The cheapest form in the Maine set, and on an older vehicle it is the important one. Maine titles a rolling twenty-five model years and nothing further back, so a car below that line has no certificate of title at all - and the registration certificate becomes the documentary evidence of who owns it. Replacing a lost one is a single page and $5.00. It also carries two questions that are not really about the certificate at all.
Written against MV-11 (12/2025), issued under 29-A M.R.S. section 405.
If you are selling a vehicle old enough that Maine never titled it, do not hand over the only registration certificate in existence without keeping a copy. It is the only paper that connects your name to that vehicle, and the buyer's town office will want the original.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV-11 from the maine.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV-11 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MV-11, rendered from the PDF the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles 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
Two yes-or-no questions on a form about a lost piece of paper. They are there because the Bureau will not reissue a registration document for a registration that is suspended, or for a driver whose insurance filing is not current.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The name on the registration
Exactly as the Bureau holds it.
Watch out: If the registration was taken out in a married name or with a middle initial, use that. The request is matched against the record, not against your licence.
2
You fill this in
Mailing address
Street, city or town, state and postcode.
Watch out: This is a delivery address as well as an identifying one. If you have moved, the certificate follows this box rather than the old record.
3
You fill this in
Plate number
The registration number as issued.
Watch out: It is the primary key for the whole request. A lost plate is a separate problem with its own form and this one cannot solve it.
4
You fill this in
Year and make only
Two boxes, with no model and no identification number asked for.
Watch out: That is deliberate. The form identifies a registration record rather than a vehicle, which is why it is one page and costs almost nothing.
5
You fill this in
Answer the suspension question
Is your registration or privilege to register now under suspension?
Watch out: Answer it honestly. A suspended registration is not reissued and a false no simply delays finding that out.
6
You fill this in
Answer the SR-22 question
Are you required to file an SR-22 certificate of insurance with the Bureau?
Watch out: If the answer is yes, the filing has to be current before anything is reissued. It is a question about your driving record rather than about the car.
7
You fill this in
Sign, date, pay
Signature and date, with the fee printed in the corner of the sheet.
Watch out: Leave the validation stamp box alone - it is the office's, and it is the mark that shows the request was actually processed.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Name on the registration
As the Bureau holds it, not as you would write it now.
Mailing address
Street, city or town, state and postcode, on their own lines. This is where the duplicate goes.
Plate number
One line.
Vehicle year and make
Two boxes, and no model and no identification number - this form identifies the registration rather than the vehicle.
Question one
Is your registration or privilege to register now under suspension? Yes or no.
Question two
Are you required to file an SR-22 certificate of insurance with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles? Yes or no.
Signature and date
Under a printed request that a duplicate registration be issued and a statement that the information provided is true.
Validation stamp
A box in the top corner for the office rather than for you.
What gets this one rejected
•Either of the two questions left unanswered. They are not optional and a blank is not a no.
•A name that does not match the registration record, which is what the request is looked up against.
•A mailing address that is not where the certificate should be sent, since there is no separate delivery box on the sheet.
•A plate number omitted because the plate is lost, which is a different problem and a different form.
•Anything written into the validation stamp box.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•On a title-exempt vehicle this is the ownership document. Maine stops issuing certificates of title at twenty-five model years. For anything older, the registration certificate and a bill of sale are what a buyer is handed and what a town office wants to see.
•The two questions have consequences. A registration under suspension is not replaced by asking for a duplicate of it, and an SR-22 requirement means an insurance filing has to be current before the Bureau reissues anything.
•It is a registration document, not a title. It proves the vehicle was registered to you. On a vehicle inside the title window it is not a substitute for the certificate and never has been.
•The fee is printed on the form. $5.00, in the top right corner, which is the whole cost.
Every line here was read off MV-11 (12/2025) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
