The form for a vehicle owned by more than two people. A Vermont certificate has room for two names; this sheet carries owners three, four and five, and the certificate is then printed with the primary owner's name and a legend reading "and other owners as listed on file". It belongs on a seller's page for one sentence buried in its own certification: all owners must authorise any transfer, the primary owner signs on the certificate of title, and every other owner signs a separate secure bill of sale. If your certificate carries that legend, the sale needs signatures the certificate has nowhere to put.
Written against VT-012 (09/2022), issued under 23 V.S.A. s. 2023(a), which requires the nature of the ownership to be shown on the certificate, certified under penalties of 23 V.S.A. s. 202 and s. 203.
The document is only as good as the copy you can find. It lives with the certificate, and a certificate that turns up in a drawer without it leaves the department with a legend pointing at a file and you with nothing to hand the buyer.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VT-012 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VT-012 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VT-012, 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
Rendered from the department's own PDF, filled in for a truck registered to four siblings. Owner #1 has no name block on this sheet - that name is the one printed on the certificate itself - and the signature rows are left blank because all five owners sign them in the same place at the same time. Nobody in this sample exists.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
VIN/HIN (Serial Number)
The vehicle identification number, across the top of the sheet.
Watch out: This is the only thing tying the form to a car. A sheet of names with no VIN on it is a list, not a document.
2
You fill this in
Plate Number, Year, Make, Model, Body/Hull Type
Five boxes from the registration certificate.
Watch out: Take them from the certificate rather than the title, because on a Vermont vehicle owned by four people the registration is the document everybody has seen.
3
Somebody else fills this in
Title Number
Marked on the form as entered by DMV. Leave it alone.
Watch out: It is the box that makes this sheet part of a specific certificate rather than a loose list of names, which is why the department fills it in itself.
4
You fill this in
Owner #2: Name, Last, First, Middle
The third person on the vehicle - the first one this form is for.
Watch out: Count carefully before you start. Owner #1 is the primary owner and Owner #2 here is the second name on the certificate, so five blocks hold six people in total.
5
You fill this in
Owner #2: Mailing Address, City, State, Zip
A full postal address for that owner.
Watch out: Out-of-state addresses are fine here. What is not fine is leaving one blank because everybody gets their post at the same camp.
6
You fill this in
Owner #2: Vermont License #, Date of Birth, Gender, SSN/FEIN
The identification block, repeated for each owner.
Watch out: An owner without a Vermont licence writes the credential they hold. The department is matching a person, not collecting a Vermont number.
7
You fill this in
Owner #3, #4 and #5 blocks
The same three rows again, up to five times in total.
Watch out: If you need a sixth, start a second form rather than writing in the margin. The instruction at the top says so in a sentence most people never read.
8
You fill this in
Owner #1 through Owner #5 signatures and dates
Every owner signs, including the primary owner named on the certificate.
Watch out: Get them all in one sitting. Chasing a fifth signature by post is exactly the problem this form creates for you later at the sale, and there is no reason to rehearse it now.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
VIN/HIN (Serial Number)
One wide box across the top. This form is attached to a vehicle rather than to a person.
Plate Number, Year, Make, Model, Body/Hull Type
Five description boxes on one row, copied from the registration certificate.
Title Number (entered by DMV)
Left alone. The department writes this one in, and it is the box that ties the sheet to the certificate it must travel with.
Owner #2: Name - Last, First, Middle
The second owner, in three boxes. Owner #1 is the primary owner named on the certificate itself and has no name block here at all.
Owner #2: Mailing Address, City, State, Zip
A full address for each additional owner. They do not have to share one.
Owner #2: Vermont License #, Date of Birth, Gender, SSN/FEIN
The same identification the primary owner gave on the VD-119, for each further owner in turn.
Owner #3, Owner #4, Owner #5
Three more identical blocks. Five owners fill the sheet; a sixth means a second form.
WE FULLY UNDERSTAND...
The certification, and the most important paragraph on the page: naming more than two owners makes all of you responsible for providing proof of ownership in any subsequent transaction, the document must accompany the certificate, and by itself it is not a registration or a title.
Owner #1 Signature and Date, through Owner #5 Signature and Date
Ten boxes in two rows. Every owner signs this form, including the primary owner whose name is the one printed on the certificate.
What gets this one rejected
•A sixth owner squeezed into a margin. The instruction at the top is that if there are more than five owners, multiple forms must be completed.
•The form posted on its own. It must accompany the certificate of registration or the certificate of title, and by itself it is neither.
•A missing signature in the bottom two rows. All owners sign, and the certification is made under 23 V.S.A. s. 202 and s. 203.
•An assumption that the two names on the certificate are the whole story. Where the legend reads "and other owners as listed on file", the file is the authority and the certificate is only a summary of it.
•A transfer signed by the primary owner alone. The certification says all owners must authorise any transfer of ownership, and the department's route for the others is a separate secure bill of sale for each.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Only one name gets printed, and the legend does the rest. The department states it at the top of the form: when there are more than two owners, only the primary owner's name will appear on the registration certificate and certificate of title, with a legend saying that other owners are listed on file.
•The signatures split across two documents at the sale. The primary owner signs on the certificate of title. Every other owner signs a secure bill of sale, and the form says as many of them as are needed to collect all the signatures.
•Proof of ownership becomes your job, not the department's. The certification is explicit that by naming more than two owners you are taking on responsibility for proving ownership in any later transaction involving the vehicle.
•The secure bill of sale is not the VT-005. It is controlled stock issued at a DMV office, and it appears nowhere among the department's published forms. The downloadable VT-005 is the ordinary bill of sale; the secure one is picked up at the counter.
