How to fill out Rhode Island TR-1

The form the buyer completes to put the car in their own name, and the seller is named on it in Section C. Eight transaction ticks share the sheet - new registration, transfer registration, duplicate registration or update, plate change, renewal, surviving spouse, tax and title, and add title - and each prints the sections it needs. Its last two pages are the DMV's own document checklist, with a Private Party Sale column that is the shortest honest answer to what the buyer has to bring.

Written against TR-1 (Rev 01/2024), issued under R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-3-1 and § 31-4-4. Rhode Island prints ADD TITLE as a transaction on this form as well as on the TR-2/TR-9, and they are not interchangeable. The DMV's instruction for a previously untitled vehicle sends you to the Research Office in Cranston with a TR2/TR9 and the title fee; the tick here belongs to a registration transaction being done at a branch counter at the same time.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TR-1 from the dmv.ri.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our TR-1 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The buyer fills this in

   Pick the transaction and write the plate number under it

   NEW REGISTRATION for a car going on the road with new plates, TRANSFER REGISTRATION to move an existing Rhode Island registration onto it, TAX & TITLE for a car that is not being registered at all.

   Watch out: Each tick prints the sections it needs beside it, and they differ. TAX & TITLE asks for A, B, C, E, F and H and skips the insurance block, because a car that is not being driven does not need a policy.

2. 2
   The buyer fills this in

   Name of person submitting documents

   The top-left corner block: printed name, signature, licence number and state.

   Watch out: It is a separate block from Section A. If somebody else is handing the papers in, their name goes here and the registrant's goes below - and anyone signing on the registrant's behalf needs the notarised Limited Power of Attorney.

3. 3
   The buyer fills this in

   Section A, the new owner

   Name, phone, licence number, date of birth, the residence address where the vehicle is kept or garaged, tax town, email, and a mailing address if it differs.

   Watch out: The two ticks above this block decide whether the DMV updates the voter registration address at the same time. They are not decorative and one of them has to be chosen.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Section C, the seller

   Your printed name, your address, and the date of sale. The dealer licence box beside the date is not yours.

   Watch out: Write it exactly as your registration or certificate prints it. This is the block that ties the buyer's application to the record the DMV already holds for the car.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   Section D, insurance

   Company, policy number and effective dates, in the buyer's own name.

   Watch out: Rhode Island's Motor Vehicle Reparations Act requires cover for the whole life of the registration and the DMV verifies it afterwards. A policy that starts the day after registration is a gap on the first day.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   Section E, every field

   Year, identification number, make, model, body type, gross vehicle weight, colour, cylinders, current mileage, seat belts and fuel type.

   Watch out: The gross vehicle weight rating is on the VIN plate on the driver's door jamb and the registration fee is calculated from it. On a car of this age the label can be unreadable, which is worth checking before the buyer is at the counter.

7. 7
   The buyer fills this in

   Section F, the no-lien tick

   Two lienholder blocks, and above them a tick that says there is no lien.

   Watch out: On a cash sale the tick is the entry. Leaving all of Section F blank reads as unanswered rather than as no loan.

8. 8
   The buyer fills this in

   Section H, sign in front of the counter

   The declaration, the disclosure consent question, and the registrant's signature and date.

   Watch out: If a second owner is named and cannot attend, their signature has to be notarised before the packet arrives - and a Rhode Island notary's stamp has to be inked, not just embossed.

What gets this one rejected

• •An owner who is neither present nor notarised. The form prints it above the signature: OWNER'S SIGNATURE MUST BE NOTARIZED IF NOT PRESENT DURING TRANSACTION, and the DMV's checklist repeats it - all registrants must be present, or the signatures must be notarized.
• •An embossed notary seal with no ink. The instruction on the form is that the notary stamp must be ink and not only embossed.
• •A blank in Section E. The heading says all fields are mandatory, and gross vehicle weight is the one people leave out because they do not know where to find it.
• •Pencil, or ink that is not blue or black. The instruction runs across the top of the sheet: PLEASE USE BLUE OR BLACK INK ONLY.
• •A registration in the name of somebody under sixteen, which the law prohibits outright, or a sixteen or seventeen year old with no GU-1338 certificate of insurance on record at the Cranston DMV.
• •A vehicle from another state with no VIN check. A check from a local municipal police department is required for all vehicles previously registered or titled in another state.
• •Section C left blank on a private-party purchase. There is no other place on the form where the person the car came from is recorded.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Section C is the seller's, and it is three lines. Name, address and date of sale. A private seller has no dealer licence number, so that box stays empty - it is there for a dealership.
• •The residence address decides who bills the excise. Section A asks for the address where the vehicle is kept or garaged and collects a tax town beside it. That town, not the DMV, raises the excise bill, which is why cancelling your own registration matters after the car has gone.
• •Thirty days on the buyer's own plates, and none on yours. Section 31-4-10 lets a buyer who is replacing a car of their own run the new one on their existing plates for thirty days from the date of transfer, carrying an original bill of sale that recites the plate number being moved. Nothing in that section lets them use the plates you took off.
• •The last two pages are a checklist, not part of the application. The DMV binds its Registration Document Checklist into the same PDF. The Private Party Sale column lists the application, an identity document, active Rhode Island insurance, gross vehicle weight, the title or proof of previous ownership, a VIN check where the car is from out of state, a bill of sale and the T-334.

Every line here was read off TR-1 (Rev 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.

Back to all Rhode Island seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Rhode Island involves.