The easy door, for the estates that planned ahead. Kansas titles can name a transfer-on-death beneficiary, and when the owner dies this affidavit is how the named person claims the vehicle: the beneficiaries certify who they are, that the deceased was the lawful owner, that they are listed on the title as successors, and they certify the odometer reading - because an affidavit transfer has no assignment block to carry the mileage. No probate, no court, no notary; the sworn sentence and the attachments do all of it.
Written against TR-82 (Rev 07/24), issued under K.S.A. 8-135(c)(10).
Check what the title actually says before promising anyone the car. TOD designations are made and unmade at every title application, and the controlling fact is the printed successor line on the certificate's face - the verification the instructions ask for exists precisely because memories of who was named are wrong more often than the record is.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TR-82 from the ksrevenue.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our TR-82 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual TR-82, rendered from the PDF the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles 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 widow the title named as successor, claiming the car with one sworn page. Amber is everything the beneficiary completes, including the odometer certification the affidavit carries because no title assignment exists yet. The signature lines wait for ink, and the death certificate and title verification the instructions require travel stapled behind.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Every named beneficiary
The names, exactly as the title's TOD designation carries them.
Watch out: All of them - and if one wants no part of the car, the disclaiming affidavit the instructions describe happens now, not after the county has keyed a half-set of names.
2
You fill this in
The deceased and the date
The owner's name and the date of death, inside the printed certification.
Watch out: Match the death certificate exactly - it is attached to this sheet, and the county reads them side by side.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle and mileage
Year, make, style, VIN, the odometer reading with no tenths, and one of the three boxes.
Watch out: Read the dash on the day you sign. An estate car that sat for a year still gets its true current reading, and actual is almost always the honest box.
4
You fill this in
Sign, and gather the attachments
Signatures and printed names, plus the death certificate, the title verification, and any lienholder consent or release.
Watch out: The verification can be the title itself, the last registration receipt, or an ownership verification from the county or the Division - cheapest first.
5
You fill this in
The county, then the market
Take the affidavit and its attachments to the county treasurer's motor vehicle office and title the vehicle in the beneficiary's name.
Watch out: Only then can the car be sold - the new title in your name is what you will assign to a buyer, and Kansas's ordinary rules take over from there.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Individuals Named as Transfer on Death Beneficiaries
Four name lines - everyone the title names as a TOD beneficiary.
The certification
Certifies that the applicants are the transfer on death beneficiaries of the named deceased, who departed this life on a stated date and was the lawful owner of the vehicle.
The vehicle
The inherited vehicle's year, make, body style and VIN.
Odometer Reading
The reading with no tenths, and three boxes: actual; the mileage stated is in excess of its mechanical limits; the odometer reading is not actual mileage, with its printed warning - odometer discrepancy.
The successor sentence
The certification that the persons shown on the face of the Kansas certificate of title are the last registered owners and that the applicants are also listed on the title as successors upon the death of the previous owners.
Signatures
Two applicant signature lines, each with a printed name beside it, under the sworn-statement sentence.
What gets this one rejected
•An applicant the title does not name. The whole affidavit turns on the successor sentence - the applicants must be listed on the title as successors - and no sworn statement puts an unnamed relative inside it.
•No death certificate. The instructions require a copy of the death certificate for each owner shown on the Kansas title, attached.
•No proof of what the title says. The instructions ask for verification that the vehicle was last titled in Kansas, to whom, and who is shown as beneficiary - the title itself, the last registration receipt, or a verification of ownership from the county treasurer or the Division.
•A lien ignored. Where a lienholder is listed on the face of the title, the instructions require a notarized lienholder's consent on a TR-128 or a notarized lien release from the lienholder of record.
•A beneficiary name that no longer matches. Where the name on the deceased's title is not how the beneficiary's new title should read, the instructions send you to the One and the Same affidavit on the TR-12.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•A beneficiary can step aside. The instructions allow a named beneficiary to disclaim their interest by completing an affidavit conveying it to the other named beneficiary - but at least one of the parties listed must title the vehicle in their name before the ownership moves on.
•Title first, sell second. That same instruction is the seller's rule: the beneficiary titles the vehicle in their own name at the county treasurer's office, and only then assigns it to a buyer like any other owner.
•The odometer certification is real. The reading and its box are sworn here because no assignment exists yet - and the not-actual box carries the same permanent odometer discrepancy warning it does everywhere else.
Every line here was read off TR-82 (Rev 07/24) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
