How to fill out Hawaii CS-L(MVR)187

This one-signature certificate is the clearest statement anywhere of how Hawaii's four-county system actually works. Its opening paragraph quotes the rule: section 249-2 requires that the registration taxes and fees be paid by the owner of each vehicle in the county in which the vehicle is physically located at the time of registration. The county sends it when your registration address is on another island, and it asks a single question - is the vehicle still physically here? Sign it and it goes back with the renewal. Answer no and the paragraph tells you what to do instead: contact that county's motor vehicle registration office for their requirements and amount due.

Written against CS-L(MVR)187 (01/2026), issued under Section 249-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, quoted in the certificate's own opening paragraph. For a seller this form is a warning label about which county to file in. Hawaii's notice of transfer goes to the county where the vehicle was last registered, and a car that has quietly lived on a different island for two years may be registered in one county and located in another. Sort out which record you are on before the sale, not after the ten days have run.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank CS-L(MVR)187 from the www4.honolulu.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our CS-L(MVR)187 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Read the paragraph before you sign it

   The printed opening quotes section 249-2 and explains why the county sent the form: the registration address reflects another county's address.

   Watch out: If the vehicle really is on another island, do not sign. The paragraph tells you to contact that county's office for its requirements and amount due.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Signature of registered owner

   The single signature under the certification that the vehicle is physically located in the City and County of Honolulu.

   Watch out: It is a certification about a fact, and the fact is where the car sits - not where you sit. Those are different questions on a four-island state.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Date

   The last field. The certificate then goes back with the renewal application, the payment and the safety inspection certificate if one is required.

   Watch out: Date it the day you sign. This certificate speaks about the vehicle's location at that moment, and it travels with a renewal that has its own timing.

What gets this one rejected

• •Signing it for a vehicle that has moved islands. The certification is about where the vehicle physically is, not where the owner lives.
• •Sending it on its own. The instruction is to enclose it with the renewal application form, the payment, and the certificate of safety inspection if required.
• •Using it to change the registration address. That is the change-of-address notice, and the two do different jobs.
• •Assuming it settles which county a sale is filed in. Your notice of transfer goes to the county where the vehicle was last registered, whatever this certificate says about where it sits today.
• •Ignoring it. The county sends it because its record shows another county's address, and a renewal that comes back without it is a renewal the county cannot process.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Section 249-2 is the whole reason. Registration taxes and fees are payable in the county where the vehicle is physically located at the time of registration - which is why Hawaii's fees are county fees rather than state ones.
• •It is triggered by an address, not by the car. The paragraph says the address of this vehicle's registration reflects another county's address. The mismatch is what generates the form.
• •If the answer is no, the county tells you where to go. Contact that county's motor vehicle registration office for their requirements and amount due - which will not be Honolulu's numbers.
• •The safety inspection rides along. The instruction names the certificate of safety inspection, if required, among what to enclose - the same inspection a transfer will not complete without.
• •Two fields, but it is a certification. A signature and a date under a sentence in capitals. Short does not mean informal.

Every line here was read off CS-L(MVR)187 (01/2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the City and County of Honolulu Division of Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits 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 Hawaii seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Hawaii involves.