The form for a transfer whose certificate nobody can physically sign - most often because the title is electronic, sitting in the Department's system rather than in a drawer. Seller, buyer and designated agent each grant Motor Vehicle Services written authority against a named title number: the seller authorises it to assign the certificate and disclose the mileage exactly as stated, the buyer authorises it to sign where their signature is required. One mileage certification in the middle serves everybody.
Written against 78-033 (10/17), issued under Motor Vehicle Services, which the form authorises to sign in each party's place.
This is a power over one certificate, not a power of attorney. It authorises the Department itself to sign a named title; it does not let anybody else sell your car. If someone needs to act broadly in your absence, that is the notarised 78-003.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 78-033 from the dor.ms.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 78-033 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 78-033, 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 78-033, completed for the sample sale. The designated agent's paragraph is deliberately empty and shaded - it belongs to the counter, not to either party - and both completed grants carry the same title number, because each authorization is only as wide as the certificate it names.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The vehicle band
VIN, year, make, model and body across the top, from the title record.
Watch out: On an electronic title you may be copying from a registration receipt or the e-Services record rather than a certificate - the VIN is the anchor either way.
2
You fill this in
Your grant, with the title number
Your printed name into the transferor paragraph and the certificate's number into its blank.
Watch out: The number is on the face of a paper title and on the vehicle record for an electronic one - the Department's Title Status Lookup in e-Services will confirm it.
3
The buyer fills this in
The buyer's grant
The buyer's printed name and the same title number in their paragraph.
Watch out: Same number, both paragraphs. The grants are separate authorities over one certificate, not a shared sentence.
4
You fill this in
The mileage certification
The reading in whole miles into section B, exceptions checked only if genuinely true.
Watch out: Both grants above are conditional on this figure - the Department signs the disclosure only if it is exactly what you stated here, so this is the number to read off the dashboard with the buyer watching.
5
You fill this in
Your column of the grid
Signature, printed name, address, city-state-zip down the left side.
Watch out: The column is labelled seller's/designated agent's - in a private transfer it is yours, and the agent's involvement shows up in their own paragraph, not this column.
6
The buyer fills this in
The buyer's column
The buyer's signature, printed name, address and city-state-zip down the right.
Watch out: Two authorities, two columns, one mileage between them - a form with one column filled moves nothing, so watch them sign before you part with anything.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The vehicle band
Vehicle identification number, year, make, model and body, boxed across the top.
Section A, the seller's authorization
TO BE COMPLETED BY TRANSFEROR / SELLER: your printed name, authorising the Department to assign certificate of title number (blank), reflecting the above described vehicle, to the transferee below - and to disclose the mileage exactly as I have stated in my disclosure below.
Section A, the buyer's authorization
The mirror grant: the buyer authorises the Department to sign certificate of title number (blank) where my signature is required, and to sign the mileage disclosure if it matches the one completed below.
Section A, the designated agent's authorization
A third, identical grant for the designated agent processing the transfer - used when the agent's own signature on the certificate needs the Department's pen.
Section B, the odometer disclosure
The same certification the certificate carries: I state that the odometer now reads (no tenths) miles, with statement (1) for mileage IN EXCESS OF ITS MECHANICAL LIMITS and statement (2) for not actual mileage, WARNING - ODOMETER DISCREPANCY.
The signature grid
Two columns at the foot: seller's or designated agent's signature, printed name, address and city-state-zip on the left; the buyer's same four lines on the right.
What gets this one rejected
•No title number in the grant. Each authorization names the certificate it covers by number; an authorization against a blank is an open cheque the Department will not cash.
•A mileage that disagrees with anything. The grants are conditional on the disclosure matching - the buyer authorises a signature only if the disclosure is exactly as the disclosure completed below - so one digit of drift voids the point of the form.
•Only the seller's side completed. The Department can only sign for the parties who authorised it; a form with an empty buyer column moves half a title.
•Using it to dodge a spoiled assignment. A strikeover on the certificate is the 78-008's business; this form is for signatures that cannot reach the certificate, not signatures that reached it wrongly.
•A hand-rounded reading. The (no tenths) instruction is the same one every Mississippi mileage document carries, and the number here is checked against the application like any other.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Why this form exists at all. Mississippi issues electronic titles and electronic lien titles at the same fee as paper ones, and an electronic certificate has no back to sign. The Department's e-lien FAQ adds the legal wrinkle: when a motor vehicle is subject to an electronic lien, the certificate is considered physically held by the lienholder for odometer-disclosure purposes. This form is how flesh-and-blood signatures reach a certificate that exists as a record.
•Three grants, one document. Seller, buyer and designated agent each have their own authorization paragraph with its own title-number blank. Complete the ones the transfer needs and leave the rest - the sample fills two and leaves the agent's empty.
