For collecting a certificate you are not named on. South Carolina posts titles to the owner, or to the lienholder where a lien is recorded, and a branch will not hand one across the counter to somebody else without this. It matters to a seller in exactly one common case: a duplicate title has been applied for, the owner cannot get to a branch, and somebody else has to fetch it before the sale can go ahead.
Step 1 · the form itself
Blank MV-80A — Third Party Title Pick Up
PDF at dmv.sc.gov · new tab
View the blank MV-80A
Step 2 · how to fill it in
Our filled-in MV-80A guide
PDF · 2 pages · 510 KB · new tab
See our filled-in example
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV-80A from the dmv.sc.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV-80A guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
Written against MV-80A (Rev 12/18), issued under S.C. Code Ann. 56-3-390 and 56-19-340. This releases a document, not a vehicle. Collecting somebody's title on this form gives no authority whatever to sign the assignment on the back of it - that still needs a power of attorney naming the vehicle.
Last updated .
This is the actual MV-80A, 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.
Click or tap the picture to open it full size.
Download or print this example PDF · 2 pages · 510 KB
The VIN of the vehicle whose certificate is being collected.
Watch out: It is the only thing on the form that identifies the car. No make, no year, no plate - so a transposed character means the branch cannot match it to a title at all.
The vehicle owner's name, and the relationship between the two of you in the cell beside it.
Watch out: Write a real relationship - mother, son, neighbour, business partner. A branch reads that cell alongside the identification it is about to photocopy.
The alternative line, naming a company or an individual, used where the collector is acting for a business.
Watch out: One route or the other, not both. A company also needs an MV-80 on file at the branch, and the DMV-use box below has a tick for exactly that.
The owner authorising the collection, printed and signed, each with its own date.
Watch out: This is the half that has to be done before the trip. Sending the collector with a blank owner block turns a ten-minute errand into two.
The collector, printed and signed, acknowledging that the certificate was handed over.
Watch out: The wording is I have received this certificate of title from the DMV, so it is signed at the counter rather than at home.
The box at the foot is for a photocopy of the collector's driver's licence.
Watch out: The original comes back after one photocopy. Where it is a South Carolina licence, the branch also checks the name and signature against its own record.
| On the form | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| The statutory warning | A paragraph across the head quoting S.C. Code Ann. 56-3-390 in full: fraudulently using or giving a false or fictitious name or address, knowingly making a false statement, or knowingly concealing a material fact in an application is a misdemeanour. |
| The certification | Two printed sentences the third party is signing to: that the owner of the vehicle with the VIN listed below has authorized me to receive the title on his or her behalf, and that I have received this certificate of title from the DMV. |
| Vehicle identification number | One cell, and the only description of the vehicle anywhere on the form. |
| I am an authorized agent for | The vehicle owner's name, with a second cell for the relationship to the vehicle owner. |
| OR I am an authorized employee for | The name of a company or individual - the alternative route, used where a business is collecting. |
| Owner block | Printed name of vehicle owner with a date, then signature of vehicle owner with a date. |
| Third party block | Printed name of third party receiving title with a date, then signature of third party receiving title with a date. |
| For DMV use only | Two tick boxes - that the MV-80 agent authorization is on file if applicable, and that the name and signature on the SC driver's licence match the record - then the date and time the title was picked up, the representative's initials and the field office number. |
| The licence copy box | A ruled box at the foot with an instruction to place the third party's driver's licence in it and make one copy, and a note that the original is given back to the customer after the photocopy is made. |
Every line here was read off MV-80A (Rev 12/18) 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.
For whoever is fetching the title, our Myrtle Beach page lists the SCDMV branches on 21st Avenue North and in Conway, with their hours.
Back to all South Carolina seller paperwork, or what selling a car in South Carolina involves.