Transferring a vehicle in Georgia after someone dies

The paths this state offers

Every route Sahvelo has verified for transferring a vehicle after a death in this state, side by side. The guided questions identify which one applies to you.

What to do, step by step

The order of operations for each path. Only one of these applies to you — the guided questions will say which.

Documents and forms

Each name below links to the official form or the agency page that issues it.

Needed on every path

• The Georgia certificate of title (opens in a new tab)

  The original valid title, issued in the dead person's name or properly assigned to them, with every recorded lien and security interest released in the spaces provided on it.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Certified copy of the death certificate (opens in a new tab)

  Certified on the estate routes. On the survivorship route the Department asks only for a copy.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

Needed on some paths

• MV-1 Title/Tag Application (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to Letters of Testamentary — the only Georgia route that lets you sell without titling the car firstYear's Support — a probate court award the tag office accepts as the inheritance documentThe T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fractionOne heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

  Completed and signed. Georgia's single application for a title and a tag, and where the survivorship disclosure is asked for when a title is first issued.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Form T-4 Lien or Security Interest Release (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to Letters of Testamentary — the only Georgia route that lets you sell without titling the car firstYear's Support — a probate court award the tag office accepts as the inheritance documentThe T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fractionOne heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

  Completed and signed. Asked for as part of the inheritance transaction, and also the form an heir uses to release a lien that an estate held.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Certified copy of the Letters of Testamentary (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to Letters of Testamentary — the only Georgia route that lets you sell without titling the car first

  One of the three inheritance documents, and the only one that lets the car be sold without being titled in somebody's name first.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Certified copy of Year's Support (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to Year's Support — a probate court award the tag office accepts as the inheritance document

  One of the three inheritance documents. Granted by the probate court in the county where the person lived.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Form T-20 Affidavit of Inheritance (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to The T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fraction

  Sworn before a notary in the inheritor's full legal name. Four conditions in one sentence, and any correction or alteration voids it.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Copy of a No Administration Necessary order (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to One heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

  Accepted in place of the T-20 where there is only one heir.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Legible copy of a non-probated will (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to The T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fractionOne heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

  Where a will exists but is not going to be probated because it contains only limited assets.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

• Form T-7 Bill of Sale (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to Letters of Testamentary — the only Georgia route that lets you sell without titling the car first

  Used by an executor selling a vehicle out of an estate where the vehicle is exempt from odometer disclosure and the title is not available.

  Link checked 2026-08-18

Where and how to file

• In person

  A County Tag Office

  Titles and tags for an inherited vehicle are obtained at a County Tag Office. Georgia titling is county business rather than a state counter.The inheritance document, the MV-1, the title, the Form T-4 lien release and the certified death certificate go in together, with the title fee and the tax.Where the inheritor is not a legal resident of Georgia and no Georgia title has been issued for the vehicle, they must obtain a title in their own name from their home state first, before transferring the vehicle to a Georgia resident.

  Find an office (opens in a new tab)

  Applies to every path

What it costs

Fees change, and the agency's own schedule is the only current source. Where Sahvelo cannot verify a fixed amount, it links the schedule rather than quoting a number.

After you file

• The County Tag Office issues a certificate of title in the new owner's name and works out the title ad valorem tax at the same time, on the vehicle's fair market value rather than on anything the family paid.Where the car is going to be sold and the inheritor does not hold Letters of Testamentary, this is the first of two transactions rather than the only one: the vehicle has to be in the inheritor's name before it can be transferred to anybody else.

  Applies to every path

• A surviving joint tenant with the survivorship disclosure is not obliged to take a title in their own name at all. They may complete the assignment on the existing certificate and pass the car to a buyer, who then applies.Worth doing for the next generation: the disclosure only exists because somebody asked for it. It can be requested at a County Tag Office, or entered on the MV-1 below the owners' names, whenever a title is issued.

  Applies to The survivorship disclosure is on the title. Sign the assignment and attach a death certificate

Official links you'll need

Every link goes directly to the issuing agency and opens in a new tab.

• Form T-20 — Affidavit of Inheritance of a Motor Vehicle (opens in a new tab)

  Form A County Tag Office dor.georgia.gov

  Applies to The T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fractionOne heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

• Georgia Department of Revenue — what an inherited vehicle needs (opens in a new tab)

  guidance A County Tag Office dor.georgia.gov

  Applies to every path

• Title ad valorem tax, and the inheritance rate (opens in a new tab)

  guidance A County Tag Office dor.georgia.gov

  Applies to Letters of Testamentary — the only Georgia route that lets you sell without titling the car firstYear's Support — a probate court award the tag office accepts as the inheritance documentThe T-20 affidavit — four things sworn in one sentence, and the tax rate falls to a fractionOne heir — Georgia will take a No Administration Necessary order instead of the affidavit

• Releasing a lien where the lienholder has died (opens in a new tab)

  guidance A County Tag Office dor.georgia.gov

  Applies to every path

If your situation doesn't fit one of these paths

Common complications, and what each one changes.

