WV Form DMV-1-S is West Virginia’s Sold Vehicle or Watercraft Notice, and filing it with the Division of Motor Vehicles is how you end your legal responsibility for a vehicle you sold or gave away. West Virginia Code §17A-4-1 requires you to notify the DMV immediately after transferring ownership. Once the notice is on file, parking tickets, towing fees, and accident liability tied to the vehicle land on the new owner instead of you.
Information You Need Before You Start
The form prints a bold warning that it will not be accepted if any line is left blank. Gather everything before you start writing:
- The 17-character Vehicle Identification Number from the driver’s-side dashboard or your registration card. For a boat, use the hull identification number instead.
- The date you handed over the vehicle. An approximate date is allowed if you don’t remember the exact day.
- The sale price. Write $0 if the vehicle was a gift.
- The odometer reading at the time you turned over the keys.
- The buyer’s full legal name, daytime phone number, and complete mailing address including county, city, state, and ZIP code.
Filling Out the Form
Download the form from the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles website or pick one up at any regional office. Use black ink only; submissions in other colors risk rejection.
The top section asks for your information as the seller: name, daytime phone number, and full mailing address. Next come the vehicle details: year, make, model, VIN, and body style. The middle of the form captures the sale itself with the date of transfer, sale price, and odometer reading. The bottom section records the buyer’s full legal name and mailing address. Sign and date at the bottom to certify that everything you wrote is accurate.
Check every field before you submit. A missing county or phone number is enough to get the form bounced back.
Where to Submit the Form
There is no online option for the DMV-1-S. File it by mail or in person.
To mail it, use the DMV’s dedicated P.O. Box rather than the Charleston street address:
WV Department of Transportation
DMV Insurance
P.O. Box 17020
Charleston, WV 25317
To file in person, visit any of the 26 regional DMV offices, including Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Martinsburg, and Beckley. Staff can process the form on the spot. A full list of office locations is on the DMV’s website.
Keep a photocopy of the signed form no matter how you submit it. If the buyer picks up parking tickets or abandons the vehicle before registering it, that dated copy is your proof you notified the state. Your legal protection ties to the date you notified the DMV, not the date the agency finishes entering the notice into its database.
West Virginia Code §17A-4-9 lays out the practical effect: an owner who has made a genuine sale, delivered the vehicle, and properly endorsed the title to the buyer is not considered the owner for purposes of civil liability for how the vehicle is operated after that point. Filing the DMV-1-S creates the dated administrative record that supports that protection.
What to Do With the License Plates
In West Virginia, license plates stay with the seller. They do not go with the vehicle. West Virginia Code §17A-4-1 makes it the original owner’s duty to keep the registration plates when transferring a vehicle, so remove them before the buyer drives away.
You then have two options:
- Transfer the plates to another vehicle at a DMV office. The transfer fee is $10 for a vehicle of the same class. Moving plates to a different vehicle class costs $10 plus any difference in registration fees between the two classes.
- Surrender the plates and registration card to a DMV office if you aren’t registering another vehicle. This stops the state from billing you for future registration renewals.
Insurance ties into this. If you cancel your auto insurance after the sale, you must return the plate to the DMV, submit the DMV-1-S along with the plate, or provide proof of plate transfer and proof of insurance on a new vehicle. A plate sitting in your garage with canceled insurance can create problems. Transfer it or surrender it.
Penalties for False Information
The form itself carries a blunt warning. Anyone who knowingly makes a false statement, conceals a material fact, or otherwise commits fraud on the notice is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both. That covers backdating the sale to dodge a ticket, understating the sale price, or listing a fake buyer. The DMV-1-S is a sworn document. Fill it out accordingly.