Montana vehicle title signing guide

Introduction

In order to transfer ownership of a vehicle to a new owner, the registered owner must assign the title to the new owner.

Every US state has its own form of vehicle title, and title assignment process.

If you hire visitor.us to register your vehicle, your vehicle’s title will be issued by the US state of Montana, listing your Montana LLC as the vehicle’s owner.

This is a guide to help you assign your vehicle’s Montana title, listing a Montana LLC as the registered owner, to a new owner.

Table of contents

Title assignment
Authentic document
Any alteration, use of correction fluid, or erasure voids title
When to assign title
Notarized signature
Odometer disclosure
Buyer’s details

A vehicle's title is its official ownership document. Transfer of ownership is not complete until the title is "assigned" to the new owner.

Title assignment refers to the process of sining the vehicle’s ownership documents in order to transfer ownership of the vehicle from one party to another.

Vehicle ownership can only be transferred with an authentic document.  Scans, copies, or images of title documents are not acceptable for ownership transfer.

After registration, Montana issues a title document that looks like this:

In order to register the vehicle, the buyer must submit the vehicle’s properly assigned title document.

Let’s look at how to properly assign your vehicle’s Montana title.

At the bottom of every Montana title, the following words are written:

Always take care when writing on a vehicle title, as any cross-outs, write-overs, or white-outs will require extra paperwork, and may require you to obtain a replacement title.

Do not write anything on your vehicle’s title until you are ready to hand the vehicle over to the buyer.

If you assign the vehicle’s title before the buyer has been identified, the title becomes an open title.

An open title is a vehicle title that has been signed by the seller but does not yet have the buyer's information filled in. Because anyone can fill in the buyer’s section of an open title and register the vehicle in their own name, leaving a title open can be risky, and should be avoided if possible.

If you assign the vehicle’s title to a buyer who backs out of the purchase, assigning the title to a new buyer may be difficult or impossible without obtaining a replacement title.

Sign your vehicle only when you are in front of a notary public.

Montana requires the seller’s signature to be notarized in order for the title to be properly assigned.

Notarization is the process by which a notary public officially witnesses the signing of a document, verifies the identity of the signers, and ensures that they are signing voluntarily and understand the contents of the document. This process helps to prevent fraud and provides an added layer of authenticity and trust to important legal and financial documents.

Notarizing a document takes less than five minutes, and costs $5 or $10.

Notaries are everywhere in the United States.  Some chains (UPS Stores, for example) require their notaries to view a US identity document for all signers.  It’s best practice, therefore, to call ahead and confirm that a notary is present, and can use the identity document that you have.

The notary doesn’t have to be a Montana notary, or even a US notary, to notarize a Montana title.

A notary can only notarize a document whose signature the notary witnesses - so do not sign your vehicle’s title until you are physically in front of the notary.

While notarizations done via video conference are now available for certain types of documents, because vehicle titles need to be physically signed and stamped, a vehicle title cannot be notarized with a remote online notarization.

After you have signed the document, the notary will complete the “notary block” of your vehicle’s Montana title:

A note on notarizing a Montana title owned by a company

When the owner of a vehicle is a company, Montana no longer requires the seller’s signature to be notarized.

However, this new specification is not written anywhere on Montana’s titles, other states - Texas, for example - still require the seller’s signature to be notarized, even if the owner of the vehicle is a company.

Therefore, unless the buyer will register the vehicle in Montana, it’s best to notarize your vehicle’s title.

Because your Montana LLC is the registered owner of your vehicle, you must sign the vehicle’s title on its behalf.

Montana specifies that when signing for a company, the signer must write

1. The name of the company shown on the title;
2. The name of the person who is actually signing the title; and
3. The capacity in which the signer is signing.

For example, John Smith should sign for Example LLC as follows:

If your vehicle is model year 2011 or newer, and the vehicle is powered (i.e., not a trailer), you must enter the vehicle’s odometer reading, and the date of that reading:

Finally, the buyer’s name and address, and the date of transfer, should be written in the buyer’s section of the title.