How to fill out Vermont VT-007

The designation that has to be made while the owner is alive, and the reason a Vermont certificate can read TOD. It names the person who becomes the owner on the titled owner's death, and it changes nothing at all before then: the designated transferee is not listed on the registration, has no rights of ownership, and cannot stop or join a sale. For a seller this form matters twice - once because the legend on your own certificate may be it, and once because a car you are being offered with a TOD legend is a car whose seller has to be alive and has to be the titled owner.

Written against VT-007 (12/2023), issued under 23 V.S.A. s. 2023(f), transfer on death designation, with the fee at s. 2002(a)(3) and the tax exemptions at 32 V.S.A. s. 8911; certified under 23 V.S.A. s. 202, s. 203, s. 2082, s. 2083 and 32 V.S.A. s. 8901-8915. If you are selling a car whose certificate reads TOD, the designation does not have to be removed first - your right to transfer is unaffected while you are alive - but the buyer's application will be read against a certificate carrying a legend, so have the explanation ready rather than discovering it at the counter.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VT-007 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VT-007 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank VT-007 — Transfer on Death PDF at dmv.vermont.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in VT-007 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual VT-007, rendered from the PDF the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Agency of Transportation 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

A completed Vermont Transfer on Death form, VT-007, adding a designated transferee to a 2014 Toyota RAV4: the Add box ticked, the current owner named as Chevalier, Estelle M., the vehicle described as a 2014 Toyota RAV4 LE in Magnetic Grey with vehicle identification number 2T3WFREV9EW118052, a Vermont licence number, plate MRT621 and an odometer reading of 74,905 with the Miles box ticked, and the beneficiary section naming Chevalier, Leon P. of Ferrisburgh with a mailing address, licence number, date of birth, email and phone number. The signature line at the foot is left empty. — Rendered from the department's own PDF. Only one signature belongs on this form and it is the current owner's - the person being named as beneficiary does not sign, and the empty line here is the one the owner signs in their own hand. Nobody in this sample exists and no vehicle matches this identification number.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Add or Remove
One tick at the top. The same form makes a designation and cancels one.
Watch out: Changing your mind about who is named means Remove and then Add, and the department charges the title fee for the new certificate either way.
2
You fill this in
Current Owner: Name, Last, First, Middle
The titled owner - singular, because the form only works on a single-owner vehicle.
Watch out: If your certificate has two names on it, this is not your form. A jointly held Vermont vehicle already carries a survivorship rule in its legend, and JTEN or TEN ENT does the same job.
3
You fill this in
Make, Model, Year, Body, Color
The one vehicle this designation covers.
Watch out: Two cars is two forms and two fees. There is no combined designation in Vermont and nothing on this sheet pretends otherwise.
4
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
Seventeen characters, from the certificate you are about to post with it.
Watch out: Read it against the certificate one more time. The certificate is going into the envelope, so a mismatch is discovered by somebody in Montpelier rather than by you.
5
You fill this in
Vermont Driver License/Permit No., Plate No., Odometer Reading
Your credential, the current plate, and a whole-number reading with its unit ticked.
Watch out: The reading is a record, not a disclosure - no sale is happening here - but write the true figure anyway, because it is the number the next certificate is printed with.
6
You fill this in
Beneficiary: Name, Last, First, Middle
The person who becomes the owner at your death, and nobody else.
Watch out: Tell them. Nothing in this process notifies the person you have named, and a designation nobody knows about is found in the same drawer as the certificate, months late.
7
You fill this in
Beneficiary Mailing Address, City, State, Zip
Their full postal address.
Watch out: An address that goes stale is the usual failure here. It is worth checking the designation every time you renew the registration.
8
You fill this in
Beneficiary licence number, date of birth, SSN or Federal ID, email and phone
The identification block for the person being named.
Watch out: You will have to ask them for these, which is a second reason the designation cannot really be kept a secret.
9
You fill this in
Signature of Current Owner and Date
One signature, under the sentence assigning ownership of the vehicle upon your death.
Watch out: Post it with the original Vermont title and $42.00. All three go together, and an application arriving without the certificate stops at the first desk it reaches.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
I wish to Add / Remove the following Transfer on death designated transferee	Two ticks at the head of the form. The same sheet makes a designation and cancels one, and a designation that is being replaced needs the old one removed.
Current Owner: Name, Last, First, Middle	The titled owner, and only one of them. The form states the limit in a line of its own: transfer on death only applies to vehicles registered and titled to one owner.
Make, Model, Year, Body, Color	The vehicle. A designation covers one vehicle, and a second car needs a second form and a second fee.
Vehicle Identification Number	One wide box across the sheet, copied from the certificate that will accompany the application.
Vermont Driver License/Permit No., Current Vermont Plate No., Odometer Reading with Miles, Kilometers or Hours	Your credential, the plate on the car now, and a reading in whole numbers with one of three unit ticks beside it.
Beneficiary Section (Owner upon my death): Name, Last, First, Middle	The person who becomes the owner. One name, and the form has room for no other.
Beneficiary Mailing Address, City, State, Zip	Where the department will write when the time comes.
Beneficiary Vermont Driver License/Permit No., Date of Birth, SSN or Federal ID Number	The identification block for the person being named, filled in now rather than by them later.
Beneficiary E-mail and Phone Number	Two contact boxes, and the only route the department has to somebody who may not know they have been named.
I hereby assign or transfer ownership of the vehicle described above upon my death - Signature of Current Owner and Date	One signature. No notary, no witness, no beneficiary signature - the person being named does not sign this form at all.

What gets this one rejected

•A vehicle in two names. Transfer on death applies only to a vehicle registered and titled to one owner, and a jointly held certificate cannot carry the legend.
•The application posted without the certificate. The form says the title must accompany the application, in bold, immediately under the fee.
•No fee. The department names it on the face of the form: $42.00, the ordinary Vermont title fee, because a new certificate is being printed.
•A beneficiary written in as two people. There is one name block and one line of statute behind it, and a designation naming a couple is not a designation.
•A vessel, snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle. VT-021 puts the exclusion in the same breath as the rule - transfer on death excludes vessels, snowmobiles and ATVs.
•An assumption that the designation moves the car quietly. The new owner will be required to obtain new plates and is subject to purchase and use tax unless exempt under 32 V.S.A. s. 8911.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Nothing changes until a death certificate exists. The paragraph at the top of the form is the whole doctrine: the titled owner keeps all ownership rights and all transfer rights until death, and the designated transferee has none until death is established by a valid death certificate.
•The beneficiary is invisible on the registration. The form says the designated transferee shall not be listed on the registration of the vehicle. Somebody looking at the registration certificate will not see them.
•It does not defeat a lien. At the death the transferee becomes the owner subject to any existing security interests. A car with a loan on it passes with the loan on it.
•The department's own cross-reference is wrong, so use the number on the form. VT-019 page 2 sends you to "form TA-VT-07" for a transfer on death designation. There is no such form number. It is VT-007, which is this one, and every other document in the Vermont set names it correctly.

Every line here was read off VT-007 (12/2023) 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.

How to fill out Vermont VT-007

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Add or Remove

Current Owner: Name, Last, First, Middle

Make, Model, Year, Body, Color

Vehicle Identification Number

Vermont Driver License/Permit No., Plate No., Odometer Reading

Beneficiary: Name, Last, First, Middle

Beneficiary Mailing Address, City, State, Zip

Beneficiary licence number, date of birth, SSN or Federal ID, email and phone

Signature of Current Owner and Date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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