How to fill out a Nevada title

Ten boxes on the transfer section, and only 4 of them are yours. Here is the transfer section of a VP-2 (Rev 2021) Nevada title with sample values in it, numbered exactly the way the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles numbers them in its own Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025.

Last updated August 22, 2026.

Your 4 boxes

As a private seller you complete these and nothing else:

21Odometer reading
22Odometer declaration
23Signature and printed name of seller
25Date of sale

The agency's own words Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025 at dmv.nv.gov · new tab How to fill it in Our printable title checklist PDF · 4 pages · 3.3 MB · new tab

A title is the one document you cannot download blank - yours came in the post. So take the rules from the Nevada DMV and the walkthrough from us.

Any alteration or erasure voids a Nevada Certificate of Title. There is no correction fluid, no scribbling out, no writing over. Get it wrong and you are applying for a duplicate.

Three title styles are in circulation and all are valid: Revision 2021 (the blue one), 1/2016, and 8/2010. The boxes are in the same order on all three.

Start here

The whole thing, front and back

Not a diagram of a title and not a crop of one — the entire VP-2 (Rev 2021) Nevada certificate, filled in, at the size it comes off the press. Four regions on the front and only the outlined one is yours; the back is all dealer and lender territory.

Amber — you write it, in pen
Grey — not yours to fill
Lettered A–D — the regions of the page

Two sets of markers, doing two jobs. Letters mark the regions of the certificate, so you can find your way around it. Numbers inside region C are the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles' own field numbers, 17 to 26, lifted from its Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025 — so if you ring them up, you and they are talking about the same box.

The whole front of a Nevada Certificate of Title, filled in. The agency-printed vehicle and owner block, the lienholder release and the control number are greyed as regions a private seller never writes on; the transfer section is outlined and completed in blue. — **Front, completed.** Regions A, B and D are greyed because a private seller writes nothing on them. Everything in pen sits inside region C.

The back of a Nevada Certificate of Title with three regions marked: first and second dealer reassignment blocks, and a box for the buyer's lienholder to be recorded. — **Back, untouched.** Regions A and B are dealer reassignments and C is the buyer's lender. Nothing on this side is yours.

If someone tells you to sign the back, they are thinking of another state.

In Nevada the private-party transfer happens on the front. The back is reserved for licensed dealers passing a car along, and for the buyer's lender. Signing a dealer reassignment block as a private seller is an alteration on a document where alteration voids the title.

Closer in

The transfer block, at reading size

The transfer section runs the full width of the title, which makes it small on any screen. Here it is on its own, then cut down the middle of the form — left-hand column, then right-hand column of the same rows. Tap any number to jump to what that box means.

The transfer section of a Nevada Certificate of Title filled in: buyer Trevor J. Lin, a Reno address, the OR box ticked, an odometer reading of 148,206 with no exemption boxes checked, seller and buyer signatures, and a date of sale. — The transfer section of a real VP-2 (Rev 2021) Nevada title, filled in for a single private buyer. The blank underneath is the sample the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles publishes in its own Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025 — already void, already watermarked, with the department's placeholder vehicle on it. We added the handwriting and the numbers; nothing was taken away.

Left-hand column of the same filled-in Nevada title: the buyer's name, street address, the odometer reading of 148,206, and the seller and buyer signature lines. — The transfer section of a real VP-2 (Rev 2021) Nevada title, filled in for a single private buyer. The blank underneath is the sample the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles publishes in its own Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025 — already void, already watermarked, with the department's placeholder vehicle on it. We added the handwriting and the numbers; nothing was taken away.

Before you watch. One rule has moved since this was published: odometer disclosure now runs until a vehicle is 20 model years old, not 10. If your title still carries the old "Exempt — Model year over 9 years old" line and the car is a 2011 or newer, you must write the mileage in anyway. Step 22 above has it.

Published by the Nevada DMV itself in March 2021 on its own YouTube channel. It is the agency walking through the same assignment we diagram above — useful to watch someone do it, but the written steps here are what we stand behind. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.

Step by step

Every box, in the order you meet it

17
The lienholder fills this in
Lienholder release
If a lienholder is printed on the title, this has to be released before anything transfers. The lienholder or their authorized agent signs and dates it. A business lienholder prints the business name alongside the representative's signature.

Watch out: This is not yours to fill in. If the box is filled and the car is paid off, you are clear to sell.
18
The buyer fills this in
Printed full legal name and address of buyer
The buyer's full legal name exactly as it reads on their driver's license, ID card or business license, then street address, city, state and ZIP. This is the name that ends up on the new registration and title.

Watch out: Trading as a business? Put DBA in front of the business name. Leased? The words Lessee and Lessor go after the full legal name, and multiple lessees are separated with a semicolon.
19
The buyer fills this in
Nevada driver's license, ID number or FEIN
Taken from whatever document the buyer actually presented at the sale. The DMV uses it to match the legal name onto the registration and title.

Watch out: No Nevada license or ID? Print "No Nevada DL or ID". A business with no FEIN? Print "No FEIN". Never write a Social Security number here.
20
The buyer fills this in
The AND / OR box
Only relevant when the car is going into more than one name. Ticking AND means every one of those people will have to sign next time the car is sold. Ticking OR means any one of them can.

