How to fill out Utah TC-893

The form for the mileage nobody can vouch for. Its opening sentences are the whole of it: I recently acquired the vehicle shown above and am now the legal owner, and an odometer statement is not available from any previous owner. It is signed by the new owner rather than by a seller, and the reading it carries is printed onto the title - which is why the paragraph above the signature transfers every consequence of that onto the person signing.

Written against TC-893 (Rev 4/26), issued under Utah Code 41-1a-902. A seller who is asked to sign this has been handed the wrong form. If you are the one giving up the vehicle, the document that carries your certification is the disclosure statement or the mileage block on the ownership document, not a declaration that says you have just acquired the car.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC-893 from the files.tax.utah.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank TC-893 — Owner's Odometer Declaration PDF at files.tax.utah.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual TC-893, rendered from the PDF the Utah State Tax Commission, Motor Vehicle Division 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

Utah form TC-893 filled in by a new owner: a 1998 Ford F-150 with identification number 1FTZF1725WNA45109, an odometer reading of 214,806 miles with the not the actual mileage box ticked, declared and signed by Rosalie T. Ipsen of Moab. — The honest version of this form. Where nobody can vouch for the reading, the third certification is the correct one and the first would be a false statement.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
The vehicle
Year, make, model and identification number, across the top rule.
Watch out: This form usually travels with an ownership statement about a vehicle with no paper history, so the identification number here is the one from the inspection certificate.
2
The buyer fills this in
The reading
What the instrument shows, in whole numbers, with the miles or kilometers tick.
Watch out: Write what it reads today. You are not being asked to estimate what the vehicle has actually travelled - that is what the certification box is for.
3
The buyer fills this in
One certification of three
The same three-way choice every Utah mileage block carries, ticked once.
Watch out: If you cannot trace the vehicle's history, not the actual mileage is the answer. Choosing actual mileage because it looks better is the false statement the foot of the form warns about.
4
The buyer fills this in
Printed name and address
The new owner in block capitals, with the address the vehicle will be registered at.
Watch out: The form asks for it printed as well as signed because the reading will be attributed to this person on a public record for the life of the vehicle.
5
The buyer fills this in
Signature and date
One signature under the indemnity paragraph.
Watch out: Read that paragraph before signing. It says you are solely responsible for any liability resulting from the title being issued and that you will pay the cost of any connected legal action.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Vehicle year, Make, Model, Vehicle identification number	Four boxes across one rule at the top.
The two declarations	That the signer recently acquired the vehicle and is now the legal owner, and that an odometer statement is not available from any previous owner.
Odometer reading (no tenths)	The reading the new owner is putting forward, in whole numbers.
Reading is: Miles / Kilometers	Two ticks, with kilometres converted to miles on the title.
I certify that the odometer reading is (check one)	The actual mileage, the mileage in excess of the odometer's mechanical limits, or not the actual mileage with a discrepancy warning.
The indemnity paragraph	I understand that the mileage I have declared above will be printed on the title, that the signer is solely responsible for any liability that may result from issuing this title, that the Tax Commission and its agents do not share any responsibility, and that the signer will pay the cost of any connected legal action.
PRINT New owner's name, Address, City, State, ZIP	Printed rather than signed, on its own rule.
New owner's signature and Date	One signature. There is no notary block and no witness line.
The warning at the foot	Making a false statement or submitting a fraudulent application is a crime, under Title 41 of the Utah Code.

What gets this one rejected

•Filed by the seller. The declarations at the top are written in the voice of somebody who has just acquired the vehicle, and a seller signing one is describing themselves as the buyer.
•Used where the seller can be reached. If a previous owner can complete a disclosure, this form's central assertion is untrue.
•Two certification boxes ticked.
•A reading declared as actual mileage where the signer has no way of knowing. Not the actual mileage exists for exactly this case and is the honest answer.
•Left undated. The declaration is about a reading at a moment, and the moment is part of the claim.
•Used on a vehicle that is exempt anyway. A vehicle twenty years old or older discloses nothing, so declaring a mileage nobody can support puts a number on a title that need never have carried one.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It shifts the risk onto the person signing. The indemnity paragraph is unusually direct: the signer is solely responsible for any liability that may result from issuing this title, and will pay the cost of any connected legal action.
•There is a dealer-only version of the same form. The Division publishes a separate declaration for dealers. A private buyer uses this one.

Every line here was read off TC-893 (Rev 4/26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Utah State Tax Commission, Motor Vehicle Division 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 Utah seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Utah involves.

How to fill out Utah TC-893

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The vehicle

The reading

One certification of three

Printed name and address

Signature and date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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