The notarised page that lets somebody else sell your car - deployed overseas, laid up, or simply five hundred miles from the buyer. The grantor appoints a true and lawful attorney to sell, transfer and assign one described motor vehicle, certifies the mileage on the same page, and swears the whole thing before a notary. The regulation gives it two hard edges: it must travel with the application as a supporting document, and it cannot be reassigned to another individual and/or company.
Written against 78-003 (Rev 06/21), issued under Mississippi Administrative Code 35.VII.5.04, which requires it as a supporting document to the application.
This is the private individual's instrument. The margin of the replacement application splits the world in two - dealers attach copy 3 of their secure form, OTHERS USE 78-003 - and the dealer's secure power of attorney is a controlled document a private seller cannot buy, download or borrow.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 78-003 from the dor.ms.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 78-003 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 78-003, rendered from the PDF the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Services 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 actual 78-003 at Rev. 06/21, completed for an owner working out of state while his sister-in-law handles the sale. The grantor's name matches the certificate exactly - the form demands it in its own sub-label - and the sworn mileage inside the power is the number the appointee is authorised to certify. The signature rule above the printed name is blank here deliberately: the Department's PDF puts no fillable field behind it, because that line is signed in ink in front of the notary.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
County, and your name as the title has it
The county where you swear the power, then your name in the grantor blank, copied from the face of the certificate.
Watch out: Same form as contained in certificate of title is the printed standard - middle initials included. Read it off the title, not off your licence.
2
You fill this in
The appointee, findable and singular
Who may sell in your place, their address and county - with an authorized representative named if the appointee is a business.
Watch out: Choose the person who will actually stand at the handover; the power cannot be reassigned, so a chain of helpful relatives is one relative too many.
3
You fill this in
The vehicle, one only
Make, VIN, year, body type and title number.
Watch out: The grant is as wide as this block and no wider - a second vehicle needs a second sworn page, not a second line squeezed in.
4
You fill this in
The mileage, sworn now
The odometer reading in whole miles, exceptions checked only if true.
Watch out: This number rides with the power into the buyer's application. If the car will be driven between now and the sale, plan the signing accordingly.
5
You fill this in
Sign, print, and the company-title rule
Signature of owner, grantor, and the printed name - with the office held appended if the title is in a company name.
Watch out: Partner, President, Sec. Treas. - the form's own examples. A company car signed without the office is an unsigned company car.
6
Somebody else fills this in
The notary's block
The notary completes the acknowledgement - the individual name only, the personal appearance, the hand and seal of office.
Watch out: The acknowledgement names an individual even when the grantor is a business; the notary is vouching for the human being who appeared, not the letterhead.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The passing instruction
Printed under the heading before anything else: this document shall pass with the Certificate of Title and be included as a support document to the application for new Certificate of Title and/or Application for Replacement Certificate of Title.
The grantor
State of Mississippi, county of - then THAT I, (grantor), with the instruction that the name appear in same form as contained in Certificate of Title, the grantor's address, and their county.
The appointee
The person appointed, with the note that a business appointee must also include the name of an authorized representative of the business, plus their address and county - made my true and lawful attorney, for me and in my name, place and stead to sell, transfer and assign.
The vehicle
Make, V.I.N., year, body type and title number - the grant is exactly one vehicle wide.
The mileage certification
The standard Mississippi disclosure, sworn inside the power itself: the odometer reading, no tenths, with statement 1 for mileage in excess of the mechanical limits of the odometer and statement 2 for the odometer reading is not actual mileage, WARNING-ODOMETER DISCREPANCY.
The execution and jurat
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the day and month, the signature of owner, grantor, the printed name (with company title if the certificate is in a business name - Partner, President, Sec. Treas.), then the notary's acknowledgement of the individual who personally appeared, GIVEN UNDER MY HAND AND SEAL OF OFFICE.
What gets this one rejected
•A grantor name that drifts from the certificate. The form's own instruction is name to appear in same form as contained in certificate of title - a maiden name on the title and a married name on the power is a rejected pair.
•An attempt to hand the power on. The regulation is one line: a properly completed power of attorney cannot be reassigned to another individual and/or company. Your appointee cannot appoint.
•Using it after the owner has died. The regulation kills it automatically: a power of attorney to transfer a motor vehicle automatically expires and is no longer valid upon death of the owner - the estate's paperwork takes over from that moment.
•Leaving the mileage blank for the appointee to fill later. The certification is the grantor's, sworn with the rest of the page; a power with an open odometer line is an open cheque.
•No notary. The acknowledgement block is most of the bottom third of the page, and an unsworn power moves nothing at any counter.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is welded to the mileage it certifies. Because the odometer statement is sworn inside the power, the appointee is selling at that reading - a car that keeps being driven after the power is signed drifts away from its own paperwork. Sign it close to the sale, not months ahead.
•Corrected mileage is beyond an appointee. The corrected-odometer affidavit prints the boundary: a person appointed by a power of attorney cannot complete this affidavit. If the record's mileage is wrong, the owner personally swears the fix - no power reaches it.
