The cure for the one error the correction affidavit refuses to touch: a wrong odometer reading already on the title record. The purchaser swears a statement of facts - what the odometer actually read at acquisition, and why the application papers said otherwise - agrees to indemnify the Department for any losses, and pays the printed FEE: $9.00 for the corrected certificate. The bite is in the notice: affidavits from every owner involved since the discrepancy occurred.
Written against 78-023 (09/17), issued under the purchaser, swearing a statement of facts and indemnifying the Department.
The indemnity clause means the swearing purchaser stands financially behind the corrected number. Nobody should sign it as a favour to close a sale faster - if the true reading is genuinely unknown, say so on the disclosure instead, exceptions box and all.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 78-023 from the dor.ms.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 78-023 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 78-023, 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 78-023, sworn for the classic version of this problem - two digits swapped in transcription, discovered when the new certificate arrived. The reason lines name the mechanism plainly, because the examiner's real question is whether this is clerical error or odometer fraud, and specific, checkable facts are what separate the two.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The buyer fills this in
The acquisition facts
Date acquired, purchaser's full legal name and address, the vehicle's make, model and VIN.
Watch out: The date matters: the affidavit certifies the reading at the time that I acquired this vehicle, so the number and the date have to belong to the same afternoon.
2
The buyer fills this in
The seller's name and address
The full legal name and address of the person the vehicle came from.
Watch out: This is why sellers keep copies of both faces of the signed title - months later, this line gets filled from somebody's photocopy, accurately or not.
3
The buyer fills this in
The true reading and the reason
The odometer reading, no tenths, and the plain-language explanation of how the papers came to disagree.
Watch out: Write the mechanism, not an apology: transposed at the counter, misread five for six. The ruled lines are short because a real explanation is.
4
The buyer fills this in
Read the indemnity before signing
The agreement to make the Department whole if the facts sworn here turn out wrong.
Watch out: This clause is the reason to verify the reading personally against the dashboard before swearing - it is your name standing behind the number, not the seller's.
5
The buyer fills this in
Notary, fee, and the rest of the chain
Sign before the notary, attach FEE: $9.00, and collect the same sworn page from every other owner since the discrepancy.
Watch out: The all-owners rule is the expensive part - track the chain down early, because the corrected certificate waits for the last signature, not the first.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The purchaser's statement of facts
On (date), I (purchaser's full legal name), of (address including city, state and zip), acquired the following vehicle - the make and model and vehicle identification number blanks follow.
The seller's identity
The seller's full legal name and address on one line - the person whose assignment carried, or should have carried, the true reading.
The true reading and the reason
The odometer reading at the time of acquisition, no tenths, then two ruled lines for how the error happened: in error, the documents pertaining to the application for title to this vehicle reflected an incorrect odometer reading due to the following reason.
The indemnity
The sentence that makes this more than a correction: I further agree to indemnify the Mississippi Department of Revenue for any and all losses, which it might suffer due to the existence of facts to the contrary of those contained in this affidavit.
The jurat and the notice
Date, purchaser's signature twice, notary with commission expiry and seal - and the IMPORTANT NOTICE that affidavits must be obtained from all owners involved since the discrepancy occurred, with a rule that a person appointed by a power of attorney cannot complete this affidavit.
What gets this one rejected
•An attorney-in-fact signing. The notice is absolute: a person appointed by a power of attorney cannot complete this affidavit. The owner swears it personally or it does not get sworn.
•One affidavit where the chain has three owners. Every owner since the discrepancy swears their own - a title two sales downstream of the error needs the whole line of them.
•A vague reason. The ruled lines want the mechanism - digits transposed at the counter, a reading taken from the wrong vehicle - because the examiner is deciding whether this was error or rollback.
•No fee. The corrected certificate is a title issuance like any other, and the form prints its price at the top: FEE: $9.00.
•Treating it as a way to lower a reading. The affidavit records what the odometer actually read; a seller who wants the record to say fewer miles than the dashboard is describing the WARNING - ODOMETER DISCREPANCY box, not this form.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Why the seller on this form is you. This is sworn by purchasers - but the seller it names is whoever made the flawed disclosure, and when the buyer's counter visit surfaces a mileage mismatch, the call you get is this form's doing. The cheap prevention is upstream: one careful reading on the assignment, matched on the 78-015 if one travels with the sale.
•Correction versus discrepancy. A correctable error has a story the ruled lines can carry. Where nobody can honestly explain the number, the vehicle's paperwork belongs under the not-actual-mileage warning instead - permanently. This affidavit is for fixing the record, never for laundering it.
