In the US, vehicle ownership is documented and managed with special pieces of paper called titles.

Ownership is transferred when a vehicle's owner assigns the title to a new owner by writing on the vehicle's title in pen.

On every vehicle title, words to the effect of "Alteration, use of correction fluid or erasure voids this certificate" appear.

This is actually a security feature: if titles with cross-outs were accepted, a thief could simply cross out the buyer's name, write his own name, and register the vehicle in his own name.

But, whenever humans, pen, and paper are involved, mistakes can happen.

So, how do we fix these mistakes if they happen?

visitor.us registers vehicles in Montana, which (like all US states) has a form for this purpose: MV100 Statement of Fact.

Let's look at this example of a Statement of Fact:

The State of Montana requires several elements for an acceptable MV100 Statement of Fact.

The person who made the error needs to complete and sign the statement. One person cannot create and sign a statement for someone else's error.

If the person making the statement is doing so on behalf of a company (like a dealership), that person must state the name of the company, the signer's name, and the signer's relationship to the company (e.g., Main Street Autos by Joe Bloggs, agent).

If the error on the title was made by an agent of the company, the company made the error, and any agent of the company can sign the Statement of Fact. For example, if the error on the title was made by Sally Jones, agent for Main Street Autos, Joe Bloggs can sign MV100 as agent for Main Street Autos.

The vehicle's year, make, and VIN are required for an acceptable MV100 Statement of Fact.

While Montana's form has a Title Number field, it can be left blank.

The person who made the error must state what happened, for example, "I accidentally wrote the incorrect address in the buyer’s section of this vehicle’s title."

An acceptable Statement of Fact must contain the words "No fraud intended."

The person making the statement must sign and date the statement, and provide their name, email address, and phone number in case the State of Montana needs to contact the signer in the future.

Acceptable signatures are either original, wet ink signatures or electronically signed with an audit trail (e.g., Docusign).

For more information on acceptable signatures, please check out this article.

Once we have a MV100 Statement of Fact that contains all of the required elements, we submit the MV100 with the vehicle's title and proceed with registration.