For the sale that came apart after the paperwork went in. A title application is already sitting in Augusta, the buyer has changed their mind or the money never arrived, and this is the form that pulls the application back out. Its first tick box says exactly that: sale not finalised. It is short, and it carries one warning worth reading before anybody signs it - the fee does not come back.
Written against MVT-3 (Rev 09/21), issued under Rules promulgated by the Secretary of State, 7 May 1979.
This form exists for a sale that collapsed, and the person who usually needs it is the buyer rather than the seller - the application is in their name. If a Maine sale of yours falls through after the paperwork has gone in, the withdrawal is filed by whoever applied, and your job is to make sure the certificate comes back to you rather than staying in a stranger's file.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT-3 from the maine.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVT-3 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MVT-3, 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
Only one of the three rules at the foot gets ink on a private sale: the dealer line is for an application that came through a dealership and the lender line for a financed vehicle. The rows of asterisks in the middle of the sheet are the Bureau's own emphasis on the sentence that matters, which is that the fee is forfeited.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The buyer fills this in
Check the vehicle is not registered yet
The note at the head of the form is a condition on using it at all.
Watch out: If the buyer has already registered the car, the application cannot be withdrawn and the vehicle has to be transferred back properly instead.
2
The buyer fills this in
The application details
The Bureau's reference number, who submitted the application, and the submission date.
Watch out: The reference number is on the receipt from wherever the application was lodged. Without it the Bureau is searching by name.
3
The buyer fills this in
Owner as listed on the application
The name that went in, which on a sale is the buyer rather than the seller.
Watch out: This is the box that confuses people. The application was in the buyer's name, so the withdrawal is too.
4
The buyer fills this in
The vehicle
The year and make, then the vehicle identification number in full.
Watch out: No model box and no title number box - the reference number and the identification number together are how the application is found.
5
The buyer fills this in
Tick a reason
Sale not finalised, being registered in another state, or Other with a specified reason.
Watch out: Sale not finalised covers a collapsed private sale, a bounced payment and a change of mind. It does not need elaborating.
6
The buyer fills this in
Say where the documents go
Owner, dealer, lienholder or other, with a name and address if it is somebody new.
Watch out: For a collapsed sale this is the box a seller cares about most. The certificate goes wherever this points and getting it wrong means chasing your own title.
7
The buyer fills this in
Sign the right lanes
Owner, plus dealer if the application originated with one, plus lender if the vehicle is financed.
Watch out: Above them sits the notice that the fee is forfeited. Signing acknowledges that, and nobody gets it back afterwards by asking.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Date
One line at the top.
The note above everything
Printed rather than filled in, and it is the condition on the whole form: if the vehicle is currently registered to the applicant listed below, the application for title cannot be withdrawn.
Application details
The Bureau's own reference number for the application, who submitted it, and the date it was submitted.
The vehicle and the applicant
The owner's name as listed on the application, then year, make and vehicle identification number.
Reason
Three boxes: sale not finalised, vehicle being registered in another state, or Other with a line to specify.
Where the documents go
Four boxes - owner, dealer, lienholder or other - directing who the Secretary of State should return the supporting documents to, with a name and address if it is somebody not already on the application.
The forfeiture warning
Set off with rows of asterisks: the undersigned understands that fees submitted in payment of an application for certificate of title are forfeited when the application is withdrawn.
Three signature lanes
The owner or owners as listed on the application, with all owners signing where there is multiple ownership and an authorised representative permitted for a company owner. Then a dealer signature if the application originated with a dealer, and a lender signature if the vehicle is financed.
What gets this one rejected
•Filed on a vehicle already registered to the applicant, which the note at the head of the form rules out flatly.
•One owner signing where the application named two.
•No reason box ticked, or Other ticked with the specify line empty.
•No destination chosen for the documents, which leaves the Bureau holding a title application and a pile of supporting paperwork with nowhere to send it.
•A dealer-originated application with the dealer signature lane empty.
•A financed vehicle with no lender signature, since the lender has an interest in an application it expected to produce a lien.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The fee is gone. The warning is on the form and it is unambiguous: fees submitted in payment of a title application are forfeited when the application is withdrawn. Withdrawing costs the whole application fee.
•Registration closes the door. Once the vehicle is registered to the applicant, this form cannot be used at all - which is a good reason not to let a wobbling sale reach the town office.
•Three parties can have a signature on it. Owner, dealer and lender each get a lane, and which lanes are used depends on how the application got to Augusta in the first place.
•It is signed under penalties of false statement. Short as it is, this is a sworn document about somebody else's transaction as much as your own.
Every line here was read off MVT-3 (Rev 09/21) 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.
