The form for the plate you have just taken off the car. It does three separate jobs: it declares that a plate was lost, destroyed or stolen; it releases a personalised plate format so the letters can be issued to somebody else; and it lets a lessor release a plate and its credited fees to the lessee. ADOT also knows it by a second name, the affidavit of plate destruction.
Written against 48-3302 (R05/25), issued under A.R.S. 28-2058 and 28-2356.
Do not confuse this with a plate replacement. If your plate was stolen and you want another one for the same car, that is a plate replacement through AZ MVD Now, it carries its own fee, and you will get a new combination rather than the old one. This form is for letting go of a plate, not for getting one back.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 48-3302 from the apps.azdot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 48-3302, rendered from the PDF the Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
The VIN goes in one character per printed box, which is what the 5th, 10th and 17th markers above the comb are for. Getting it out of step by one box is the single commonest way this form comes back.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Registered Plate Owner
Your name as MVD holds it against the plate, with a mailing address underneath.
Watch out: The plate is registered to a person, not to a car. If the plate is in a joint name, use the name on the registration document rather than whichever of you is filling the form in.
2
You fill this in
Plate Number
The plate being released, one character per box.
Watch out: Copy it from the plate in your hand, not from the registration. If they disagree, that is a bigger conversation than this form.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
The last vehicle the plate was on, one character per box, with the 5th, 10th and 17th positions marked above the comb.
Watch out: Use those three markers as a check as you write. If your 17th character does not land in the last box, you have dropped or doubled one.
4
You fill this in
Year, Make, Model
The vehicle the plate came off.
Watch out: This is how MVD confirms the plate and the VIN belong together. A mismatch here reads as a plate that was never on that car.
5
You fill this in
Personalized Plate Release
Tick it to give up a personalised combination so it can be issued to somebody else.
Watch out: Only tick this if you genuinely want to lose the letters. A standard plate does not need it, and a personalised one you might want again certainly does not.
6
You fill this in
The lessor release and Lessee Name
For a leasing company handing a plate and its credited fees to the person who leased the vehicle.
Watch out: A private seller leaves both of these empty. They exist because on an Arizona lease the plate and the fees can belong to the lessee rather than to the lessor.
7
You fill this in
Signature, Date and Phone Number
Sign, date and give a number MVD can reach you on.
Watch out: Date it inside the thirty days the statute allows. The date on this form is the date that proves you did.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Registered Plate Owner (first, middle, last, suffix) and mailing address
You, and where MVD should write.
Plate Number
The plate being released, in a comb of boxes.
Vehicle Identification Number
In a boxed comb with the 5th, 10th and 17th characters marked, under the heading The last vehicle the plate above was assigned to.
Year, Make, Model
The vehicle the plate came off.
Personalized Plate Release
A tick box with its own sentence: I hereby release ownership of this plate format. I understand that this action allows the letter/number combination to be issued to another person.
Lessor release
A second tick box - I am the vehicle lessor, and I release this plate with any credited fees to this lessee - followed by a Lessee Name line.
Registered Plate Owner Signature, Date and Phone Number
Three fields across the foot.
What gets this one rejected
•Ticking neither box. The form's own instruction is to select the option or options that best apply, and an unmarked form does not say what you want done.
•Using it to claim money. The line across the top sends you elsewhere: to request a plate refund visit AZMVDNow.gov.
•A plate number that does not match the vehicle. The VIN block is headed with the last vehicle the plate was assigned to, and MVD matches the two.
•A lessee name with no lessor box ticked, or the reverse. The two go together and neither works alone.
•Filing it more than thirty days after the sale. A.R.S. 28-2058(A)(1)(c) gives thirty days to transfer, surrender or swear to the destruction of a plate.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is one of three ways to finish with a plate. The statute gives the seller the choice: move it to another vehicle, hand it in at an MVD or Authorized Third Party office, or file the affidavit of destruction. This form covers the last of those and the release of a personalised format.
•Releasing a personalised format is permanent. The printed sentence says the combination may be issued to another person. There is no reserving it for later.
•The credit is a separate request. Money back for unused registration is the registration credit on AZ MVD Now, and the statute requires the owner to let the department take a processing fee out of it.
•A plate on the wrong sort of vehicle has to go back. Where the new vehicle is not the same type as the old, A.R.S. 28-2356(C) requires the owner to surrender the plates or file the destruction affidavit and take new ones.
