The one document a private South Carolina seller files with the state. Nine lines on a single page, no fee, no notary, no witness - and its whole job is to put a date on the record between the day you handed the keys over and the day the buyer finally reaches a branch. The SCDMV names it first in the four steps it lists after a sale.
Written against 416 (Rev 6/15), issued under S.C. Code Ann. 56-3-1260.
The form still carries the department's Wilson Boulevard street address at the top and the Mail-in Registration post box at the foot. Either reaches the SCDMV; the box number is the one printed on the plate-return page.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 416 from the dmv.sc.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 416, rendered from the PDF the South Carolina Department 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
The whole form, at the size the SCDMV publishes it, with every box it carries completed. Two lines are deliberately untouched: the buyer's P.O. box, because this buyer gave a street address, and SIGNATURE OF SELLER, which is a printed rule with no fillable box behind it - ten of the sixteen forms on this page are like that, and all ten want wet ink.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle make and year make
Make in the first box, model year in the second. The label reads YEAR MAKE and it wants the year.
Watch out: Take both off the certificate. The make printed on a South Carolina title is often abbreviated - the specimen the SCDMV publishes reads NISS for Nissan - and matching it is safer than expanding it.
2
You fill this in
License plate no.
The plate that was registered to the vehicle at the moment you sold it.
Watch out: It is the key the SCDMV uses to find the registration, so it belongs here even though the plate itself is coming off. If you are moving it to your next car, it goes on this form and on the plate turn-in application as well.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle identification (serial) no.
The full VIN on the long rule under the first row.
Watch out: Copy it off the front of the certificate before you hand the certificate over, or off the photograph you took of it. Reading it out of a car park an hour later is how a digit gets lost.
4
You fill this in
Sold or traded to
The buyer's name, exactly as you wrote it into the assignment on the back of the title.
Watch out: A dealership goes here too. Trading a car in does not remove the obligation to notify, and the form's own wording says sold or traded.
5
You fill this in
The three address lines
Street address, P.O. box if there is one, then city, state and ZIP on the third rule.
Watch out: A box number alone will not do. If the buyer only gave you a box, the form wants a street address with it - which is a reason to read the address off their licence at the handover.
6
You fill this in
Date sold or traded
The day the keys changed hands, the same date you wrote in the assignment and in the panel on the right of it.
Watch out: This is the date that matters if the car is photographed by a camera or towed the following week, so make it the truth rather than the date you got round to the form.
7
You fill this in
Signature of seller
One signature, on one rule.
Watch out: Nothing else is asked for - no notary, no witness, no printed name and no date beside the signature. Photograph the completed page before it goes in the envelope, because there is no receipt and no confirmation number coming back.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle make and year make
Two boxes across the top of the page, the second labelled YEAR MAKE rather than year - the model year of the vehicle.
License plate no.
The plate that was on the car, which is the plate now sitting on your kitchen table.
Vehicle identification (serial) no.
One long rule running most of the width of the page.
Sold or traded to
The buyer, or the dealership, on a full-width rule. The wording covers a trade-in as squarely as a private sale.
Buyer's street address, buyer's P.O. box, buyer's city, state and ZIP code
Three separate rules, with a note at the foot that a street address must accompany all P.O. boxes.
Date sold or traded
The day the vehicle actually changed hands.
Signature of seller
A single printed rule. No date beside it, no second signature, and no acknowledgement block anywhere on the page.
Reserved for department use
A boxed panel at the foot marked do not write in this space, with DATE SOLD, DATE ENTERED and BY - the SCDMV's own audit trail once the form is keyed.
What gets this one rejected
•A post office box on its own. The note under the signature line says a street address must accompany all P.O. boxes, and it is the only instruction printed on the form.
•The plate number left blank because the plate is already off the car. That number is how the SCDMV finds the registration this notice is about.
•A VIN copied from the insurance certificate rather than the title. If it does not match the record, the notice attaches to nothing.
•Sent instead of the assignment. The form transfers no ownership and the SCDMV says so on its own page - it protects the last registered owner, it does not replace the certificate.
•Held back until the buyer confirms they have been. The statutory word is immediately, and the whole point of the form is the period before the buyer acts.
•Posted to the titles box. This one goes to Mail-in Registration at 29016-0036, which is a different suffix from the titles address the buyer's application is posted to.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•There is no deadline in days. S.C. Code Ann. 56-3-1260 says the owner shall immediately notify the Department in writing. The thirty days in the same sentence belongs to the plate, not to this notice.
•It travels with the plate turn-in. The SCDMV's plate-return page lists this form and the plate turn-in application together, then the plate itself, then cancelling the insurance - in that order.
Every line here was read off 416 (Rev 6/15) itself — the PDF is here — and off the South Carolina Department 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.
