Kentucky files a title away when a vehicle has sat unregistered long enough, and a car in that state cannot be sold, transferred or registered until the record is pulled back out. This is the affidavit that pulls it, and the interesting half is Section 1 rather than the signature block: five printed requirements, the last of which is that the customer must be willing to pay five years of back taxes at the time the vehicle is pulled from Archive.
Written against TC 96-338 (Rev 05/2020), issued under 601 KAR 9:080 and the Cabinet's archive procedure.
If you are buying a long-dormant Kentucky vehicle, ask whether the title is archived before you agree a price, not after. The five-year tax condition is the seller's to meet, and it changes what the car is worth to both of you.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC 96-338 from the transportation.ky.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual TC 96-338, 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
A pre-1981 identification number is thirteen characters rather than seventeen, which is one of the reasons old Kentucky vehicles end up archived in the first place. Section 3 is the clerk's and stays grey.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Read the five requirements before you write anything
Section 1 is not a form to complete; it is the eligibility test, and the fifth condition is a bill.
Watch out: If you are not the owner of record and there is no probate behind you, requirement 4 is a court order and this affidavit is not your route.
2
You fill this in
I, ______, hereby certify that I am the owner of record
Your name in the opening rule, then the year, make and vehicle identification number of the vehicle underneath.
Watch out: Owner of record means the name Frankfort has, which after a long dormancy may be a maiden name or a deceased parent's. Check before you sign.
3
You fill this in
Sign, and agree to the back taxes with the same stroke
Signature (Owner One), plus Owner Two if the archived title carried two names.
Watch out: The sentence above the line is the agreement to pay five years back taxes. There is no separate box to tick and no way to sign around it.
4
You fill this in
Swear it
The attesting official's date, signature, commission number and expiry.
Watch out: Note the date order on this one: the jurat runs day, month, year rather than the month-first order the rest of the set uses. Fill it in the order the labels ask for.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Section 1, requirements
Five numbered conditions rather than fields: submit the completed affidavit; the person requesting must be the owner of the vehicle being pulled; where the owner of record is deceased, an executor may request it with court documentation or an order to dispense; where anyone else requests it, a court order is required; and the five-years-of-back-taxes condition.
Section 2, the attestation
I, [name], hereby certify that I am the owner of record of the described vehicle - then year, make and vehicle identification number on three rules.
The agreement to pay
One printed sentence: I am requesting the above described vehicle to be removed from Archive, and by signing below, I agree to pay five years back taxes.
Two signature lines
Signature (Owner One)/Executor and Signature (Owner Two)/Executor, because a title in two names comes out the way it went in.
The jurat
Subscribed and attested before me on this date in day, month and year order, then the attesting official or notary signature, a commission expiry and a commission number.
Section 3, clerk information
Clerk name, county and phone number, then the clerk's signature and date - filled in at the counter, not by you.
Where it goes
A mailing address at PO Box 2014 in Frankfort and a fax number, both printed under the title.
What gets this one rejected
•A request from anyone but the owner of record. Requirement 2 says the person making the request MUST be the owner, in capitals, and requirement 4 sends everybody else to a judge.
•An executor with no court documentation. Requirement 3 asks for a copy of the court's paperwork or a request to the judge for an order to dispense.
•One signature on a two-owner title. The form prints two signature lines and Kentucky's AND rule applies here as everywhere else.
•Signing without reading the tax sentence. It is not a warning, it is a term of the request, and it sits directly above the signature.
•A vehicle identification number taken from memory. The affidavit is what tells Frankfort which archived record to retrieve.
•An unsworn affidavit. As with everything else in Kentucky, it is subscribed and attested before an official.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Archive is not the same as junked. A junked title has been cancelled deliberately and comes back through a different form. An archived title is simply asleep, and this wakes it.
•The tax bill arrives with the title. Five years of back taxes are due at the time the vehicle is pulled, which is worth knowing before you agree a price for a barn find.
