The garage's form, not the owner's - and the one document in this group that carries a notary block on its face. A repair shop or storage yard that has not been paid can sell the vehicle under RSA chapter 450, and this affidavit is the sworn record of the notices it gave before doing so. A vehicle owner who finds out their car has been sold out from under them should read it as a checklist of what was supposed to have happened.
Written against TDMV 108 (Rev 05/2020), issued under RSA chapter 450.
If your car is sitting at a garage over an unpaid bill, the clock in RSA 262:2 is running in your favour rather than theirs: a shop that fails to report an unclaimed vehicle forfeits all claims and liens for its garaging, parking or storing. Ask when the vehicle was reported unclaimed before you accept that a storage lien is enforceable.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TDMV 108 from the dmv.nh.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our TDMV 108 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual TDMV 108, rendered from the PDF the New Hampshire Division 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
Five numbered paragraphs, and each one is a separate thing the garage is swearing happened on a particular date. The jurat at the foot is not optional here - it is the one form in a New Hampshire seller's world that says, in bold on its own face, that it must be notarised.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Somebody else fills this in
Who is swearing
The garage or storage yard, and where it is.
Watch out: If you are the owner reading a copy of this, check that the business named is the one that actually held your car.
2
Somebody else fills this in
Paragraph 1, the lien itself
Storage or labour, the vehicle, the amount, and the date it has been unpaid since.
Watch out: The date since when it has remained unpaid is the start of everything else on the page. Every notice date after it has to make sense against it.
3
Somebody else fills this in
Paragraph 2, the posting
The date and the locations the notice of public sale was posted in.
Watch out: Locations, plural, and named. A blank line here is a blank in a sworn statement.
4
Somebody else fills this in
Paragraph 3, the publication
The date and the newspaper, print or internet.
Watch out: An owner disputing a lien sale usually starts here, because a publication is a public record that either exists on that date or does not.
5
Somebody else fills this in
Paragraph 4, the three searches
Verified mail, return receipt requested, to the Department of Safety, the town or city clerk and the Secretary of State, and what came back.
Watch out: This is the paragraph that is supposed to find you. If your name and address were on the title record, they were returned by the first of those three enquiries.
6
Somebody else fills this in
Paragraph 5, notice to the owner
That the owners and lienholders were told of the sale and of the amount, by verified mail, on a stated date.
Watch out: Return receipt requested means there is a receipt. Ask to see it.
7
Somebody else fills this in
Signature and the jurat
The lienholder signs, then a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace completes the sworn-to-and-subscribed block.
Watch out: New Hampshire treats a Justice of the Peace as an alternative to a notary throughout, so the empty seal box does not have to be filled by a notary specifically.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Who is swearing, and from where
'Now comes ______ of ______' at the head of the page, followed by 'and being duly sworn and under oath, states as follows'.
Paragraph 1, the lien
Whether it was for storage or for labour, the year, make, model, body style and vehicle identification number, the amount, and the date since when it has remained unpaid.
Paragraph 2, the posting
The date notice of public sale was posted, and the locations it was posted in.
Paragraph 3, the publication
The date notice was published, and the newspaper or internet newspaper it appeared in.
Paragraph 4, the searches
That inquiry was sent by verified mail, return receipt requested, to the Department of Safety, the town or city clerk and the Secretary of State, and what owners and liens came back.
Paragraph 5, the notice to those people
That the owners and any lienholders were notified of the sale and of the amount of the lien by verified mail, return receipt requested, on a stated date.
Signature and jurat
The storage or labour lienholder's signature, then 'Sworn to and subscribed before me this ___ day of ___' and a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace.
What gets this one rejected
•An unnotarised affidavit. The instruction is printed in bold at the head of the form: affidavit must be completed in full and notarized.
•A blank left anywhere. Completed in full means completed in full, and each numbered paragraph is a separate sworn fact.
•Ordinary post instead of verified mail. Paragraphs 4 and 5 both specify verified mail, return receipt requested.
•A publication date that does not sit before the sale, or a posting with no locations named.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Two liens, one form. The first paragraph offers For Storage or For Labor as separate boxes. They arise under different circumstances and the affidavit asks which one is being enforced.
•Three offices get written to, not one. The Department of Safety, the town or city clerk and the Secretary of State. A search of only the title record would miss a financing statement filed with the Secretary of State.
•The reverse is the statute. The form's own footer says a copy of RSA 450 is on the reverse side, so the rules the affidavit is made under travel with it.
•A garage has its own reporting duty first. RSA 262:2, III requires an operator of a place of business for garaging, repairing, parking or storing vehicles in which a vehicle remains unclaimed for 30 days to report it as unclaimed within 5 days of that period, on pain of forfeiting all claims and liens for the garaging.
Every line here was read off TDMV 108 (Rev 05/2020) itself — the PDF is here — and off the New Hampshire Division 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.
