How to fill out West Virginia DMV-84-A

How a debt gets onto a title that already exists - the owner asks. The applicant's certification says it in the first person: I request the Division of Motor Vehicles to record a lien on the certificate of title on my vehicle in favor of the lien holder(s), and I understand a new certificate of title will be produced and submitted to my lienholder(s) in order of priority. For a private sale this is the seller-financing follow-up: money lent against the car after titling, including a balance a buyer still owes the person who sold it to them, is recorded here, with the fee box totalling the arithmetic - $15.00 title fee plus $10.00 lien fee equals $25.00.

Written against DMV-84-A (Rev 03/2023), issued under W. Va. Code 17A-4A-2. The 85-A fact sheet travels with this form whenever the lender is a person rather than an institution - and so does the signed loan contract, photocopied, because the Division will not take a private lien on trust. Skipping the attachments does not produce a rejection letter so much as a limbo: the title has gone to Charleston, no lien is recorded, and the certificate comes back unchanged weeks later.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DMV-84-A from the webapps.transportation.wv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our DMV-84-A guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank DMV-84-A — Voluntary Lien Created After Issuance of Original Title PDF at webapps.transportation.wv.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in DMV-84-A guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual DMV-84-A, rendered from the PDF the West Virginia Division 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 West Virginia DMV-84-A filled in: owner Dorsey L. Maxwell of Fairmont asks the Division to record a three thousand dollar lien on his 2014 Ford Escape in favor of Wardell F. Maxwell of Clarksburg, with the loan's amount, nature and date in the first lien block, and the signature lines left for the lien holder and the owners. — A voluntary lien in favour of a private person - the buyer from this section's sale, recording his uncle's loan against the car. The fact sheet and the signed loan agreement ride along, because an individual lienholder is only recorded with both.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
Applicant's information
The owner's name, phone, email, driver's license number and address - the person the certificate names today.
Watch out: On this form the roles flip: the vehicle's owner is the applicant even when the lender drafted the deal. Whoever's name is on the title fills this in.
2
The buyer fills this in
Vehicle information
Title number and its issue date, then year, body, make and VIN, copied off the certificate being surrendered.
Watch out: The issue date box is the one people guess at. It is printed on the certificate itself - read it, because it identifies which title the lien attaches to.
3
The lienholder fills this in
Statement of liens
Amount, nature and date of the lien, the lender's name, code and address - and the lien holder's own signature on the block.
Watch out: An individual lender has no lender code; what stands in for it is the attached contract. Institutions supply theirs, and it speeds the matching.
4
The buyer fills this in
The certification
Sign the request under penalty of perjury - every owner, where the title reads AND.
Watch out: Understand what you are requesting: the fresh certificate goes to the lender, not to you. That is the mechanics of a recorded lien, not a clerical error to phone about.
5
The buyer fills this in
Fee, title, post
The $25.00, the current certificate, and the application go together to a Regional Office or the Charleston box.
Watch out: Photograph the certificate before it goes in the envelope. Until the new one reaches the lender, that photograph is your only record of the title's contents.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
A) Applicant's information	The owner - name, phone, email, driver's license number, and a full address row. The applicant is whoever the title names now, not the lender.
B) Vehicle information	Title number, the date it was issued, year, body, make and VIN - identifying the certificate the lien is being written onto.
C) Statement of liens created	The stacking question first - is this lien in addition to one or more existing liens - then up to two numbered liens, each with amount, nature of lien, date, the in-favor-of name, lender code, address, and the lien holder's signature with a title of officer box.
The fee box	The following fees must be submitted with this application in order to process your request: $15.00 title fee + $10.00 lien fee = $25.00, with the warning that a dishonoured cheque adds a $10.00 service charge, and the return address - a Regional Office or DMV Receiving and Processing in Charleston.
D) Applicant's certification	The request quoted above, certified under penalty of perjury, with two owner signature lines and the starred rule: if your title includes multiple owners separated by the conjunction and, then all owners' signatures are required to record this voluntary lien.

What gets this one rejected

•The lender applying instead of the owner. Section A belongs to the person the title names - the lien is voluntary precisely because the owner requests it.
•An individual lender with no contract behind them. The titles page requires any title listing an individual rather than a financial institution as lienholder to include a physical copy of the signed loan agreement or contract.
•One owner signing an AND title. The starred line under the certification requires all owners' signatures to record the lien.
•The old certificate missing from the packet. The instruction is to return this application, title, and fee together - the lien is written onto a new certificate, so the Division needs the current one back.
•Short money. The fee box does the sum itself, and an application without the $25.00 stalls exactly as a blank would.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•The paper title goes to the lender. The certification says the new certificate will be produced and submitted to the lienholder in order of priority - record a lien on your own car and you stop holding your own title until it is released.
•Priority is the order of recording. Two lien blocks, numbered, and the stacking question at the top - the form is built around the fact that whoever records first collects first.
•For a seller financing a buyer. This is the belt-and-braces route when the loan was arranged after the buyer titled the car. Financing agreed at the sale itself goes into the lien block of the buyer's own application instead.

Every line here was read off DMV-84-A (Rev 03/2023) 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.

How to fill out West Virginia DMV-84-A

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Applicant's information

Vehicle information

Statement of liens

The certification

Fee, title, post

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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