How to fill out West Virginia DMV-1-S

The one-page report that takes a sold car off your record, addressed - and this is the detail that explains everything about it - to DMV Insurance in Charleston. West Virginia's compulsory-insurance computer sweeps every active title with an active plate, and until this notice lands, the record it sweeps still says the car is yours. The statute behind it is 17A-4-1's instruction to immediately notify the commissioner of a transfer; the form's own demands are exact: every line filled, both sellers signing where the title reads AND, and the buyer listed as UNKNOWN only where that is genuinely true.

Written against DMV-1-S (Rev 11/2021), issued under W. Va. Code 17A-4-1. The no-blank-lines rule reaches the price box, and the price you write here should be the price on everything else - certificate, application, bill of sale if one was sworn. This notice is the copy of the deal the insurance section holds, and a figure that disagrees with the tax paperwork is a discrepancy filed against yourself, under a certification that carries a $1000 fine for the knowing version.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DMV-1-S from the webapps.transportation.wv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our DMV-1-S 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

   Your details

   Name, daytime phone, and the full address row including the county, in black ink.

   Watch out: The county appears again because enforcement is local - it is where an abandoned-vehicle or citation query about the car would first look for you.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   The buyer's details

   Name, phone if you have it, address from their license.

   Watch out: UNKNOWN is a printed last resort, not a convenience. A notice naming nobody protects you far less the day the car turns up somewhere it shouldn't be.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Vehicle, date and price

   Make, VIN, year, title number, the date it changed hands and what was paid.

   Watch out: The footnote about an unknown sale date offering an approximate price is for messy old situations - on a fresh sale, date and price are the two facts you know best. Write them exactly.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Signatures - yours, and both of yours

   Sign and date; a co-owner on an AND title signs the second row.

   Watch out: The certification is under penalty of law with the misdemeanor spelled out beneath. It is a short form; it is not a casual one.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   The buyer's rows

   Have the buyer sign and date while the pen is still on the table.

   Watch out: Then post it to the insurance box and keep your photograph. Done the day of the sale, this is the cheapest insurance policy West Virginia offers a seller.

What gets this one rejected

• •A blank anywhere on it. The foot says the notice will not be accepted if any lines are left blank - unknowns have printed answers, UNKNOWN for the buyer's name, an approximate figure for the price.
• •One seller signature on an AND title. The bolded rule between the certification and the signature rows exists precisely because the conjunction follows the sale onto every document.
• •Filing it for a car you scrapped. The form's own instruction: do not use this form if you have junked the vehicle - the junked car has different paperwork.
• •Blue ink, decorative as it is. Section A's header says print using black ink only, and this is a form scanned into an enforcement system.
• •Sitting on it for a season. The statute's timing word is immediately, and every week of delay is a week your name answers the insurance sweep for somebody else's car.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Where it actually goes. The letterhead prints the address: DMV Insurance, PO Box 17020, Charleston. Not the titles post box - this notice feeds the verification system, which is why it exists.
• •The buyer signs it too, when you can get them. Two buyer rows sit under yours. A notice carrying both halves of the sale is the strongest version of your story, but the form asks for buyer signatures if available rather than making them a condition.
• •It is your evidence, so copy it. The notice is what you will point to if a toll, a ticket or an uninsured-vehicle letter arrives wearing your name. Photograph the completed sheet before it goes in the post.

Every line here was read off DMV-1-S (Rev 11/2021) itself — the PDF is here — and off the West Virginia Division 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 West Virginia seller paperwork, or what selling a car in West Virginia involves.