How to fill out Wisconsin MV1020

The form for a title that is wrong in the department's own record rather than wrong in your handwriting - a misspelled name, an odometer status that does not match, an AND where the record should say OR, a VIN with a transposed digit. It is worth reading before you sell, because most of these only surface when a buyer's application bounces.

Written against MV1020 (3/2024), issued under s. 341.11 and s. 342.10, Wis. Stats.. If a buyer's application has already been rejected, find out which document the department objected to before choosing between this form, the MV2489 and a replacement title. They go to different places and only one of them will be the right one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV1020 from the wisconsindot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank MV1020 — Title/Registration Correction Request PDF at wisconsindot.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual MV1020, rendered from the PDF the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, 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

A completed Wisconsin Title/Registration Correction Request, form MV1020, filled in for a 2016 Subaru Outback whose title number and vehicle identification number are given, with the Odometer listed is incorrect box ticked and a written description explaining that the status was printed as exempt on a model year 2016 vehicle, signed and dated by the owner in Manitowoc. — Eight tick boxes, one ticked, and a description box that does all the work. Note the two warnings printed inside the list itself - adding a co-owner is a transfer, and a driver or lessee change belongs on the MV2627. Names and numbers invented for the sample.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Vehicle Year, Make and Body Style
Three boxes across the top describing the vehicle correctly, whatever the record says.
Watch out: Body Style is the department's own term from the title - 4DR SEDAN, 4DR WAGON. Copy the wording rather than inventing one.
2
You fill this in
Title Number
From the front of the certificate, in the box below the year.
Watch out: This is the department's key to the record. Without it a correction request has to be matched by VIN, which takes longer.
3
You fill this in
License Plate Number and Vehicle Identification Number
Eight cells and seventeen cells, side by side.
Watch out: If the VIN itself is what is wrong on the title, write the correct one here and explain the wrong one in the description box.
4
You fill this in
Owner name, telephone and address
Who is on the record now, and how to reach them.
Watch out: If the name is what is wrong, write it as the record has it and put the correct version in the description. The department needs to find the record first.
5
You fill this in
Which correction
Eight ticks: and/or conjunction, owner names, lien, licence plates, registration, odometer, VIN, other.
Watch out: Tick one. Two ticks and one description is how a request comes back asking which you meant.
6
You fill this in
Description of error
A deep free-text box, and the only part of the form that explains anything.
Watch out: Say what the document says now and what it should say, in that order, in one sentence each. Attach pages if you need to - the form invites it.
7
You fill this in
Owner Signature and Date
Two rules for two owners, signed and dated.
Watch out: Send the original registration certificate, title or Confirmation of Ownership with it, to the Vehicle Research Unit at P.O. Box 8070.
8
You fill this in
Email Address
The last box on the sheet, offered so that a query comes by email rather than by post.
Watch out: Optional in name only. A correction that needs one more document takes days with an email address on it and weeks without.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Vehicle Year / Make / Body Style	Three boxes across the top, describing the car as it should be described.
Title Number	From the front of the certificate. It is how the department finds the record you are asking it to change.
License Plate Number	An eight-character comb beside the title number.
Vehicle Identification Number	A seventeen-character comb.
Owner(s)/Lessee Name - Last, First, MI	Whoever is on the record now, right or wrong.
Telephone Number	A contact number, on the same row as the name.
Address, City, State, Zip Code	Your address as WisDOT holds it.
And/Or Conjunction	The first of eight correction ticks, and it asks for the current title and all signatures alongside.
Owner name(s) are incorrect	The second tick, with a warning printed under it: adding or deleting a co-owner is a transfer of ownership, not a correction.
Lien	Send the current title, the lien release and the loan filing fee if applicable.
License plates / Registration	Two ticks for a plate number that does not match, a wrong plate transferred, a wrong weight class or registration period.
Odometer listed is incorrect	The form asks you to be specific about whether it is the reading, the status, or both.
Vehicle identification number (VIN)	For a number on the title that does not match the vehicle, or a wrong digit.
Other	Colour, and anything else, with room to attach pages.
Description of error	A deep free-text box. This is the only part that explains anything.
Owner Signature and Date, twice	Two rules for two owners. Unwitnessed.
Email Address	Optional, and the form says it is there so you can be contacted by email rather than by letter.

What gets this one rejected

•Sending it without the document being corrected. The form asks for the original Certificate of Vehicle Registration, title and/or Confirmation of Ownership to go with it.
•Using it to add or remove a co-owner. The form prints the reason on itself: that is a transfer of ownership under s. 342.01(2)(c), and it goes on an MV1.
•Using it where the title has been altered or erased. The form redirects you: use the Statement of Intent form MV2489 when your title has a change or erasure in the purchaser, lien holder or odometer area.
•Using it to add or remove a lessee or driver. The form names the MV2627 addendum for that instead.
•A vague description of error. It is a free-text box on a form with no other explanation on it, and a clerk can only act on what is in it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It goes to the Vehicle Research Unit. P.O. Box 8070, Madison WI 53708-8070 - the same unit that handles bonded titles and lien reassignments, and not the Registration Fee Trust address.
•An erasure is not a correction. Wisconsin draws the line hard: a record that is wrong is corrected here; a document that has been written on is explained on the MV2489 or replaced.
•The odometer tick needs detail. The form asks you to be specific about whether the reading is wrong, the status is wrong, or both - because Trans 154.15 makes them two separate notations.
•Two owners means two signatures. There are two signature rules and no notary. If the record joins your names with and, both of you sign.
•Fill in the email address. The form offers it specifically as an alternative to a letter through the post, which on a correction can save a fortnight.

Every line here was read off MV1020 (3/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, 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 Wisconsin seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Wisconsin involves.

How to fill out Wisconsin MV1020

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Vehicle Year, Make and Body Style

Title Number

License Plate Number and Vehicle Identification Number

Owner name, telephone and address

Which correction

Description of error

Owner Signature and Date

Email Address

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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