How to fill out Hawaii CS-L(MVR)40

Hawaii does not put the price on the certificate of title, so an ordinary sale can be completed without ever writing down what the car sold for. This one-page bill of sale is where that number lives, and it does two other jobs the certificate cannot. It carries a warranty of clear ownership in the seller's own words - the said seller hereby warrants that he is the lawful owner of said vehicle, that it is free from all liens and encumbrances - with a line to name a lien if there is one. And it carries a second, standalone odometer certification, which is what makes it the document the county names when a buyer needs a notarized bill of sale for a double transfer or for a certificate the recorded owner never released.

Written against CS-L(MVR)40 (04/2026), issued under City and County of Honolulu Department of Customer Services, Division of Motor Vehicles, issued for use with a certificate of title transfer. The lien line is the trap on this form, because it sits inside a sentence you are warranting. Read it as one sentence rather than as a box: you are swearing the vehicle is free from all liens and encumbrances except whatever you write on that rule. If a credit union still holds the certificate, this is not the form that fixes it - the release goes in Section B on the back of the title, or comes as a lien satisfaction letter.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank CS-L(MVR)40 from the www4.honolulu.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our CS-L(MVR)40 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

   The consideration, written out in words

   The long blank before the word Dollars. Write the amount the way a cheque is written - the whole number, then the cents.

   Watch out: And other valuable consideration is already printed after it. You do not need to itemise a part-exchange or a set of tyres you threw in; the phrase covers them.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   The same amount in figures

   The bracketed box straight after. The two have to agree.

   Watch out: Do not round one and not the other. A bill of sale whose words say eight hundred fifty and whose figures say eight hundred is a document that argues with itself, and the words are the half that governs.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Name of the buyer

   The undersigned seller sells, transfers and delivers unto this person. Use the buyer's full legal name, matching the name that will go into Section D on the back of the certificate.

   Watch out: If two people are buying jointly, write both names here. A bill of sale naming one of a joint pair does not evidence the other one's ownership.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   License plate number and VIN

   The two boxes on the first description line. Both come off the certificate of registration.

   Watch out: The VIN is the one that matters if the plate later changes. Check it against the plate on the dashboard as well as the paperwork.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Make and model year, and body type

   The second description line. Make and model year share one box on this form; body type takes the county's own shorthand from the registration.

   Watch out: Model year is the year the vehicle was built as, not the year you bought it. On a car sold new in January the two are often different.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   The lien exception

   Two ruled lines inside the warranty sentence. If nobody holds a lien, write None across them rather than leaving them empty.

   Watch out: Empty lines invite a clerk to wonder. The county's own note - if no lienholder shown, transfer will be processed without recording lien - means blank works, but None is unambiguous.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   The odometer reading

   Whole miles, no tenths, as at the moment of handover. The certification above it is a federal one and the warning about fines and imprisonment is printed on the form.

   Watch out: Read the dashboard on the day you sign, not the day you advertised. A number two thousand miles stale is a false statement, however innocently it got there.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   The two exception boxes

   Box one is for a reading that reflects mileage in excess of the odometer's mechanical limits. Box two is for a reading that is not the actual mileage, and prints its own capitalised warning.

   Watch out: Leave both empty on an honest odometer. Ticking one because you are unsure records a discrepancy against the vehicle that follows it through every future sale.

What gets this one rejected

• •A price in figures that does not match the price in words. The form asks for both because the words govern - and a mismatch is the first thing a clerk reads.
• •Leaving the lien line blank when a lender is still on the certificate. The form is a warranty that the vehicle is free from all liens and encumbrances except the one you name, and signing that with an open loan is a statement you cannot support.
• •Naming a lien you have already paid off. The county's note is that if no lienholder is shown, the transfer will be processed without recording a lien - so writing in a discharged lender re-creates a problem you had already solved.
• •Tenths of a mile in the odometer box. The blank prints (no tenths) and the county wants whole miles.
• •Ticking a mileage box to be cautious. Both boxes are declarations that the reading is untrue in a specific way; ticking one on a car whose odometer is honest is a false statement on a form that warns about fines and imprisonment.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It is not the transfer, it is the evidence. A Hawaii transfer runs on the endorsed certificate of title. This sheet supports it - with the price, the lien warranty and a duplicate odometer certification - and never replaces it.
• •Notarised in exactly two situations. Honolulu names both. A second buyer recording a double transfer needs a notarized bill of sale or a seller power of attorney from the first buyer. And on an out-of-county or out-of-state certificate not released by the recorded owner, a notarized bill of sale must be provided.
• •The odometer certification here stands on its own. It reproduces the same wording and the same two boxes that appear on the certificate and on the registration application, which is why it works as a substitute when the certificate's own reading is unusable.
• •Every county publishes one. Maui's forms library lists a bill of sale used to attest to the transfer of the described vehicle to a buyer. Use the one your county publishes; the wording is close but the address at the top is not.
• •Keep your copy. There is no filing step and no fee. The bill of sale is the seller's own record of the price and of the warranty they gave, and it is the document that answers a dispute about either.

Every line here was read off CS-L(MVR)40 (04/2026) 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.