How to fill out Maine MVT-18

What you file when there is a car in the yard and no way to prove it is yours. The bond's own opening admits the problem in the applicant's voice: we cannot provide sufficient documentation to meet the full requirements of section 654. Maine's answer is not to refuse a title but to price the risk - a surety stands behind the certificate for three years, and anyone with a prior claim to the vehicle can sue on the bond instead of chasing you.

Written against MVT-18 (Rev 1-2013), issued under 29-A M.R.S. section 659. The bond does not make the ownership question go away - it converts it into money. For three years, anybody with a better claim to the vehicle than yours can recover against the surety, and the surety will then look to you. Where the missing documentation is findable, finding it is cheaper.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT-18 from the maine.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVT-18 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank MVT-18 — Motor Vehicle Title Surety Bond PDF at maine.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in MVT-18 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual MVT-18, 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

The Maine MVT-18 motor vehicle title surety bond filled in as an annotated sample. Adelard J. Sprague of Presque Isle in Aroostook County is named as principal for a 2004 Jeep Wrangler with its vehicle identification number, the surety is Penobscot Indemnity Company organised under Maine law with an office in Bangor, and the sum is written out in words as nine thousand seven hundred and fifty and then in figures. The witness statement at the foot carries the principal and the surety by name and the day, month and year, above four bare signature rules for the two witnesses, the principal and the surety company. — Note that the sum appears twice, in words and in figures, and both have to say the same thing. The four rules across the foot are all bare in this sample because none of them carries a fillable box - two witnesses, the principal and the surety company sign them in ink, and the fifth line, countersigned if not Maine company, stays empty for a Maine surety like this one.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Name the principal
Your name or names, and the city or town, county and state you live in.
Watch out: Principal means you. The word appears three times on the sheet and never means the surety.
2
You fill this in
Describe the vehicle
Year, make and vehicle identification number, in the sentence asking for the certificate.
Watch out: There is no model box and no title number box, because there is no title. The identification number is doing all the identifying.
3
You fill this in
Get the value determined first
The Secretary of State decides what the vehicle is worth; the bond amount follows from that.
Watch out: Do not approach a surety with your own figure. The face amount is set from the Bureau's determination and a bond written for the wrong sum is rewritten.
4
Somebody else fills this in
The surety's details
Company name, the state whose laws it is organised under, and its Maine office town.
Watch out: The bond requires a company duly authorized to conduct a surety business in Maine. An insurer that writes other lines here is not automatically one of those.
5
Somebody else fills this in
The sum, twice
In words on the line, then in figures in the bracket.
Watch out: This is the classic cheque-writing error transplanted onto a legal instrument. The two have to agree exactly.
6
You fill this in
Date the execution
The day, month and two-digit year on the printed line.
Watch out: The three-year clock in the printed paragraph above starts here rather than on the day the certificate is issued.
7
You fill this in
Sign, with witnesses
The principal signs beside one witness; the surety company signs beside another.
Watch out: Both witness lanes are used. An instrument that binds two parties jointly and severally is not witnessed once.
8
Somebody else fills this in
Countersign if the surety is not local
The last line, marked countersigned if not Maine company.
Watch out: Skip it for a Maine surety, complete it for anybody else. It is the only conditional signature on the sheet.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The principal	The applicant's name or names, and the city or town, county and state they live in. Principal is the form's word for you.
The vehicle	Year, make and vehicle identification number, written into the sentence asking the Secretary of State to issue a certificate of title.
The admission	Printed rather than filled in, and it is the reason the form exists: that the applicant cannot provide sufficient documentation to meet the full requirements of the statute governing title applications.
The surety	The name of the surety company, the state under whose laws it is organised, and the Maine city or town its office is in. It must be duly authorized to conduct a surety business in the state of Maine.
The sum	The bond amount, written twice - once in words and once in figures.
The indemnity paragraph	Printed. The bond indemnifies any prior owner, any prior lienholder, any subsequent purchaser and anyone acquiring a security interest, and their successors, against expense, loss or damage including reasonable attorney's fees. Any such interested person has a right of action on the bond, and the surety's aggregate liability to everybody cannot exceed the bond amount.
The three-year clause	Also printed: the bond remains in effect for 3 years unless terminated earlier by full compliance with section 654 or by termination of registration and surrender of title, except that it does not terminate where the Secretary of State has been notified of a pending action to recover on it inside that period.
Execution	The day, month and year, then a witness and the principal, a witness and the surety company, and a countersignature if the surety is not a Maine company.

What gets this one rejected

•A surety that is not authorised to write business in Maine, which the bond's own wording requires.
•A sum that does not match what the Secretary of State determined the vehicle to be worth. The statute sets it at one and a half times that value and it is not the applicant's figure to choose.
•The amount written in words and figures that disagree with each other.
•An out-of-state surety with the countersignature line left blank.
•A bond executed with no witness against either signature.
•A bond filed on a vehicle old enough to be outside Maine's title law altogether, which needs no certificate and therefore no bond.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•How the amount is set. Section 659 requires a bond in an amount equal to one and a half times the value of the vehicle as determined by the Secretary of State. The determination is the Bureau's; the premium you pay a surety is a fraction of that face amount.
•Three years of exposure, and a way to end it early. The bond runs for three years, but full compliance with the ordinary title requirements ends it sooner - so if the missing paperwork turns up, it stops.
•Selling a bonded car is legal and worth disclosing. The bond exists to protect a subsequent purchaser by name. A buyer who understands that is a buyer who does not walk away when the certificate looks unusual.
•Two signatures and two witnesses. The instrument binds the principal and the surety jointly and severally, and both signatures are witnessed on the same sheet.

Every line here was read off MVT-18 (Rev 1-2013) 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.

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

How to fill out Maine MVT-18

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Name the principal

Describe the vehicle

Get the value determined first

The surety's details

The sum, twice

Date the execution

Sign, with witnesses

Countersign if the surety is not local

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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