How to fill out Kentucky TC 96-159S

How a written-off car leaves your name when you never signed anything for it. An insurer that has paid a total-loss claim swears this affidavit and applies for the title itself, and the parenthetical under the heading limits it to that: for use by insurance companies. A seller meets it twice - once when their own car is totalled and the certificate never comes back, and once when they are looking at a cheap car whose paperwork runs through an insurer.

Written against TC 96-159S (Rev 05/2020), issued under KRS 186A.190 and KRS 186A.520. If your car has been written off and the insurer has paid you, the vehicle is still registered to you until the insurer's application goes through. The plate is yours to keep under the 2024 rule, and the insurance verification system is still watching that identification number until the record changes.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC 96-159S from the transportation.ky.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   Dealers only

   The affiant and the company

   The officer's name and job title, the insurance company's name, and the city and county it sits in.

   Watch out: For a seller reading this: the person named here is who to ask about the date the title application went in.

2. 2
   Dealers only

   The settlement

   The day, month and year the current owner or lienholder received full claim settlement.

   Watch out: That is the date to match against your own record. If it is weeks before the state's record changed, the delay was in the paperwork rather than the payment.

3. 3
   Dealers only

   The vehicle

   Make, type, identification number, year, model and body style.

   Watch out: Body style takes the form's own examples - sedan, coupe. It is describing the car for a clerk, not for an adjuster.

4. 4
   Dealers only

   The odometer reading

   One figure, on the rule that says it is required on all transfers.

   Watch out: It is the reading at the point of the loss, and it is the last mileage the identification number will ever carry as a road vehicle.

5. 5
   Dealers only

   Sign it and swear it

   The affiant's signature and date, printed name, then the oath, the administering officer's signature and title, and the commission details.

   Watch out: This affidavit stands in place of your signature on the assignment, which is precisely why the state insists it be sworn.

What gets this one rejected

• •A private individual signing it. The parenthetical under the title restricts it to insurance companies.
• •No date of settlement. The affidavit turns on the day the owner received full claim settlement, and it is the date the transfer runs from.
• •An odometer line left empty. The printed note says a reading is required on all transfers, and a total loss is still a transfer.
• •A signer with no stated authority. The purpose statement asserts the affiant is duly authorised to sign on behalf of the company.
• •A vehicle described without an identification number. Everything the state does afterwards keys on it.
• •An unsworn affidavit. The oath at the foot is what allows a title to be issued to somebody who holds no assignment.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The owner's signature is replaced, not forged. This is the mechanism that lets a title move without an assignment. That is why the compliance line points at a specific statutory subsection rather than at the chapter.
• •The settlement date is the one to remember. If your own car was totalled, that date is what you match against the state's record to see when the vehicle left your name.

Every line here was read off TC 96-159S (Rev 05/2020) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing 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 Kentucky seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Kentucky involves.