How to fill out New Hampshire TDMV 22A

The seller's form for a car New Hampshire does not title, which here means anything of model year 1999 or earlier. The rule says so in as many words - each report of a sale or a transfer of a non-titled motor vehicle shall be completed by the seller - and that makes this the one transfer document in the state that is unambiguously yours rather than the buyer's or the clerk's. It carries the vehicle description, an odometer certification with three boxes, and both signatures on one sheet.

Written against TDMV 22A (Rev 3/23), issued under Saf-C 1904.05 and RSA 261:4, I(d). The trap in this form is what it does not prove. It shows the sale happened, but RSA 261:2-a will not let the buyer register a pre-2000 vehicle without separate proof of the vehicle identification number: a New Hampshire registration certificate, current or expired, a title, a title application, or a completed Verification of Vehicle Identification. Registering without one is a misdemeanour. The registration certificate in your glovebox is the cheapest of those four, and once you have thrown it away the buyer is paying an inspection station to look at the dashboard.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TDMV 22A from the dmv.nh.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our TDMV 22A guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   The vehicle block

   Model year, make, body type, then the vehicle identification number one character per cell.

   Watch out: Copy the identification number off the vehicle rather than off an old document, and then check it against the registration certificate. This form is going to a clerk who has no title record to check it against.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   The second vehicle row

   Manufacturer's year, model, colour and number of cylinders.

   Watch out: Year of manufacture and model year are separate boxes because they are separate facts, and RSA 261:148 lists both among the things a New Hampshire bill of sale must carry.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   The odometer reading

   One box, marked NO TENTHS.

   Watch out: Whole miles. If the reading is in kilometres, say so somewhere on the sheet rather than converting it silently - what you are certifying is what the odometer says.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Tick one of the three certifications

   Actual mileage; exceeds mechanical limits; or not the actual mileage.

   Watch out: Exceeds mechanical limits means the odometer has rolled past its maximum and started again at zero, which on a pre-2000 vehicle is a real possibility rather than a theoretical one. It is not the box for an odometer that has stopped.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Sign and print your name

   Signature, printed name, your address and the date, in four separate boxes.

   Watch out: Original ink. The rules require every signature the Bureau asks for to be the original, with no facsimile and no stamp.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   Watch the buyer sign

   Their signature, printed name, address and date, beneath the printed acknowledgement.

   Watch out: Get it before the car leaves. The line above their signature says they are aware of the odometer certification you have just made, and that is the sentence that makes the disclosure a two-sided document.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Hand over the registration certificate too

   Current or expired, it does not matter which.

   Watch out: This is the step people skip. Without it - or a title, a title application or a VIN verification - RSA 261:2-a stops the buyer registering the car at all, and makes doing it anyway a misdemeanour.

What gets this one rejected

• •A reading written in with none of the three odometer boxes ticked. Actual mileage is a positive certification on this form, not what you get by leaving the exceptions alone.
• •Tenths of a mile. The box is captioned NO TENTHS and the rule asks for the odometer reading in actual mileage.
• •A missing buyer signature. The rule gives the buyer their own paragraph - by signing the form, the buyer shall certify that they have been made aware of the seller's odometer certification - so an unsigned buyer block is an incomplete disclosure rather than a formality.
• •Using this instead of a title assignment on a 2000-or-newer vehicle. Anything from the 2000 model year on is titled, and the certificate is the proof of ownership.
• •Handing it over without the registration certificate. It is a bill of sale, and by itself it does not prove the vehicle identification number, which RSA 261:2-a requires before a pre-2000 vehicle can be registered.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The Bureau will take a different sheet, if it carries the same ten things. Saf-C 1904.05 allows a similar form and then lists what it must contain: seller's name and address, buyer's name and address, the vehicle's year, make and body style, the vehicle identification number, the current odometer mileage reading, the name and address of the person who previously registered the vehicle, the registration number and state it was registered in, the date of sale, and both signatures with their dates.
• •It is also the bill of sale the town clerk wants. RSA 261:148 requires a bill of sale showing the date of sale, the make, model, vehicle identification number, model year, year of manufacture, body type and number of cylinders, plus the name, signature and legal address of both sides. This form collects all of it, and the Division adds two requirements of its own on the page it publishes about bills of sale - the colour, and no PO Box in either address.
• •Model year 1999 is the line. RSA 261:3 exempts any motor vehicle whose manufacturer's model year is before the year 2000. Heavy trucks with three or more axles and truck-tractors over 18,000 pounds are titled at any age, and a 1999-or-older car can be titled if its owner asks for it.

Every line here was read off TDMV 22A (Rev 3/23) itself — the PDF is here — and off the New Hampshire Division 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.

Back to all New Hampshire seller paperwork, or what selling a car in New Hampshire involves.