Not a seller's form, and worth a page precisely because of who it belongs to. A leased vehicle in Minnesota is titled to the leasing company, and this is the sheet that records who is actually driving it. If your name is on the registration card for a car you lease, this form is why - and it is also the reason you cannot sell that car, because the owner on the title is a company and the signature it needs is theirs.
Written against PS2019 (07/17), issued under Minnesota Statutes 168.301.
If you are trying to sell a car you lease, this form is not the answer and neither is the certificate of title - the title names the leasing company and only they can assign it. Ask the lessor for a buyout figure first and the paperwork follows from there.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank PS2019 from the assets.dps.mn.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual PS2019, rendered from the PDF the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services 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 whole form as DVS publishes it. Section C is greyed because it does the opposite job - taking a lessee off - and the signature rule at the foot is left blank because it belongs to the leasing company's authorized agent and has no fillable box behind it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Somebody else fills this in
Section A, the vehicle
Year, make, model, type and plate number on one row, then the vehicle identification number underneath.
Watch out: Type is the department's own vehicle classification rather than a body style, and on a leased passenger car it is simply passenger.
2
Somebody else fills this in
Lessee's name and date of birth
Last, first and middle name with a date of birth, in the first row of section B.
Watch out: There is room for two lessees. Both go on if the lease names both, because the registration follows this form rather than the title.
3
Somebody else fills this in
Lessee's driver's licence number
The right-hand box on the same row.
Watch out: This is what ties an individual to a vehicle titled in a company's name, and a designation without it does not do its job.
4
Somebody else fills this in
Lessee's address
Street address, city, state and zip code.
Watch out: The address here decides the county, and the county is what any wheelage tax on the registration is charged by.
5
Somebody else fills this in
Section C, lessee removal
A name and a date of birth, and only where somebody is coming off the designation rather than going on.
Watch out: It is the same form doing the opposite job. Filling it in on a new designation removes the person you have just named.
6
Somebody else fills this in
Section D, the leasing company
One box: the name of the lessor. The form asks for no address and no telephone number.
Watch out: This is the name that is on the certificate of title, and it is the name whose authorized agent has to sign at the foot.
7
Somebody else fills this in
Signature of authorized agent
The printed rule marked X at the foot, with the date beside it.
Watch out: The instruction on the face of the form is that it must be signed by the lessor's authorized agent. A lessee cannot complete this on the company's behalf, however cooperative the company is being.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Section A, vehicle information
Year, make, model, type and plate number across one row, with the vehicle identification number on its own line beneath.
Section B, lessee information
Two rows, each with the lessee's name last, first, middle, a date of birth and a driver's license number.
Lessee's address
Street address, then city, state and zip code in one box, then county - the last row of section B.
Section C, lessee removal - if applicable
A name and a date of birth, used to take a lessee off rather than put one on. It is the reverse transaction on the same sheet.
Section D, leasing company (lessor) information
One box: the name of the leasing company. The form asks for nothing else about the lessor at all.
Signature of authorized agent and date
A printed rule marked X at the foot with a date box beside it - the form's own instruction is that it must be signed by the lessor's authorized agent.
The filing fee note
In the instructions rather than on the face: a filing fee is due when submitting a lessee designation, with the amount left to the department's fee page.
What gets this one rejected
•A lessee signing it. The instruction is explicit that the lessor's authorized agent signs, and a designation signed by the driver records nothing.
•Using it to sell the vehicle. It designates a lessee; it transfers nothing. A leased car is sold by the leasing company that owns it, or bought out first.
•A missing driver's licence number. The whole purpose of the form is to attach a named individual to a vehicle titled in a company's name.
•No filing fee. The instructions say one is due and leave you to find the amount, which is a small trap on a form that has no fee box on its face.
•A vehicle identification number that does not match the lease. This is filed against the title record and the title is the leasing company's.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The title says the company, the registration says you. That is the whole mechanism. Minnesota records the lessee separately so the vehicle can be registered and taxed against the person who has it.
•A lease over 180 days changes the paperwork. The instruction sheet published with the title application says that where a vehicle is leased for more than 180 days, a lessee designation form must be attached.
•It can be posted or handed in. It goes to any deputy registrar office or to DVS in St Paul, and unlike some of the department's affidavits there is no in-person requirement.
Every line here was read off PS2019 (07/17) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