• Two names on the title, and no survivorship disclosure

  Georgia's survivorship route depends on a phrase being printed on the certificate, and there is nothing that can be done about its absence after the death. What Georgia requires instead, where a title shows two names without the disclosure and one of those owners has died, is not something Sahvelo has established from the Department of Revenue's published guidance — and it is not a question to answer by reasoning from another state, because Georgia's convention for ordinary joint ownership is to use the word and rather than or, which is the reverse of several others. The County Tag Office is the place to ask before assuming either that the survivor owns the car outright or that they do not.^{Source 4}

• The car is going to be sold rather than kept

  No other detail on the Georgia page costs as much to miss, and it is easy to miss. An inheritor who does not hold Letters of Testamentary must title the vehicle in their own name before selling or transferring ownership — so a family who inherit a car on the affidavit and sell it a month later pay the title fee twice and go through the tax twice. Where an executor is selling directly out of the estate they complete the title assignment in their full legal name instead, and no intermediate title is needed. It is worth finding out whether letters are obtainable before deciding that the affidavit is the cheaper route.^{Source 1Source 3}

• The car was bought before March 2013 and never retitled

  It is probably still in Georgia's annual ad valorem system rather than the one-off title ad valorem system, and the choice on inheriting it is different in kind. The Department of Revenue states it plainly: where the vehicle is currently in the annual ad valorem tax system, the family member has the option of staying under annual ad valorem or paying the full one-time title ad valorem tax. Staying means continuing to pay a tax every year; switching means paying 7% of fair market value once. The reduced 0.5% inheritance rate applies to a vehicle already in the title ad valorem system, not to this choice.^{Source 3}

• The executor has died too

  Georgia publishes a procedure for this rather than leaving the family to work it out. Submit Temporary Letters of Administration and apply for a title in the name of the estate only. The vehicle cannot be sold or transferred without Permanent Letters of Administration, so the estate can hold the car but cannot move it on until the appointment is made permanent.^{Source 1}

• The certificate of title cannot be found

  Georgia will not issue a replacement title in a dead person's name. The Department of Revenue's instruction is that where the title is not available and a replacement cannot be issued in the deceased's name, the title holder will have to request a duplicate title to assign to the estate. Where the title is issued to somebody else or titled in another state, it must be submitted, issued to, or properly assigned to the deceased. And where an odometer disclosure is required and the title is missing, an executor selling the car has to title it in their own name or in the estate's name before transferring it.^{Source 1}

• It is the lienholder who died, not the owner

  A privately financed car can be stuck because the person who lent the money has died and is recorded on the title. Georgia gives three routes depending on what that person left: an executor with Letters of Testamentary releases the lien on the title or on a Form T-4, attaching a certified copy of the letters; where the will contains limited assets and is not to be probated, an heir does the same attaching a certified copy of the death certificate, a copy of the non-probated will and a completed T-20; and where there was no will, an heir releases it on the death certificate and the T-20 alone. The affidavit that moves a car out of an estate is the same instrument that releases a lien an estate held.^{Source 5}

• The person inheriting does not live in Georgia

  There is a rule that runs opposite to the rest of the page. Where a Georgia title has not been issued for the vehicle and the inheritor is not a legal resident of Georgia, the inheritor must obtain a title in their own name from their home state first, before selling or transferring ownership of the vehicle to a Georgia resident. So the transaction starts in the inheritor's state rather than in Georgia.^{Source 1}

Questions people ask about this

• Do we have to open an estate just to transfer the car?

  Not necessarily. Georgia asks for one inheritance document and will accept a sworn affidavit — Form T-20 — in place of court papers, where there was no will, no application for administration is to be had, the estate is not indebted, and the surviving spouse and heirs have agreed among themselves. Where there is only one heir, a copy of a No Administration Necessary order can be submitted instead. Both avoid an administration. What they do not avoid is a restriction on selling: without Letters of Testamentary the car has to be titled in the inheritor's name before it can be passed on.^{Source 1Source 2}

• How much tax is there on inheriting a car in Georgia?

  Half of one per cent of the car's fair market value, if you do it right — against the 7% Georgia charges on a normal transfer. The reduced rate applies where a family member inherits, the vehicle is already in the title ad valorem system, and a T-20 Affidavit of Inheritance is filed. For example, on a car the Department values at thirty thousand dollars, that is one hundred and fifty dollars instead of two thousand one hundred. Where the vehicle is still in the older annual ad valorem system the choice is different: stay under the annual tax or pay the full one-off tax now.^{Source 3}

• Both our names are on the title. Does it just come to me?

  Only if the words Joint Tenants with rights of Survivorship are printed on the certificate. Georgia treats that as a disclosure somebody asked for when the title was applied for, not as something to be inferred from two names — and its convention for ordinary joint ownership is to use and rather than or, so and on its own does not mean survivorship. Where the disclosure is there, the surviving owner can transfer the title to another party by completing the assignment and attaching a copy of the death certificate, and nothing else.^{Source 4}

• Where do we go?

  A County Tag Office. Georgia titles and tags are county business rather than a state counter, and everything — the inheritance document, the MV-1, the title, the lien release and the certified death certificate — goes in there together with the $18 title fee and the tax.^{Source 1}

• There is a will, but nobody wants to probate it. Does that stop us?

  No, and Georgia provides for it in two places. The affidavit route allows a will that is not to be probated: a legible copy of it accompanies the completed T-20. And the Department's own list says that where the will contains only limited assets and is not to be probated, a legible copy of that non-probated will must be submitted. What the affidavit itself requires is that no application for administration is to be had, which is about the estate rather than about the will.^{Source 1Source 2}

• I made a mistake on the affidavit. Can I cross it out?

  No. The form says any correction or alteration will void it. Print a fresh one and start again. It also has to be typed or completed electronically and printed, or printed legibly by hand in blue or black ink, with every applicable field completed, and it is signed in front of a notary.^{Source 2}

• What is Year's Support?

  It is an award a Georgia probate court makes out of an estate, and the Department of Revenue accepts a certified copy of it as an inheritance document in its own right — alongside Letters of Testamentary and the T-20 affidavit. Sahvelo has not read the Georgia statute governing it and states nothing about who qualifies for it, what it is worth or how it is applied for. The probate court in the county where the person lived grants it and is the place to ask.^{Source 1}

What the terms mean

See the full glossary across every state