The mileage half of the assignment, lifted off the back of the title and printed on a sheet of its own. A county clerk asks for it whenever the title's own block will not do the job - a reading corrected, a title with no space left, an out-of-state document that words the certification differently - and it is the one form in this whole set that an ordinary private seller of an ordinary car is genuinely likely to be handed.
Written against RV-F1317001 (Rev 10-21), issued under 49 CFR Part 580 and Tenn. Code Ann. 39-14-132.
The purpose paragraph names 2011 or newer as the vehicles it is required for. That is the rolling federal rule and not a Tennessee choice, and it moves forward one model year every January.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank RV-F1317001 from the tn.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual RV-F1317001, rendered from the PDF the Tennessee Department of Revenue 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 as the Department publishes it. Statements 2 and 3 are deliberately empty - the printed sentence above them certifies the reading as actual mileage unless one of them is checked, so silence here is the certification.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
I, ______
Your name printed on the opening rule, above the label SELLER OR TRANSFEROR'S NAME.
Watch out: The name as the certificate of title prints it. If the title says one thing and your licence says another, the affidavit that reconciles them is a separate form and goes in with this one.
2
You fill this in
The odometer reading
The current reading in whole miles, in the box marked NO TENTHS beside statement one.
Watch out: Read it off the dash on the day of the handover, not off a service invoice from March. The number here and the number on the back of the title have to agree.
3
You fill this in
Check one - and usually that means the first
Actual Mileage of the vehicle, no discrepancies. The other two are for a reading that has run past the odometer's limits, or one you cannot stand behind.
Watch out: The second statement carries its own condition in brackets: check only if digits on odometer are impossible to determine. It is not a box for a car with a lot of miles on it.
4
You fill this in
Section B, the vehicle
Vehicle identification number, year, make and model, copied from the front of the certificate rather than from the car.
Watch out: Copy it character by character and read it back. A single wrong character in the VIN is the most common reason a Tennessee application comes back, and the clerk cannot correct it for you.
5
You fill this in
Your address, signature and date
Street, city, state and ZIP, then sign on the rule and date it.
Watch out: The date is the day of the transaction, and it should be the same date you wrote as the date of sale in the assignment. A different date on the two documents is a question waiting to be asked.
6
The buyer fills this in
The buyer's half
Their address, their printed name, their signature and their date, acknowledging the certification you have just made.
Watch out: Hand them the pen at the kerb. Federal law entitles them to a copy of this, and photographing it before it leaves your hands takes five seconds.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Section A, the seller's name
One printed rule with the label SELLER OR TRANSFEROR'S NAME (PLEASE PRINT) under it, and a sentence certifying the reading below is one of three things.
The three numbered statements
Actual Mileage of the vehicle, no discrepancies; In Excess of Mechanical Limits, with the parenthetical that it is only for digits impossible to determine; and Not Actual Mileage, carrying a bold warning that an Odometer Discrepancy form must be completed or the titling transaction will be delayed.
Odometer reading
A single box to the right of statement one, labelled ODOMETER READING (NO TENTHS).
The exemption list
Five printed circumstances, quoted from NHTSA: over 16,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating; not self-propelled; model year 2010 or older; sold by the manufacturer to a United States agency under contract; and a new vehicle before its first transfer for anything but resale.
Section B, the vehicle
Vehicle identification number, year, make and model on one line.
Seller address block
Street, city, state and ZIP, then the seller's signature and the date.
Buyer address block
Street, city, state and ZIP, then the buyer's printed name, the buyer's signature and a second date.
What gets this one rejected
•A decimal point. The box says no tenths, and a reading with a fraction in it is not a reading the clerk can key.
•Two statements ticked. They are alternatives - a reading has either run past the odometer's mechanical limits or is not the actual mileage, and it cannot be both.
•Statement 3 ticked with nothing behind it. The form says in bold that the Odometer Discrepancy form must be completed, and the transaction sits until it turns up.
•A reading that does not match the one on the back of the title. Two documents about one handover disagreeing is exactly the discrepancy the clerk is looking for.
•Using it for a car that is exempt. A 2010 or older vehicle has nothing to disclose, and a disclosure filed anyway invites a question about why.
•Altering it. The last line on the page reads that any alterations or corrections may void this form.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It supplements the title, it does not replace it. The assignment on the back of the certificate still has to be completed. Where both carry a reading, both readings have to be the same number.
•Both parties sign. The seller certifies and the buyer acknowledges - that pairing is federal, and it is why the form has two signature lines and two dates rather than one.
Every line here was read off RV-F1317001 (Rev 10-21) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Tennessee Department of Revenue pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