Watch out: One tick, and it decides how hard the buyer's own future sale is. Most people want OR and never think about it.
21
You fill this in
Odometer reading
Exactly what the odometer shows, excluding tenths. There is a NO TENTHS box printed right next to it for a reason.

Watch out: Not the rounded number, not last month's number. Walk out and read it.
22
You fill this in
Odometer declaration
Leave all three boxes empty if the reading is the true mileage. Tick one only if it is not: over mechanical limits, not actual mileage, or exempt by age. Whichever you tick brands the new title accordingly.

Watch out: The exemption line is where people go wrong. A 2021-issue title says over 20 years old; a title printed under the old rule says over 9 years. The 20-year rule is the one in force.
23
You fill this in
Signature and printed name of seller
Sign exactly as your name is printed on the face of the title, and print it beside the signature.

Watch out: Exactly as printed. Not your married name if the title has your maiden name, not initials if it spells you out.
24
Dealers only
Dealer license number
Only a licensed dealer fills this in. A private seller leaves it alone.

Watch out: Blank is correct for a private sale.
25
You fill this in
Date of sale
The actual date ownership changed hands - not the date you agreed a price, and not the date the buyer gets round to the DMV.

Watch out: This date starts the buyer's 30-day clock to register, and it is the date your resale notification should match.
26
The buyer fills this in
Signature and printed name of buyer
The buyer signs and prints their full legal name, acknowledging the odometer certification you made above.

Watch out: Do not let them take the title away to sign it later. Unsigned here, the transfer is incomplete.

Before the pen

Before the pen touches the Nevada title

Five rules that decide whether the paper you hand over is still a valid title. None of them are obvious and all of them are cheap to get right.

Black or dark blue ink	The DMV's own guideline is to type or print in black or dark blue. Any other colour is asking for the transaction to be handed back.
Your legal name, not a nickname	Name and address have to be recorded exactly as they read on the driver's license - on every document, not just this one.
Sign in the seller's box only	Box 23 is yours. Box 26 belongs to the buyer, and it is signed at the handover, not before. Signing the wrong line on a title is not something you can tidy up afterwards.
No white-out, no crossing out, no writing over	Alteration or erasure voids the title outright. The paper is printed on erasure-sensitive stock precisely so this shows.
Do not tear, fold hard, or trim it	It is a security document. Damage it and you are applying for a duplicate, which is $20 and a wait.

The ink rule is the Nevada DMV's own: “Always type or print in black or dark blue ink.” — Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025.

Check your source

Three Nevada beliefs that cost sellers money

These three turn up on page one of a search for this, and each one costs somebody either a wasted trip or money they did not owe. Every correction below links the Nevada DMV page it comes from.

"AND/OR between the names means everyone still has to sign."

One signature is enough. The DMV's guide puts "and/or" in the same bucket as "or": only one of the owners or sellers has to sign. It is "and" on its own, or no word at all, that requires everyone.

Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, Certificate of Title, revised April 2025

"Budget around 8% Nevada sales tax on the purchase."

Not on a private-party sale. The Nevada DMV states plainly that sales taxes are not charged on private party vehicle sales, family sales or gifts. The buyer still owes registration fees and Governmental Services Tax, but not sales tax.

Nevada DMV, Registration Fees and Taxes

"A new car is exempt from smog for its first two registrations."

Three. The DMV exempts a new vehicle until its fourth registration - the first three are exempt. Hybrids get five model years and need a test in the sixth.

Nevada DMV, Emission Control Program

Who has to sign

Sign exactly as your name appears on the face of the title. Which of you has to sign depends on one word printed between the names:

Names joined by AND	Every registered owner has to sign.
Names joined by OR, or AND/OR	One signature is enough.
Names with nothing between them	Every owner signs. The DMV treats a missing indicator as AND.
A business on the title	The business name has to appear alongside the signature of an authorized representative.

The number in the lower right corner is the control number, not the title number. The DMV uses it internally - do not quote it as your title number.

Once it is signed

Signing the title is the middle of the job, not the end of it. In Nevada the plates come off with you and the registration has to be cancelled - and the cancellation is what releases your fee credit and stops the insurance penalty.

The two things that follow a signed title — what happens to the plates and telling the Nevada DMV the car is gone — are set out in full on the Nevada paperwork page rather than repeated here.

The forms that go with it: the bill of sale, a duplicate title if yours is gone and the plate release, if the plates are going with the car.

Every field description here is taken from the Nevada DMV Registration and Title Guide, revised April 2025 and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles title pages, current as of 2026-08-22. Plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Forms that go with this one

VP 104 · Bill of Sale

Back to all Nevada paperwork, or what selling a car in Nevada involves.

How to fill out a Nevada title

The whole thing, front and back

The transfer block, at reading size

Every box, in the order you meet it

Lienholder release

Printed full legal name and address of buyer

Nevada driver's license, ID number or FEIN

The AND / OR box

Odometer reading

Odometer declaration

Signature and printed name of seller

Dealer license number

Date of sale

Signature and printed name of buyer

Before the pen touches the Nevada title

Three Nevada beliefs that cost sellers money

Who has to sign

Once it is signed

Forms that go with this one

Or let someone else do the paperwork

Or send the details — we'll come to you