How to fill out South Carolina 5027-A

How a South Carolina seller finds out whether the buyer ever went to a branch. Filing a Notice of Vehicle Sold gets you no confirmation number and no letter back, so if the car is still showing in your name months later this is the way to look. Six sections, eight priced options at $10.00 each, and a page of federal permissible uses that decides whether the request is answered at all.

Written against 5027-A (01/2026), issued under 18 U.S.C. Chapter 123, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994. None of the five permissible uses is called former owner. If what you want is the new owner's personal details rather than the movement of the title, the only route on this form is their written consent, and that is a conversation rather than a form.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 5027-A from the dmv.sc.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Section A, tick Vehicle Owner

   The first box - vehicle owner requesting own information - then your own name, mailing address, email and phone.

   Watch out: The address you write here is where the SCDMV posts the answer. The note above Section A says so explicitly, so a forwarding address rather than the one on the record is worth a second look.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Section B, the vehicle

   The owner's name as the record holds it, then the VIN, year, make, model and tag number of the car.

   Watch out: The VIN does the work. A tag number on its own is a weaker key in South Carolina than in most states, because the plate follows the owner and may already be on another vehicle.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Section C, pick the record

   Eight boxes at $10.00 each. Title History shows the chain; Current Title Information shows only who holds it today.

   Watch out: If the question is whether the buyer ever titled it, the history is the answer and the snapshot is not. Two boxes costs twice as much, and there is no discount for asking for both.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Section D, the federal ground

   One of five permissible uses under the Driver's Privacy Protection Act.

   Watch out: Read the five before ticking. A seller establishing what happened to their own record is on different ground from a seller who wants to know where the buyer now lives, and the second one needs that person's written consent.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Section E, usually empty

   The consent block, needed only where OTHER was ticked in Section A.

   Watch out: It stays blank on a request about your own record. Filling it in with your own signature where you have already ticked Vehicle Owner reads as confusion and slows the request down.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Section F, sign and date

   Printed name, signature and date under the perjury declaration.

   Watch out: The paragraph above the line warns of federal criminal liability and a civil suit with a minimum award of $5,000.00 for misusing what comes back. It is a records request, but it is a sworn one.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Post it, do not take it in

   A cheque, not cash, to SC Department of Motor Vehicles, and the whole thing to Vehicle Research, PO Box 1498, Blythewood, SC 29016-0024.

   Watch out: The form says mail-in only. A branch counter cannot process it, so a trip there is a wasted morning.

What gets this one rejected

• •Cash in the envelope. The form says make checks payable to SC Department of Motor Vehicles and that cash is not accepted, in capitals.
• •No box ticked in Section D. The federal grounds are a closed list and a request that does not sit inside one of them is not answered.
• •OTHER ticked in Section A with Section E left blank. Consent-based access needs the consent, signed by the person the record is about.
• •A title history with supporting documents requested and no documents named. The eighth box points at the blank line under Section D and the line has to say which ones.
• •A partial section. The instruction at the top is that the form must be completed in its entirety, legibly printed or typed.
• •Handed in at a branch. The submission line says by mail-in only, to Vehicle Research at the Blythewood post box.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The seller's box is the first one. Vehicle Owner, requesting own information. A record about a car that was yours, asked for by you, is your own information - which is a different ground from asking about the person who bought it.
• •Title history is the box that answers the question. Current title information is a snapshot of who holds the title now. Title history is the chain of transactions, which is what shows whether the transfer out of your name ever happened.

Every line here was read off 5027-A (01/2026) 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.

Back to all South Carolina seller paperwork, or what selling a car in South Carolina involves.