How to fill out Virginia VSA 18

The form that stops a family ever needing the estate route. Virginia lets an owner name one beneficiary on a certificate of title, and on the owner's death that person claims the vehicle directly. This adds, removes or changes that name - and it is worth reading now rather than later, because every condition attached to it is about the state of the title while the owner is alive.

Written against VSA 18 (04/10/2024), issued under Va. Code 46.2-633.2. This form quietly costs a substitute title fee every time it is used, because the beneficiary's name has to be printed onto a new certificate. Changing your mind about who inherits the car is therefore not free, and each change invalidates the previous certificate - which matters if the old one is the copy sitting in a drawer that somebody would later try to sell on.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VSA 18 from the dmv.virginia.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank VSA 18 — Beneficiary Transaction Request PDF at dmv.virginia.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual VSA 18, rendered from the PDF the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles 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 Virginia DMV VSA 18 filled in to add a beneficiary: owner Keech, Lorena S. of Waynesboro with her DMV customer number and address, a 2017 Toyota RAV4 identified by vehicle identification number and title number, one beneficiary named in the add block, and the owner's printed name, signature and date in the first certification row. — Adding one name to a lien-free title. The remove and change blocks stay empty - the three blocks are alternatives, and a form with two of them completed asks DMV to do two contradictory things.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Owner information
Full legal name, DMV customer number or SSN, residence address.
Watch out: Name as the certificate carries it. If it has changed since the title was issued, that is a substitute title first and this second.
2
You fill this in
Vehicle information
The VIN and the title number, both of them.
Watch out: The line above the boxes is a warning rather than a label - the form cannot be processed without them.
3
You fill this in
The beneficiary to add
One individual's full legal name and their customer number or SSN.
Watch out: Ask them for it. A name with no identifying number attached is a slower application than one with it.
4
You fill this in
The remove and change blocks
Left empty unless that is what you are doing.
Watch out: Change means naming the person currently on the title as well as the new one. Removing is a different block again.
5
You fill this in
Certification
Date, printed name and signature - one row for each owner named on the certificate.
Watch out: All owners. A designation signed by one of two owners is not a designation, and DMV prints six rows because it expects more than one.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Owner information	Full legal name in last, first, middle, suffix order, DMV customer number or SSN, a residence or home address and a mailing address if different.
Vehicle information	Vehicle identification number and vehicle title number, under a line stating that the form can not be processed without the following information.
Beneficiary to add	Full legal name and DMV customer number or SSN, under a note in capitals: you can only have ONE beneficiary on the title of your vehicle.
Beneficiary to remove	The same two boxes again, for taking a name off.
Beneficiary to change	Two rows - the beneficiary's full legal name currently on the title, and the corrected beneficiary full legal name to add to it.
Important information	Four printed conditions citing Va. Code 46.2-633.2: the vehicle can not have a recorded lien on the title, and if a lien is added the beneficiary will be removed; the beneficiary must be an individual, not a business entity; the form must be submitted with a title carrying no liens, a completed Replacement and Substitute Title form and payment for a substitute title fee; and for the designated beneficiary to claim ownership, a Virginia title must be applied for within 120 days of the death of the owner.
Certification	Six identical rows, each with a date, an owner name printed and an owner signature - because a title in several names needs all of them to agree.

What gets this one rejected

•Filing it on a vehicle with a lien recorded. The condition is absolute and adding a lien later removes the beneficiary automatically.
•Naming a trust, a company or an estate. The beneficiary must be an individual.
•Sending it on its own. It travels with the certificate, a completed Replacement and Substitute Title application and the substitute title fee, because a new certificate has to be printed to carry the name.
•Naming two people. The note is in capitals for a reason - one beneficiary, and a second name does not go on as a spare.
•Leaving it to the family to sort out afterwards. The beneficiary has to apply for a Virginia title within 120 days of the owner's death, and after that the vehicle is back in the estate.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is a transfer-on-death, not a joint ownership. The beneficiary has no interest in the vehicle at all while the owner is alive. They cannot sign for it, cannot stop a sale and do not appear as an owner.
•Selling the car cancels it by itself. The designation lives on that certificate. Assign the title away and there is nothing left for the beneficiary to inherit.
•Every owner signs. Six certification rows exist because a certificate can carry more than one name, and a beneficiary designation is a decision all of them make together.

Every line here was read off VSA 18 (04/10/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles 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 Virginia seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Virginia involves.

How to fill out Virginia VSA 18

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Owner information

Vehicle information

The beneficiary to add

The remove and change blocks

Certification

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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