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The Indiana BMV power of attorney is State Form 1940. The form lets an attorney-in-fact complete title and registration transactions for one vehicle or watercraft. Owners need it when another person handles their BMV title or registration paperwork.
Key facts
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An Indiana BMV power of attorney is a limited power of attorney for vehicle and watercraft transactions: it gives one named person authority over the title and registration of one vehicle or boat, and nothing else. The BMV prints it as State Form 1940.
The same document is supposed to be created if the owner conveys the rights to title and register a watercraft.[1] The power of attorney form is completed under oath.[1]
State Form 1940 names two parties. The customer is the vehicle's owner, the principal, who signs Section Four. The attorney-in-fact is the agent, the person who acts for the owner at the BMV, named in Section Two.
A company can be the customer too. The form then takes the company name in place of a person's name.
| Document Name | Indiana Motor Vehicle Power of Attorney Form |
| State Form Name | Limited Power of Attorney Vehicle and Watercraft Transactions, State Form 1940 (R7 / 11-24) |
| Relevant Link | Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles |
| Avg. Time to Fill Out | 10 minutes |
| # of Fillable Fields | 27 |
| Available Formats | Adobe PDF |
State Form 1940 serves an owner who is not at the BMV for a title or registration transaction. The attorney-in-fact then signs and submits that paperwork in the owner's place.
The form's printed affirmation sets the scope: “I hereby authorize the attorney-in-fact to complete transactions involving the certificate of title and/or registration for the vehicle or watercraft listed above.”[1] Common cases include these:
State Form 1940 reaches only the title and registration of the vehicle or watercraft it lists. Authority over money, property or health care decisions belongs in a broader document, such as an Indiana power of attorney form of another type or an Indiana limited power of attorney written for a different task. A record of the sale itself is an Indiana bill of sale, not a power of attorney.
An Indiana vehicle power of attorney meets four conditions of validity set by Ind. Code § 30-5-4-1, and State Form 1940 builds each one into its sections. The statute's list:
The form ties the authority to one identified vehicle or watercraft. Section One holds the VIN of a vehicle or the HIN of a watercraft, one character per box, plus the make, the year and, if known, the title number.
The form asks for a residential address or a principal place of business. Its instructions ask an individual for a residential address and a company for its principal place of business.[1]
State Form 1940 has five sections, and the steps below follow them in the order the form runs. The form’s instructions say to complete it in blue or black ink.[1]
The screenshots under each step show State Form 1940, the official Indiana BMV form, filled with sample entries in blue, so you can see where each answer goes. The names, addresses, dates and vehicle details are examples only.
Enter the customer's name, telephone number and address (Section One)
Write your name (first, middle initial, last) or the company name, then your telephone number. Add the street address, city, state and ZIP code: a residence for a person, the principal place of business for a company.
Copy the VIN or HIN, make, year and title number (Section One)
Enter the vehicle identification number (VIN) of a vehicle or the hull identification number (HIN) of a watercraft, one character per box. Then fill in the make, the year and, if you know it, the title number. Copy them from your title to avoid typos.
Name the attorney-in-fact (Section Two)
Enter the name (first, middle initial, last), telephone number and address of the person you appoint as your agent. On State Form 1940, the agent is named in Section Two, Attorney-in-Fact Information.[1]
Read the affirmation (Section Three)
Read the printed text; there is nothing to enter. It authorizes the attorney-in-fact to complete transactions involving the certificate of title and/or registration for the vehicle or watercraft listed above.
Prepare the authorizing signature block (Section Four)
Check every entry first. Then sign on the Signature of Customer Requiring Representative line, print your name on the Printed Name line and enter the date (mm/dd/yyyy), in front of the notary (see the next section). Each customer whose signature the transaction needs completes a separate Limited Power of Attorney section.[1]
Leave the Notary Certificate blank (Section Five)
Leave this section blank. It is for the notary public, who completes it when the form is notarized. The next section explains that step.
Complete the PDF on a screen first and print it afterward. Typed answers are easier to read, and you can fix a typo without starting over.
State Form 1940 counts as valid only once a notary public completes Section Five, the Notary Certificate, as the key facts above quote from the form.[1]
Section Five, Notary Certificate, is for the notary. It has lines for STATE OF and COUNTY OF, a place for the seal, the date after “Sworn to before me, a Notary Public, in and for said County,” and the Signature of Notary Public, the Printed Name of Notary Public and the Date Commission Expires.[1] The form also says the Notary Certificate may be notarized on the front of the form or by attaching a separate notary certificate.[1]
The signing takes the form from a finished draft to a paper the attorney-in-fact can use. Go through the steps in order.
A power of attorney other than State Form 1940, such as the FormsPal template, follows the signing rule of Indiana’s power of attorney law. Under Ind. Code § 30-5-4-1, it is signed by the principal, or at the principal's direction, either in the presence of a notary public or in the presence of witnesses.
The template includes an acknowledgment for a notary public or other officer, which the notary completes if you sign before a notary.
An Indiana vehicle power of attorney lasts until a stated date, a revocation or the owner's death, and Indiana Code Title 30, Article 5 sets each of those ends. Some of the rules below yield to the document's own terms and say so.
A vehicle power of attorney ends early through a written instrument of revocation. Except as the power of attorney states otherwise, Ind. Code § 30-5-10-1(a) allows only that method, and under Ind. Code § 30-5-10-1(b) the revocation is not effective unless the attorney in fact or other person has actual knowledge of the revocation.
State Form 1940 is a fillable PDF: type the answers on screen in the FormsPal PDF editor, or print it and write them by hand in blue or black ink. Follow the steps above so each answer goes in the right place.
State Form 1940 asks for these items in Sections One and Two.
No, State Form 1940 gives each owner a separate Limited Power of Attorney section when the transaction needs more than one customer’s signature. Each owner fills in and signs their own section.[1]
Yes, State Form 1940 takes a company name in place of a person's name in Section One. A company gives its principal place of business as its address.[1]
No, State Form 1940, the BMV form this page hands out, has no line for a backup agent. The FormsPal template from Create My Document has a successor attorney-in-fact section where you can enter an alternate agent’s name and address.
FormsPal keeps every Indiana power of attorney form on one page, from general to medical documents.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
