A garage's or a wrecker company's affidavit for selling a vehicle it has never owned, to recover a bill the owner has not paid. Kentucky lets a repairer do this after the reasonable agreed charge for repair has gone unpaid for at least 30 days, and a towing and storage operator after 45. For a seller the reason to read it is defensive: this is the document that ends your ownership of a car sitting in somebody else's yard, and every step on it is a deadline you could still interrupt.
Written against TC 96-159 (08/2021), issued under KRS 376.270, KRS 376.275, KRS 376.280 and KRS 281.928.
If your car is in a yard and the bill is disputed, the dates on this affidavit are the ones that matter - possession, the mailed notice, the ten-day notice and the three weeks of advertising. Every one of them is a point at which the sale can still be stopped by paying, and every one of them passes quietly.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC 96-159 from the transportation.ky.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual TC 96-159, rendered from the PDF the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing 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
Read it as a timeline rather than as a form. Possession in February, notice by post a week later, a ten-day warning at the end of May, three weeks of advertising, and a sale in June - each of those dates a moment the owner could have stopped it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Dealers only
The vehicle and the date possession began
Make, year, identification number, plate, and the month, day and year the vehicle came into the affiant's sole possession.
Watch out: For an owner: this date is the anchor. Everything else on the sheet counts forward from it, so it is the first thing to check.
2
Dealers only
Why it is there
Who requested the repair or the tow, where it was towed from, and the reason on the wide line.
Watch out: A police-requested tow and a customer-requested repair are different situations with different statutes behind them, and the form asks you to say which.
3
Dealers only
The sale and the unpaid balance
The date sold, the purchaser's name and address, and the total the sale is covering.
Watch out: The total is what the lien is being satisfied for, not what the vehicle was worth. Those are two different numbers and the difference belongs to the owner.
4
Dealers only
Owner of record and lienholder
Full name and address rows for both, exactly as the state's record has them.
Watch out: A lienholder row filled in with none of record is a claim that the clerk will check against the title.
5
Dealers only
The two notification dates
The date notice was mailed as Kentucky statutes require, and the separate date of the ten-day notification prior to the sale.
Watch out: Two different letters, two different dates. A single mailing does not satisfy both lines.
6
Dealers only
Advertising, then swear it
The publication and the dates it ran for three successive weeks, then the authorised signature, title and the notary's block.
Watch out: The advertisement is the public part of this process, and it is where an owner who has lost track of a car occasionally finds it again.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The vehicle
Make, year, vehicle identification or hull number, and the licence state and number, across the top.
Sole possession since
A month and day, then a year - the date the affiant's possession began, which is the date every subsequent deadline counts from.
Repaired or towed at the request of
Who asked for the work or the tow, where it was towed from, and a wide line for the reason for repair or for towing and storage.
The statutory recital
A printed paragraph that a lien has existed in favour of the affiant for a mechanic's lien or for towing and storage charges, and that the charge has gone unpaid for the periods the statutes set.
The sale
The month, day and year the vehicle was sold, the name and address of the purchaser, and the dollar total the sale was to cover.
Owner of record and lienholder
Two full address rows - name, street, city, state and ZIP - for the registered owner and for any lienholder.
Notification
The date notice was sent by mail as required by Kentucky statutes, and a separate line for the ten-day required notification prior to the sale.
Advertising
The name of the publication and the dates the advertisement ran, described on the form as three successive weeks.
Affiant and jurat
The lienholder's name, address, authorised signature and title, sworn before a notary with a commission number and expiration.
What gets this one rejected
•A sale earlier than the statutory wait. The recital itself names the periods, and a clerk reading a possession date three weeks before a sale date will stop.
•No proof the owner was written to. The affidavit asserts notice by mail on a stated date, and asserting it is swearing to it.
•Advertising in the wrong place or for the wrong span. The form asks for a named publication and three successive weeks.
•An owner-of-record row that does not match the state's record. The clerk has that record in front of them.
•A total that is not itemised anywhere. The figure is the unpaid balance the sale is covering, and it is the number the former owner will dispute.
•A signature without a title. The form asks who signed and in what capacity, because a business cannot sign for itself.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Two clocks, and they are different lengths. Thirty days for an unpaid repair, forty-five for unpaid towing and storage. Which one applies is decided by why the vehicle is there.
•The company has to be registered with the Secretary of State. The Cabinet says so on its own titling page for both the towing and the mechanic's lien route. A yard that is not registered cannot use this form.
