Not a form a private seller can use, and worth knowing why. This is a licensed Massachusetts dealer's order for pads of DRT-1 forms - the controlled, numbered supplementary sheet a dealer uses when all three re-assignment blocks on the back of a certificate have been used up. A private seller meets the DRT-1 itself in one situation only: trading in a car that still has a loan on it.
Written against FIV100 (FIV100_0824, August 2024), issued under M.G.L. c.90 s.5 and RMV Section 5 Division policy.
If a private buyer produces a DRT-1 and asks you to sign it, something is wrong. It is a controlled form issued to a licensed dealership against its municipal licence, and a private individual holding one has either borrowed it or is not what they say they are.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank FIV100 from the mass.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual FIV100, rendered from the PDF the Massachusetts Registry of Motor 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 empty block at the foot is the Registry's own: number of pads, starting and ending control numbers, who collected them and their licence number. That is what makes the DRT-1 a controlled form - and what makes it the wrong piece of paper for anyone who is not a licensed dealer.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Dealers only
Whose form this is
A licensed Massachusetts dealer ordering pads of DRT-1 forms from the Registry's Section 5 Division.
Watch out: If you are selling your own car, you never file this. The point of reading it is to recognise the DRT-1 when a dealer puts one in front of you.
2
Dealers only
Dealer information
Name, address, telephone, fax, email, date and signature.
Watch out: A copy of the municipal dealer licence goes with the first order of each calendar year, which is how the Registry checks the applicant is still licensed.
3
Dealers only
Dealer plates
Whether the dealership holds dealer plates, and the plate number or the current year city or town licence number.
Watch out: The two branches have different attachment rules and the dates matter: before 1 April a copy of the licence is included, after 1 April it is not.
4
Dealers only
Requested by
The name and signature of the person ordering, acknowledging the rules on use.
Watch out: That acknowledgement is the enforceable part. Misuse of a DRT-1 is grounds for revoking the dealership's general registration and plates.
5
You fill this in
What a seller actually signs
Not this application, but side two of the DRT-1 itself if a dealer is paying off a loan on a car you are trading in.
Watch out: Read the mileage box before you sign it. That disclosure carries the same federal weight as the one on the back of a certificate, and it is the only one that will exist for this transfer.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Instructions
Two paragraphs of rules addressed to dealers: the DRT-1 is a supplemental transfer document, to be completed by a licensed Massachusetts dealer only when all other dealer re-assignment spaces on the certificate are full, including on out-of-state titles. The forms are controlled and tracked by the Registry, may not be shared with or loaned to anyone, and the control number must be entered into the dealership's used vehicle record book.
Dealer Information
Dealer name, date, address, business telephone, fax, business email and a signature.
Dealer plates
Two tick boxes - has dealer plates with the plate number, or does not, with the current year city or town licence number - and different rules about when a copy of the municipal licence has to be attached.
Requested by
The name and signature of the person ordering, whose signature acknowledges that they have read and understand the rules regarding use of the DRT-1 form.
Registry use only
Number of pads, date, starting and ending control numbers, who collected them, their licence number, and the entered and mailed dates.
What gets this one rejected
•A private individual ordering forms. The application requires a copy of the dealer licence issued by the city or town.
•A dealer using a DRT-1 before the certificate's own re-assignment blocks are full. It is a supplemental document and only becomes usable when all other dealer re-assignments are complete.
•Lending a pad to another dealership. The forms are tracked by the Registry and are to be used by the ordering dealership only.
•Failing to record the control number in the used vehicle record book.
•Improper use generally. The application warns that it may result in suspension or revocation of the general registration and dealer plates, and that the Registry will notify the city or town and recommend licence revocation.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Where a seller does sign a DRT-1. The second side of a DRT-1 carries an Assignment and Authorization for Payoff. A dealer taking a financed car in part-exchange uses it in place of the first assignment on the reverse of the certificate, and the vehicle's owner signs it, prints their name, dates it and discloses the mileage - which is a private seller signing a dealer's controlled form.
•It also covers a duplicate. The same side carries an Assignment for Duplicate Certificate of Title, used with the duplicate title application so the replacement can be posted to the dealer and the car transferred once it arrives.
•Federal law applies to it exactly as it does to the certificate. The instruction on the form is that after the vehicle information and odometer disclosures are made, both buyers and sellers are required by federal law to sign their names, followed by hand printing their names and dating the transfer.
•Never a substitute for the owner's assignment. The block on the back of the certificate headed by owner is still the only assignment for a casual sale. The DRT-1 exists for what happens after a dealer is in the chain.
Every line here was read off FIV100 (FIV100_0824, August 2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
