The mail-in cure for a missing certificate, and the gate a sale with no title has to pass first: the Department's FAQ says flatly that if you're buying or selling a vehicle and the title is missing, a duplicate/replacement title is required before the sale can proceed. Owner or lienholder ticks why the original is gone, signs, encloses $9.00, and the replacement comes back from Jackson - after which the old certificate is a void piece of paper wherever it turns up.
Written against 78-006 (Rev 07/17), issued under Motor Vehicle Services, by mail to its Jackson post office box.
Standard replacement is a mail-and-wait cycle measured in weeks. If the sale is this week, the same application exists in a 72-hour flavour - the 78-026 Fast Track - and over the counter in Clinton, where the owner must be present with photo identification.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 78-006 from the dor.ms.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 78-006 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 78-006, rendered from the PDF the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor 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 actual 78-006 at Rev. 07/17, completed for an owner who simply lost the certificate. One box ticked, one declaration checked, and the mailing block repeats the owner's own name - the moment any other name goes there, the margin instruction demands a notarised 78-003 stapled behind it. The signature lines are empty because the Department's own PDF puts no fillable field behind them: owner and joint owner sign in ink.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The vehicle band, title number included
Make, year, VIN and the title number of the certificate being replaced.
Watch out: No title number to hand? The e-Services title status lookup or your last registration receipt carries it - guessing here is how applications go to the wrong record.
2
You fill this in
Name and address, as the record stands
Last name first, then first and middle, then the address.
Watch out: This must match the title record, not your current lease. A move since the title was issued is worth flagging to the county before the form goes in the post.
3
You fill this in
Why the original is gone
Tick one: lost, never received from the Department, mutilated/destroyed/illegible, stolen, never received from the lienholder, or other with an explanation.
Watch out: Mutilated counts. A certificate that went through the wash exists but is illegible, and sending its remains in with the application beats ticking lost and having it surface later - found originals must go back to the Department void.
4
You fill this in
The MADE BY OWNER declaration
Check the owner box and read what it binds you to about lien releases and company signatures.
Watch out: The parallel lienholder route explains a mystery sellers hit: if a lien still shows and no release is attached, the fresh certificate goes to the lender, not to you - by the form's own words, mailed to lienholder as shown on title.
5
You fill this in
Where the title should go
Name and address for delivery, printed or typed.
Watch out: Entering anyone but the title owner triggers the attachment rule in the margin: an appropriate power of attorney, the notarised 78-003 for private individuals - a dealer's secure version is its own restricted document.
6
You fill this in
Sign, date, enclose $9.00
Owner's signature - joint owner's too where the title says and - the date, and the fee in certified or check form.
Watch out: Photocopy the completed form before mailing; the printed note warns the original application will not be returned to you. Then post it to the Motor Vehicle Services box in Jackson and expect the standard processing wait, not the Fast Track one.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The vehicle band
Make, year, vehicle identification number and title number across the top - the title number is the one detail people no longer have, and a registration receipt or the e-Services title lookup supplies it.
The owner
Owner's last name, first name(s), middle name, then street, city, state and ZIP - as the record has them, not as you now write them.
The certification
Six tick boxes for what happened to the original: Lost; Never received from the Department; Mutilated, Destroyed or Illegible; Stolen; Never received from the Lienholder; or Other, with a line to state why.
The two READ & CHECK HERE declarations
MADE BY OWNER - with a lien release required if a lienholder was shown on the original, and a position-in-company rule for business titles. MADE BY LIENHOLDER - under which, without a lien release and the owner's signature, the replacement title will be mailed to lienholder as shown on title.
The mailing instruction
Where the Department should send the replacement - and the margin instruction that if the name entered is not the title owner, a power of attorney attaches: dealers use copy 3 of the 78-004, OTHERS USE 78-003.
The signatures and fee
Owner's signature, joint owner's signature where the title names two, or the lienholder's authorized representative - plus the printed fee: FEE OF $9.00, payable by cashier's check, personal check, certified check or other certified funds.
What gets this one rejected
•A recorded lien with no release attached. The owner's declaration says it in capitals: if a lienholder was shown on the original title, a lien release must be included with this replacement application - and the Department's computer decides whether a lien shows, not your memory of paying it off.
•One signature where the title names two joined by and. The instructions require both signatures on the replacement application for a title issued in joint ownership with the names joined by 'and'.
•A business title signed without a job title. The person signing for a company must list their position in the company next to their signature - the form's own example is John Doe, President.
•Applying when there was never a Mississippi title. Instruction one: only apply for a replacement title if you are certain there was a previous Mississippi title. A car last titled in another state needs that state's duplicate process, not this form.
•Cash in the envelope. The fee line names cashier's check, personal check, certified check or other certified funds - and the original application will not be returned, so photocopy it first if you want a record.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The original dies on issuance. Both declarations sit under the same sentence: upon issuance of the replacement title, the original title becomes void and must be returned to the Department of Revenue should it be found. The replacement also carries a printed legend - this is a replacement certificate and may be subject to the rights of a person under the original certificate - which is exactly why buyers eye replacements carefully.
•The vanished lender is still your problem. Instruction six is the sentence sellers least want: if the lienholder has gone out of business or changed names and the loan has been paid in full, it is still the owner's responsibility to obtain a lien release. Chase the successor institution; for a lien more than eight years old, the record clears itself unless the lender has been recertifying annually.
