The nearest thing New Jersey has to a release of liability, and almost nobody knows it exists. One page, from the registered owner, saying what happened to the vehicle and what happened to its plates and its registration certificate. If the plates drove off on the car, were destroyed, or were stolen and never recovered, this is how you put that on the record in writing rather than hoping.
Written against RSC-6 (R11/25), issued under the Commission's Customer Advocacy procedure for plates no longer in the owner's hands.
Send it the same week. A form dated three months after the sale still helps, but the date on it is the date it starts helping from.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank RSC-6 from the nj.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual RSC-6, rendered from the PDF the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission 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 RSC-6. Grey marks every option that is not what happened here: the four other reasons a vehicle leaves your hands, and the five other fates a set of plates can meet. One tick in each block is the whole form.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Your name and the date
The From block at the top wants the registered owner - the person the plates were issued to, which is you, not the buyer.
Watch out: The date here is the date you are writing, not the date of sale. The sale date goes further down against whichever plate option you tick.
2
You fill this in
Address and phone number
Where the Commission can reach you about it.
Watch out: Use an address that will still be yours in a few months. Verification of the updated status comes back by post.
3
You fill this in
Driver licence number
Your New Jersey licence number, on its own line.
Watch out: This is how the Commission ties the letter to you rather than to somebody with a similar name and the same plate story.
4
You fill this in
Vehicle identification number, year and make
Two lines describing the car that has gone.
Watch out: Off your copy of the bill of sale if the certificate has already been handed over - which is one more reason to have kept one.
5
You fill this in
Plate number
The number that was on the car.
Watch out: Photograph your plates before you take them off. This box is the reason.
6
You fill this in
What happened to the vehicle
One tick from Sold, Junked, Repossessed, Impounded, or Not-in-use with an explanation on the two lines provided.
Watch out: Sold is the ordinary answer here and it needs no explanation. Not-in-use is the one with the writing lines, because it is the one the Commission cannot guess.
7
You fill this in
What happened to the plates
Destroyed, Left on the vehicle, Transferred, Surrendered to MVC on a date at a location, Lost with an explanation, or Stolen and not recovered.
Watch out: If you surrendered them, fill in both the date and the location - they are two separate boxes on the same line and half an answer is not an answer.
8
You fill this in
What happened to the registration certificate
The same list without Transferred: destroyed, left on the vehicle, surrendered, lost or stolen.
Watch out: The card and the plates often had different fates. Answer for each of them separately rather than ticking the same thing twice out of habit.
9
You fill this in
Sign and date the certification
One line: I certify that the above information is true, a signature and a date.
Watch out: Photocopy the whole page before it goes. There is no receipt for this the way there is for surrendered plates, and your copy is your record of the date.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
From
Name of the registered owner and the date, then address and phone number.
Identifiers
Driver licence number, vehicle identification number, year and make of vehicle, and the plate number.
The vehicle has been
Five choices, one tick: Sold, Junked, Repossessed, Impounded, or Not-in-use with two lines to explain.
The license plates were
Six choices: Destroyed, Left on the vehicle, Transferred, Surrendered to MVC on a given date at a given location, Lost with an explanation, or Stolen and not recovered.
The registration certificate was
The same shape again, without the transferred option: Destroyed, Left on the vehicle, Surrendered to MVC on a date at a location, Lost with an explanation, or Stolen and not recovered.
Certification
I certify that the above information is true, with a signature and a date.
What gets this one rejected
•Using it in place of surrendering plates you still have. If the plates are in your hands, the answer is to hand them in and keep the receipt - this form is for the plates that are not.
•Ticking Sold and then leaving the plate section blank. The two halves of the page answer different questions and the second is the one that matters.
•Guessing the surrender date. If you did hand them in, the form wants the date and the location, and those come off the receipt.
•Writing stolen without a police report behind it. The Commission's plate guidance asks for a report to local police and for that report to come with you.
•Leaving the plate number off. It is the number the whole record is indexed by, and the one thing on the page that cannot be worked out from the rest.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It exists because plates and liability are the same thing here. New Jersey has no seller's notice of sale. What ties you to a car after it is gone is the registration, and the registration is the plates. This is the form that says where they went.
•Left on the vehicle is a real answer. It is printed as an option, which tells you the Commission expects it to happen. Ticking it honestly is far better than saying nothing - it dates the moment the plates stopped being in your control.
•Keep a copy. Nothing comes back automatically. The Commission's parallel guidance for plates on a vehicle you no longer own is that you will receive verification of the updated plate status in the mail and should save it as proof you notified them.
Every line here was read off RSC-6 (R11/25) itself —
the PDF is here — and off the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
