How to fill out Alabama MVT 15-1

The lender's sworn statement that it took the car back lawfully. It exists because a repossession is a transfer of ownership by operation of law rather than by signature, so there is no assignment from the former owner and something has to stand in its place. A private seller never signs one - but if you are buying a repossessed car, or trying to work out why a lender is not simply handing you a signed title, this is the missing document.

Written against MVT 15-1 (2/20), issued under Code of Ala. 1975, Section 32-8-46(b). If you are trying to sell a car the lender has already collected, you are past the point where any form on this site helps - ownership moved when the interest of the owner was lawfully terminated, and the lender's affidavit says so. If it has not been collected yet, the payoff is the only route back to a certificate you can sign.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT 15-1 from the revenue.alabama.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The lienholder fills this in

   Vehicle identification number

   The full VIN, at the head of the sheet.

   Watch out: Read against the certificate and against the vehicle. A repossession agent working from a loan file has been known to collect the wrong car off a shared driveway.

2. 2
   The lienholder fills this in

   Date of repossession

   The day the vehicle was recovered.

   Watch out: This is the date ownership moved. Everything after it - the sale, the reassignment, the buyer's application - hangs off this field.

3. 3
   The lienholder fills this in

   Year, make, model

   Three fields describing the vehicle, copied from the certificate.

   Watch out: The body type is not asked for here, which is unusual on an Alabama form and means the certificate has to travel with it.

4. 4
   The lienholder fills this in

   Name (former owner)

   The name of the person the vehicle was taken from, exactly as the certificate has it.

   Watch out: Where the certificate names two owners, both belong here. A repossession does not become a single-owner transaction because only one of them signed the loan.

5. 5
   The lienholder fills this in

   Former owner's address

   Street, city, state and ZIP across three rows.

   Watch out: The Department checks this against its own record. A stale address from a five-year-old loan file is the usual cause of a query.

6. 6
   The lienholder fills this in

   Lienholder and its address

   The institution's name and its full address, in the second pair of blocks.

   Watch out: It has to agree exactly with the lienholder printed on the face of the certificate. Banks that have merged since the loan was written are where this goes wrong.

7. 7
   The lienholder fills this in

   Signed by, and printed name

   An authorised representative signs, dates and prints their name at the foot.

   Watch out: No notary and no corporate seal. What the Department wants is a named human being at the lienholder, not a rubber stamp.

What gets this one rejected

• •A signature from the former owner. The whole point of the affidavit is that the former owner did not sign anything.
• •A signature from someone who is not an authorised representative of the recorded lienholder. The label under the line says exactly that.
• •Sending it on its own. The note at the head is explicit: this affidavit must be submitted as a supporting document when applying for an Alabama Certificate of Title For a Repossessed Vehicle.
• •A lienholder name that does not match the one recorded on the face of the certificate. The Department reads them against each other.
• •A missing date of repossession. It is the date the transfer happened, and without it there is no transfer to record.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Why the lender may not need a new title at all. Section 32-8-46(b) lets a lienholder who succeeds to the owner's interest and holds the vehicle for resale skip the new certificate, and instead deliver the old certificate, this affidavit and the other required documents to the buyer, who then applies.
• •Which is why you may be handed one. A repossessed car often arrives with a certificate still in the defaulting owner's name plus this affidavit stapled to it. That is not a red flag; that is the statute working.
• •It is not a substitute for a payoff. If you are the former owner and the car has been taken, this document records the end of your ownership. Nothing on it releases the debt.

Every line here was read off MVT 15-1 (2/20) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Alabama seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Alabama involves.