How to fill out Vermont VD-170

Vermont's closest thing to a notice of sale, written as a refund request. The department publishes no release-of-liability form, because s. 321 makes the endorsed registration certificate itself the notice; this is the sheet that goes with it when you want the registration cancelled, the plates cancelled, a refund considered, or all three. Read the three Yes/No pairs carefully before ticking anything, because two of them are ordinary housekeeping and the third destroys a plate you may want to keep.

Written against VD-170 (06/2025), issued under 23 V.S.A. s. 321, under which the registration expires on transfer and the certificate goes back to the Commissioner, and s. 322, which repeats the duty to return the certificate and plates on a sale. The three Yes/No pairs are not a set. Answer them one at a time, and if the plates are going onto another vehicle answer No to the third even though the form's title makes it sound like the point of the exercise.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VD-170 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VD-170 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Owner Name, Co-Owner Name, Additional Co-Owner Name

   Every name on the registration certificate.

   Watch out: All of them sign at the foot of the page too. A form posted with one signature on a two-name registration comes back, and the record stays as it was.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Plate # and # of Plate Returned

   The plate number, and a tick for how many plates are in the envelope - nought, one or two.

   Watch out: Nought is an ordinary answer here. The department's plates page says you are not required to return plates, so a seller keeping them ticks 0 and posts the form on its own.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   VIN, Year, Make, Model

   Four boxes identifying the car this registration belonged to.

   Watch out: Copy the VIN from the registration certificate before you post that back. It is the box that lets the department find the record if the plate has already moved.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Reason for Cancelation / Return of Plates

   A deep panel with room for the whole story.

   Watch out: Write the sale date, the buyer's full name and the town they live in. That sentence is what makes this sheet useful to you in November, and it costs nothing to write in August.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Cancel Registration: Yes or No

   Yes, on a car that has been sold.

   Watch out: Section 321 already expired the registration when ownership transferred. This tick is what makes the department's record agree with the law.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Refund Requested: Yes or No

   Only where one of the five conditions on page two applies.

   Watch out: On an ordinary private sale the honest answer is No. Where a refund is due it is the registration fee that comes back, less a possible $5.00 administrative fee.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Cancel Plates: Yes or No

   The permanent one. Cancelled plates cannot be reused.

   Watch out: Answer No if there is any chance of transferring them to another vehicle, which in Vermont costs a transfer fee and carries the unexpired registration time across with them.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   The signature rows

   One row per registered owner, each with its own date.

   Watch out: Post it to the Info Unit at 120 State Street, Montpelier, with the endorsed registration certificate if you are sending that too. One envelope, one date, one record.

What gets this one rejected

• •One owner's signature on a two-owner registration. The line at the top of the form is unambiguous: all registered owners must sign this document for the cancelation or refund request to be processed.
• •A refund claimed on an ordinary mid-year sale. None of the five conditions on page two covers selling a car, and ticking Yes does not create an entitlement.
• •Cancelling the plates by reflex. The label warns that plates cannot be reused once cancelled, and a plate you were about to move to your next car is gone with it.
• •A blank reason panel. Without the date of sale and the buyer's name it is a request to cancel something, with nothing in it that helps you afterwards.
• •A VIN box left empty because the plate number is written above it. The plate identifies a registration; the VIN identifies the car, and those two stop matching the moment a plate is transferred.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It is not the only way to tell the department. Section 321 asks for the registration certificate returned with the date of transfer and the new owner's name and residence endorsed on the back, and allows the Commissioner to accept any other satisfactory evidence instead. myDMV also carries a Mark Vehicle Sold option on the vehicle's own block.
• •Cancelling a registration is not the same as cancelling the plates. The form asks the two questions separately for a reason. A Vermont plate belongs to you rather than to the car, and the department's own guidance is that you need not return it at all.
• •The refund conditions are about the registration, not about the sale. They are timing rules and destruction rules. A registration cancelled a fortnight after it was issued may qualify; one cancelled because you found a buyer in month seven will not.
• •A five-dollar fee may come off whatever is refunded. Page two says so in one line, under the conditions, and it is the difference between a refund people expect and the cheque that arrives.

Every line here was read off VD-170 (06/2025) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Agency of Transportation 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 Vermont seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Vermont involves.