How somebody signs a Rhode Island registration document on your behalf when you cannot be at the counter. It is deliberately narrow: it expires when the transaction is processed or thirty days from signature, whichever comes first, and its own instructions rule it out for the one job people most want it for - a title assignment on a vehicle subject to federal odometer disclosure.
Written against POA (01/2024), issued under 280-RICR-30-10-15; 49 U.S.C. § 32705(b)(2).
The seventeen-cell comb for the identification number is not decoration. Each character sits in its own box, and a number written across the boxes rather than into them is the sort of thing a counter sends back - which matters more here than elsewhere, because the form has already expired thirty days after it was signed.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank POA from the dmv.ri.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our POA guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual POA, rendered from the PDF the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles 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
One page, four blocks and a comb. The vehicle identification number gets one character per box - the form draws seventeen of them. The band across the signatures is the part that fails most often: notarised, in ink, with the commission stamp actually stamped rather than pressed.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Owner 1, exactly as the record has you
First, middle and last name, licence number and issuing state, then the full address.
Watch out: The heading over the block says complete all applicable fields legibly. A middle name that appears on the licence appears here too.
2
You fill this in
Owner 2, if the car is jointly held
The same block again underneath.
Watch out: Both owners appoint the attorney and both signatures get notarised. One owner cannot grant a power over the other's interest.
3
You fill this in
Name the grantee
First, middle and last name with a licence number and state, under a heading that says legal name required.
Watch out: Legal name means the one on their licence. A nickname on this rule and a different name on the attached photo identification is a refusal at the counter.
4
You fill this in
The vehicle, and the comb
Year, make, model, cylinders, then the identification number into seventeen separate cells, plus title number, mileage and state issued.
Watch out: One character per cell, starting in the first box. If the car has never been titled in Rhode Island there is no title number to write - leave it and be ready to explain it.
5
You fill this in
Insurance
Company name, policy number and effective dates to and from.
Watch out: Rhode Island ties registration to financial security, so this block is checked rather than skimmed. Dates that have lapsed make the power useless for a registration transaction.
6
You fill this in
Sign in front of the notary
Owner's signature and date, and the second owner's if there is one.
Watch out: Do not sign at home. The band above the rules requires notarisation and the stamp has to be ink - a Rhode Island notary who only embosses will have to do it again.
7
You fill this in
Attach both photo identifications
A copy for each grantor and one for the grantee.
Watch out: This is in the instructions rather than in a box, which is exactly why it is the item that gets forgotten. Without it the form is incomplete before it leaves the house.
8
Somebody else fills this in
Use it inside thirty days
The power expires when the transaction is processed or thirty days from signature, whichever comes first.
Watch out: Sign it when the transaction is ready to go, not when the car goes on the market. A power signed in June is worthless in August.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle owner(s)
Owner 1 first, middle and last name, driver licence number and state issued, then a street address, city, state and ZIP. The same again for Owner 2.
Limited power of attorney granted to
First, middle and last name of the grantee, with their licence number and state, under a heading that says legal name required. A separate rule takes a dealership name and address where one applies.
Vehicle information
Year, make, model, cylinders, the vehicle identification number written into a seventeen-cell comb, title number, mileage and state issued.
Liability insurance information
Company name, policy number and the effective dates, to and from.
Certification and signature
The printed appointment - to sign in my/our stead and to execute any application or other written document that is required to be filed with the RI DMV in connection with the registration of the vehicle - followed by the owner's and second owner's signatures and dates.
Notary
A block under the printed rule that owner(s) signature(s) must be notarized, with the Rhode Island qualification that the notary stamp must be ink and not only embossed.
What gets this one rejected
•An un-notarised signature. It is printed in capitals across the signature band: OWNER(S) SIGNATURE(S) MUST BE NOTARIZED.
•A notary who embosses only. The same line finishes NOTARY STAMP MUST BE INK AND NOT ONLY EMBOSSED.
•Any section left out. The instructions open with the rule that all sections of this Limited Power of Attorney (POA) Form must be completed to be valid.
•A form partly handwritten and partly filled in by somebody else later - all sections must be handwritten or typed, and a copy of photo IDs for grantor(s) and grantee is required with it.
•A photocopy or a fax. The foot of the sheet says signatures must be originals and photocopies or fax copies are not acceptable.
•A crossing-out anywhere. Alterations and erasures void this form.
•Using it to assign a title on a vehicle subject to federal odometer disclosure. The instruction block says the secure Power of Attorney to Disclose Mileage, Form MVT-10, must be used instead - and the MVT-10 is issued only to licensed Rhode Island dealerships.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Thirty days, or sooner. The certification says the power expires when the vehicle's registration and/or title is processed at the RI DMV, by an authorized business partner or thirty (30) days from my/our signature, whichever comes first. Signing one in advance of a sale that has not been agreed wastes it.
•It is a registration power, not a title-assignment power. Read the grant itself: to execute any application or other written document that is required to be filed with the RI DMV in connection with the registration of the vehicle. The back of a certificate is not an application filed with the DMV, and the instructions rule it out expressly for odometer-disclosure vehicles.
•Both photo identifications travel with it. The instruction is that a copy of photo IDs for grantor(s) and grantee is required. That is two documents attached to the form, not produced at the counter by whoever turns up.
•There is a simpler alternative for a co-owner who cannot attend. The TR-1 handles it on its own terms: owner's signature must be notarized if not present during transaction. A second owner who is simply out of state does not necessarily need a power of attorney - only a notary.
Every line here was read off POA (01/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Rhode Island 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.
