   Month, day and year at the right-hand end of the odometer row.

   Watch out: This and the date of the Statement are usually the same day. They are separate fields because they are not always.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Part A signatures and printed names

   Transferee signs on the left, transferor on the right, with printed names underneath both.

   Watch out: Four lanes and all four are wanted. The buyer signs Part A too - they are accepting your disclosure, not just receiving the power.

8. 8
   The buyer fills this in

   Part B

   The buyer names themselves and appoints you, repeats the same reading and the same date, and both of you sign again.

   Watch out: Part B is what lets you sign the replacement certificate when it arrives. Without it you have handed over authority and kept none.

What gets this one rejected

• •Using it on an ordinary sale where the seller has the title in hand. The restriction line at the top allows two situations and no others.
• •A Part B with no Part A above it. The heading says Part B is invalid unless Part A has been completed, in brackets, on the form itself.
• •Two different readings in Part A and Part B. The whole mechanism depends on them matching - Part B's authority only operates if the disclosure is exactly as the one completed below it.
• •Filing it late, or not at all. The instruction is that this form must be submitted to the state by the person exercising Powers of Attorney, and failure to do so may result in fines and/or imprisonment.
• •A private seller completing Part C. It asks for a dealership name and is the dealer's certification about consistency between the power of attorney and the title.
• •Treating it as authority to sell the car. It authorises a replacement title application, an endorsement and a mileage disclosure - not a negotiation.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Why federal law is this careful. A power of attorney over an odometer disclosure is the classic route to a rolled-back reading, so the federal rule builds in a cross-check: you disclose to the buyer in Part A, the buyer authorises you back in Part B, and Part C certifies that what ended up on the title matches both.
• •It sits beside a replacement title application. Part A grants full authority to apply for a replacement certificate of title, which is the point. The buyer uses it to get a clean certificate issued and assigned without waiting for you to chase the lienholder yourself.
• •Original signatures only. Like every Alabama title document, this one is signed in ink and cannot be altered. Nothing on it is notarised.

Every line here was read off MVT 8-4 (5/20) 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.