How to fill out Virginia VSA 70

One page that lets somebody else sign a Virginia title on your behalf when registering or transferring a vehicle. It is a single-vehicle document - the certificate's own VIN and title number are printed into the middle of it - and unlike the equivalent form in several other states, it needs no notary at all. What it does need is care about who you name, because the wording gives them everything.

Written against VSA 70 (05/10/2018), issued under Va. Code 46.2-629. The two signature lines on this form have no boxes behind them - they are printed rules, and the only fillable boxes on that row are the customer number and the date. That is a rendering detail rather than a legal one, but it means an owner completing this on screen and printing it will find their name typed everywhere except the one place that has to be handwritten.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VSA 70 from the dmv.virginia.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank VSA 70 — Power of Attorney to Sign for Owner PDF at dmv.virginia.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual VSA 70, 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 70 filled in: vehicle owner Ashby, Corinne T. of Charlottesville, power of attorney granted to a family member at the same address, and a 2015 Honda CR-V identified by make, body type, model year, vehicle identification number and title number, with the owner's DMV customer number and a date. — One vehicle, one attorney-in-fact. The two signature rules are the only lines here that have no fillable box behind them, which is why they are the two lines nobody can type into.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Vehicle owner or owners
Your name and address as they appear on the certificate, with the co-owner block used only if there is one.
Watch out: Match the certificate, not the driving licence, if the two differ. This form is about signing that document.
2
You fill this in
Power of attorney granted to
The full legal name and address of the person who will sign for you.
Watch out: Full legal name. A nickname on a power of attorney is an argument waiting at a DMV counter.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle information
Make, body type, model year, VIN and title number - the five boxes that limit the authority to one car.
Watch out: Copy the title number as well as the VIN. Together they are what stops this page being used on a different vehicle.
4
You fill this in
Customer number and date
Your DMV customer number or employer federal ID, and the date you signed.
Watch out: Sign on the printed rule above these boxes in ink. It is the one thing on this form that cannot be typed.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Vehicle owner or owners	Owner name in last, first, middle order and street address, city, state and ZIP; then the same block again for a co-owner.
Power of attorney granted to	The attorney-in-fact's full legal name split across last, first, middle and suffix on one long line, then their street address, city, state and ZIP.
Vehicle information	Vehicle make, body type, model year, the vehicle identification number and the title number - five boxes that tie the authority to one car.
Certification	The operative wording: the owners make, constitute and appoint the person named above true and lawful attorney-in-fact to sign in their name, place and stead any Certificate of Title or other supporting papers covering the vehicle, in whatever manner necessary to register and/or transfer ownership, with full authority and power to do and perform any and all other acts necessary or incident to the execution of the powers granted, as the grantor might or could do if personally present, with full power of substitution.
Signatures	Owner signature and co-owner signature above, then a DMV customer number or employer federal ID number and a date beneath each - the identification lines are boxes, the signature lines are printed rules with nothing behind them.

What gets this one rejected

•Leaving the vehicle block blank to keep it flexible. The authority is tied to the VIN and title number printed on it; a blank there is a general power of attorney, which is not what this form is.
•One owner signing for two. Both owners named on the certificate have their own signature line here for the same reason they both sign the certificate.
•Using it after the sale has already happened. It authorises signing on the owner's behalf, and the person granting it has to still be the owner when it is used.
•Naming the buyer as your attorney-in-fact without thinking about it. The wording lets them sign the certificate in your name, in whatever manner necessary - including in ways you did not discuss.
•Expecting a notary block. There is not one. This is affirmed under penalty of perjury like the rest of Virginia's set.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Full power of substitution is the phrase to notice. It means the person you appoint can appoint somebody else. If that is not what you intended, this is not a form to hand over casually.
•It covers registering as well as transferring. The heading is when registering and/or transferring ownership of a motor vehicle, so the same page can carry an appointment for a licence-plate transaction as for a sale.
•The odometer is still yours. Virginia's odometer statute deals with a transferor who gives a power of attorney by requiring the mileage to be recorded on the power of attorney itself where the assignment is signed that way. Handing over authority does not hand over responsibility for the reading.

Every line here was read off VSA 70 (05/10/2018) 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 70

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Vehicle owner or owners

Power of attorney granted to

Vehicle information

Customer number and date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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