The lender's sworn statement that it has taken a vehicle back, and the document that stops a repossessed car from being untitleable afterwards. It is in this section because a Maine seller can be on the wrong end of it - the car is gone, the loan is not, and the paperwork that follows is somebody else's to complete. The form is explicit about who it belongs to: it says the affidavit is for use by lending institutions when a vehicle is repossessed.
Written against MVT-5 (Rev 9/2021), issued under 29-A M.R.S. section 666.
If your car has been repossessed, this affidavit is the paperwork that lets somebody else be titled as its owner, and it is completed without your signature anywhere on it. Voluntary surrender and seizure are both provided for, and which box is ticked is a fact about your file rather than about your consent.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MVT-5 from the maine.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MVT-5 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MVT-5, 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 two squares in the middle of this sheet carry no fillable box, so the sample makes the choice visible in the only place it can: the date lane under the voluntary surrender wording is completed and the one beside the seizure wording is greyed. The alternative reads seized without process of the law under authority of the conditions of the loan contract, and it is the harsher of the two.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The lienholder fills this in
Date and lienholder
The date, then the institution's name and address in the opening sentence.
Watch out: The sentence begins with I rather than with the institution's name, which is why the authorised signature lower down matters more than it looks.
2
The lienholder fills this in
Name the debtor
The person the lien was due from.
Watch out: This is the name on the loan, which on a two-owner Maine certificate may be only one of the two names printed on the front.
3
The lienholder fills this in
Date of lien
The date the lien itself was created, not the date it was paid.
Watch out: Not the day of default and not the day of the repossession. Both of those have their own lanes further down the sheet.
4
The lienholder fills this in
The vehicle and its title number
Year, make, vehicle identification number and certificate of title number.
Watch out: The title number is on this form because the affidavit is stapled to the certificate itself, and the two are expected to agree.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Tick how possession was taken
Either the debtor gave the vehicle up voluntarily, or the lender seized it without process of law - each with the date it happened.
Watch out: Only one box, and the date beside it is part of the sworn statement rather than a formality.
6
The lienholder fills this in
Sign as an authorised representative
The lien holder's name, then the authorised signature.
Watch out: What is being certified is that the repossession was lawful under the security agreement and in full accord with Maine statutes. It is a bigger claim than it looks on the page.
7
Somebody else fills this in
Have it notarised
A notary or attorney completes the block at the foot.
Watch out: The requirement is printed in capitals and there is no waiver. An unnotarised affidavit stops the buyer being titled, not the lender being paid.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Date
One line at the head of the sheet.
The lienholder
Name and address, written into a printed sentence beginning I certify.
The debtor
The name of the person the debt was due from, in the same sentence.
Date of lien
The day the security interest was created, not the day of the seizure.
The vehicle
Year, make, vehicle identification number and certificate of title number in one row.
How possession was taken
Two boxes and one must be picked: the debtor voluntarily surrendered the possession of this motor vehicle to the undersigned lienholder on a stated date, or the undersigned lien holder seized this motor vehicle without process of the law on a stated date under authority of the conditions of the loan contract.
The lawfulness certification
Printed: that the vehicle was lawfully repossessed under the terms of the security agreement and in full accord with pertinent Maine statutes.
Signatures
The lien holder's name and an authorized signature.
Notarization
A full notary block. The form prints THIS FORM MUST BE NOTARIZED in capitals above it.
What gets this one rejected
•Both possession boxes ticked, or neither. Voluntary surrender and seizure without process of law are alternatives and the date differs between them.
•Filed on its own. The form's own instruction is that a certificate of title may not be issued unless both the affidavit and the properly released and assigned certificate are surrendered together with a title application and the proper fee.
•Signed but not notarised, which the sheet forbids in capitals.
•Used to move ownership. Its second important note says this form cannot be used to transfer ownership and that ownership is transferred on the reverse of the title.
•Filed without the lien having been released on the face of the certificate, which is the first of the two notes printed under the signature.
•Completed by a repossession agent rather than by an authorised representative of the lending institution.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Two separate acts, not one. The lender releases its lien on the face of the certificate, assigns ownership to the purchaser on the reverse, staples this affidavit to it and hands the lot to the buyer. The form describes that sequence in its own closing paragraph.
•Repossession does not end the debt. Nothing on this sheet says the loan is satisfied. It records only that the vehicle changed hands, which is a separate question from what is still owed on it.
•A private seller never signs this. If a lender asks a borrower to sign one, something has been misunderstood - the affidavit is sworn by the institution about its own act.
Every line here was read off MVT-5 (Rev 9/2021) 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.
