How to fill out Arkansas 10-345

The way into Arkansas's bonded-title process for a vehicle with no title at all - bought at a yard sale on a handshake, inherited from a barn, or papered so long ago the documents are gone. It is an application to be allowed to apply: the form itself asks only how you got the vehicle, and what comes back from the Office of Motor Vehicle's bonded title agent, ten to twenty-five business days later, is either bond forms and a letter of approval with further instructions or a letter of explanation as to why you are not approved. Two attachments are mandatory before it will be read: a bill of sale, and a VIN verification on the form prescribed by the Arkansas State Police.

Written against 10-345 (no revision printed), issued under Ark. Code Ann. Title 27, Chapter 14. This route is for a vehicle you genuinely own with no path to its paper. If the last titled owner is findable, a replacement title signed by them is faster, cheaper and bond-free - the bonded process exists for when the chain of ownership has a gap only a surety bond can cover.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 10-345 from the dfa.arkansas.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 10-345 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   The vehicle row

   Year, make, model, body style and the VIN - with dimensions only if the application is for a mobile home.

   Watch out: Take the VIN from the vehicle itself, carefully: it is about to be verified character by character by a law enforcement officer, and a transposition here means a second inspection.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Read the four conditions you are swearing to

   No junking or branded certificate, no mechanics or storage lien, not stolen, no ownership litigation.

   Watch out: If any of the four is arguable - a storage yard claiming fees, an ex disputing the sale - resolve that first. The agent's records research is designed to find exactly these.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Explain how and from whom

   The ten lines: names, dates, amounts, and the reason no title changed hands.

   Watch out: Write it like a statement, because it is one. The seller's name and town give the agent something to check; I forget defeats the application.

4. 4
   Somebody else fills this in

   Get the VIN verified and the bill of sale together

   A certified city or county law enforcement officer, or the Arkansas State Police or designee, completes the verification on the State Police's own form; your bill of sale - whatever paper the purchase produced - travels with it.

   Watch out: Call the local department before driving over; some agencies schedule VIN inspections on set days. The verification is the one attachment you cannot write yourself.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Sign, date, mail, wait

   Signature, printed name, address and phone, then the packet to Office of Motor Vehicle - Bonded Titles, P.O. Box 1272, Little Rock.

   Watch out: Ten to twenty-five business days, says the form. What returns is either bond forms with instructions or a letter explaining the refusal - and the phone number you wrote is how ambiguities get resolved instead of refused.

What gets this one rejected

• •No bill of sale attached. The opening instruction makes it a condition: this form must be accompanied by a bill of sale and verification of the VIN.
• •A VIN verification done by the wrong person. It must be conducted by a certified law enforcement officer of any city or county in Arkansas or by the Arkansas State Police or a designee - a notary, a mechanic or a title service will not do.
• •A vehicle with a junking certificate or similar brand. The first sworn condition excludes it, and the research the agent runs is precisely how that surfaces.
• •A storage or mechanics lien standing against the vehicle. Condition two - the lien has its own statutory process, and bonding is not a way around it.
• •An explanation that explains nothing. Bought it, cash is not an account of how and from whom; the agent researching the record needs names and dates to research against.
• •Treating approval as a title. What arrives is bond forms - the certificate comes later, after the surety bond is purchased and filed.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The state researches before it answers. Upon receipt, the bonded title agent will research Office of Motor Vehicle records to determine if bonded title procedures may be used - which is why honest answers about the vehicle's history cost nothing and false ones surface immediately.
• •It has its own mailbox. The completed form goes to Office of Motor Vehicle - Bonded Titles, P.O. Box 1272, Little Rock, AR 72203, and questions to (501) 682-4679 - both printed on the form itself.

Every line here was read off 10-345 (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Motor Vehicle 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 Arkansas seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Arkansas involves.