This is the buyer's form, not yours - it is how the person buying your car puts the title into their own name. It is here because a seller is asked about it constantly, because several of its thirteen sections are signed by somebody other than the applicant, and because knowing what it demands is how you tell a buyer what to bring instead of watching them come back.
Written against HSMV 82040 (Rev 07/23), issued under Rule 15C-21.001, Florida Administrative Code, printed on the form itself. Read it as the seller's checklist for the buyer rather than as your paperwork. The one section that is genuinely yours is the odometer certification, and by the time this form is filled in you have already made that on the title.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank HSMV 82040 from the flhsmv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is all 2 pages of the actual HSMV 82040, rendered from the PDF the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Transfer, not Original. Then answer the printing question: No leaves the record electronic, Yes in office or Yes mailed puts it on paper.
Watch out: Original is for a vehicle Florida has never titled. Choosing to print costs more than leaving it electronic and buys nothing unless a lender or a buyer in another state is going to demand the paper later.
The Florida county the applicant lives in, which is not always the county the office is in.
Watch out: It decides which local option taxes and fees apply. A buyer who drives to a neighbouring county because the queue is shorter still writes their own county here.
First, full middle or maiden, and last. The form asks for the full middle name rather than an initial.
Watch out: This is the name that will be printed on the certificate, and the certificate is what the next buyer will compare against a licence. A middle initial where the licence prints a full name is the difference that surfaces years later.
The licence or FEID number, the mailing address, and the residential street address underneath even when the two are the same.
Watch out: Florida asks for a physical street address separately because a mailing address can be a box number. Leaving the residential line blank because it repeats the line above is one of the commonest reasons an application is not accepted as complete.
Copied from the certificate the seller has just signed over.
Watch out: The title number here is the seller's outgoing one. A buyer who leaves it blank because they are applying for a new title has removed the only thing tying this application to the record it is meant to change.
Leave it blank on an ordinary private purchase. The plate on the car belongs to the seller and goes with them.
Watch out: This box catches out anyone who has bought a car in a state where plates stay with the vehicle. Write the seller's plate number in it and you have asked the department to move somebody else's registration onto your car.
Tick Private Use for an ordinary car. The rest of the row is for vehicles that carry a brand - rebuilt, flood, manufacturer's buy back, police, taxi and the others.
Watch out: Do not tick a brand the certificate does not already carry, and do not leave one off that it does. A brand on the record travels with the vehicle for the rest of its life, and adding or dropping one here is not a clerical matter.
Tick Sale and write the price in dollars and cents, then the date acquired in the three boxes on the right.
Watch out: Gift is not a way of reducing the tax on a sale, and the department knows what a sale looks like. The price here has to be the price on the title and on the notice of sale, because a clerk with three documents in front of them will read all three.
Tick 5 or 6 digit, one figure per box, then the date read.
Watch out: This is a second, separate federal statement about the same reading the seller made on the title. Both of you are certifying it, and a buyer who copies a figure across without looking at the dash is certifying something they have not checked.
Reflects actual mileage, is not the actual mileage, or is in excess of its mechanical limits.
Watch out: Note that Florida orders these three differently here than it does on the certificate itself. Read the words rather than counting the boxes, because the second box on this form is not the second box on the title.
The dealer sales tax report, the trade-in details, the vehicle identification number verification, the notary, the sales tax exemptions and the whole deceased-owner section.
Watch out: The VIN verification block is the one that catches private buyers: it has to be completed on a used vehicle not currently titled in Florida, and it is completed by a notary, a Florida dealer, a law enforcement officer or a department or tax collector employee. On HSMV 82042 if you would rather do it on a page of its own.
Signature, full name and the date, at the foot of page two.
Watch out: The line above it is a perjury declaration and an agreement to defend the title against all claims. It is the buyer's signature, not the seller's - a seller who signs here has applied to have the car put back in their own name.
| On the form | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| Application type | Original or transfer, ticked at the very top, alongside a choice about whether a certificate of title gets printed at all - no, yes in office, or yes mailed. |
| Section 1, owner and applicant | The buyer's name exactly as it appears on their driver licence, first, full middle or maiden, and last; residence and mailing addresses; date of birth; licence, identification card or FEID number; county of residence; and whether they are a Florida resident and a US citizen. |
| Section 1, joint ownership | A choice of “or” or “and” for two names, with a warning printed beside it: if neither box is checked, the title will be issued with "and". Three further boxes cover a life estate, tenancy by the entirety and rights of survivorship. |
| Section 2, the vehicle | Identification number, Florida title number, licence plate number, previous state of issue, make, model, year, body, colour, length, weight, gross vehicle weight and brake horsepower, plus fuel type - petrol, either kind of natural gas, either kind of hybrid, or electric. |
| Section 3, brands | Twenty-seven tick boxes covering everything Florida can stamp on a title, from bonded and rebuilt to flood, glider kit, street rod and taxicab. Whatever your title carries has to be carried forward. |
| Section 5, transfer type | How the vehicle was acquired and when: sale with the price written in, gift, repossession, court order, inheritance or other. |
| Section 6, odometer declaration | Five or six digit odometer, the reading in whole miles with no tenths, the date read, and one of three certifications - reflects actual mileage, is not the actual mileage, is in excess of its mechanical limits. |
| Section 8, VIN verification | A physical inspection, certified by a licensed Florida dealer, a Florida notary public, a law enforcement officer, or an authorised FLHSMV, tax collector or licence plate agency employee. Required on all used motor vehicles not currently titled in Florida. |
| Section 9, sales tax exemption | Where no tax is due: inheritance, gift, divorce decree, transfer between a married couple, an even trade or trade down with the facts written out, or an exemption certificate held by a state agency or county. |
| Section 12, signatures | Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have read the foregoing document and that the facts stated in it are true - then the applicant's full name, signature and date, with a second row for a co-owner. |
| Section 13, release of spouse or heirs interest | The block that turns this into an inheritance form: the name of the person who died and the date, testate or intestate, and the signatures of the spouse, co-owner or heirs releasing their claim to the applicant. |
Every line here was read off HSMV 82040 (Rev 07/23) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles 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 Florida seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Florida involves.