A single page that exists because private sellers sign in the wrong box. Its four tick boxes are four versions of the same afternoon: your name has appeared as a purchaser, or as a lien holder, or you wrote the wrong buyer's name in, on a document where correction fluid and erasure void the title outright. This is Wisconsin's alternative to paying the transfer fee twice.
Written against MV2489 (8/2019), issued under Ch. 342, Wis. Stats..
Fill this in before anybody reaches for a pen to fix the title. Wisconsin's certificate voids on erasure, so a statement explaining an error is worth more than a tidy-looking correction, every time.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV2489 from the wisconsindot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual MV2489, 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
Four tick boxes and one of them is ticked. Everything below is identification: the department needs to know which title, and who is saying it. Note the penalty paragraph printed above the signature line - $5,000 or seven and a half years for a knowingly false statement. Names invented for the sample.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Which of the four statements is yours
Name on the title in error; signed in the purchaser area; signed in the lien area; or printed the wrong buyer's name.
Watch out: Read all four before ticking. The second and third look identical at a glance and they are about two different blocks on the back of the certificate.
2
You fill this in
The vehicle was actually sold to
A fill-in line that belongs only to the fourth box, for the buyer's first and last names printed clearly.
Watch out: Only complete it if you ticked the fourth box. A name here with a different box ticked reads as two contradictory statements on one page.
3
You fill this in
Person making statement
Your first and last names, printed, in the left-hand block.
Watch out: Print it exactly as it appears on the title, mistake and all. The department is matching your statement to what is written on the document.
4
You fill this in
Address, City, State, Zip code
Where a query comes back to.
Watch out: This is the only contact detail on the form - there is no telephone or email box anywhere on it.
5
You fill this in
Vehicle Year, manufacturer and model
Three boxes down the right-hand column, describing the car the title belongs to.
Watch out: Manufacturer means the make - Subaru, not Outback. The model goes in the box below it.
6
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
One plain box at the foot of the vehicle column, not a comb.
Watch out: Copy it from the title you are explaining, not from the car. If they differ, that is a much bigger conversation.
7
You fill this in
Signature of person certifying the statement above, and Date
One signature, one date, directly beneath the penalty paragraph.
Watch out: There is no notary line on this form and no second signature. Send it with the title and the buyer's application rather than on its own - it has no mailing address of its own.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
My name appears in error on the title of the vehicle described
The first box, for somebody whose name is on a title they never bought - a co-signer, a namesake, a clerical slip.
As seller, I signed/printed my name in the purchaser area of the title by mistake
The commonest one. It ends: I do not wish to be a co-owner of the vehicle.
As seller, I signed/printed my name in the lien area of the title by mistake
The same mistake one block lower down, ending: I do not wish to be a lien holder of the vehicle.
As seller, I printed the wrong name in the purchaser area. The vehicle was actually sold to ______
A tick with a fill-in line beside it, asking for the buyer's first and last names printed clearly.
Person making statement (print first and last names)
You, printed rather than signed - the signature is at the foot.
Address, City, State, Zip code
Your own address, for the department to reply to.
Vehicle Year / Vehicle manufacturer / Vehicle model
Three boxes down the right-hand side describing the car.
Vehicle Identification Number
One box, not a comb, at the foot of the vehicle column.
Signature of person certifying the statement above, and Date
One signature and one date. No notary and no witness.
What gets this one rejected
•Ticking more than one box without explaining. Each statement says something different about what you did and did not intend.
•Using it to change the sale price or the odometer reading. Those are corrections to a record, not statements of intent - the MV1020 handles them, and the odometer has its own route.
•Correcting the title as well as filing this. Any alteration, correction fluid, or erasure voids this title, and the whole point of the form is that you do not touch the document.
•Leaving the fourth box's fill-in line blank after ticking it. The department needs the name of the person the vehicle was actually sold to.
•Filing it instead of a replacement title where the title is genuinely unusable. A statement explains a signature; it does not repair a mutilated certificate.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is what eMV Public asks for by name. WisDOT's online titling page tells the buyer to post the valid original title and adds: if there are any alterations on title, complete Statement of Intent MV2489.
•The MV1020 points at it too. The correction request prints a note on its own face: use the Statement of Intent Form MV2489 when your title or Manufacturer Statement of Origin has a change or erasure in the purchaser, lien holder or odometer area.
•The penalty is printed on the form. Any person who knowingly makes a false statement in an application for a certificate of title may be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 7 years and 6 months or both, s. 342.06(2).
•It travels with the title, not instead of it. Nothing on the form has a mailing address, because it is submitted with the application the corrected title belongs to.
•Adding or removing a co-owner is not a mistake to be explained away. s. 342.01(2)(c) makes that a transfer of ownership. If you genuinely meant to put somebody on the title, this form is not the route.
