Three boxes, no fee, and the single most important thing a New York seller does after signing the certificate. It is how a set of plates stops being yours - and until it happens, the registration record, the insurance requirement and any ticket the plate collects are all still in your name.
Written against PD-7 (6/23), issued under the NYS DMV plate surrender procedure.
The order matters more than the form does. Plates off before the sale is completed, plates surrendered before the insurance is cancelled - do it the other way round and New York starts charging by the day.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank PD-7 from the dmv.ny.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our PD-7 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual PD-7, rendered from the PDF the New York State Department 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 actual PD-7 at revision 6/23. It really is three boxes - which is worth knowing, because the smallest form in the New York set is the one that ends a seller's exposure to the car.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Licence plate number
The number as it reads on the plate, in the first box.
Watch out: Only active plates. If you replaced a damaged or peeling plate at some point, the old one is not active and the DMV does not want it back - mark it with a permanent marker and dispose of it.
2
You fill this in
Plate class
The three-letter code printed above the plate number on the registration document.
Watch out: It is on the registration, not the plate. An ordinary car is usually PAS; a pick-up used commercially may be COM, and that is the sort of detail worth checking rather than assuming.
3
You fill this in
First three of the last name
The first three letters of the last name, or the company name, as the registration document has it.
Watch out: As the registration has it, not as you would write it. This is how the DMV matches a plate arriving in an envelope to the right record.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The rule about which plates
Use this form to surrender your active New York State licence plate. If you replaced a plate with a new one the old plate is not active, and the form tells you not to surrender it - mark it with a permanent marker to protect against fraudulent use, then recycle or discard it according to local guidelines.
Licence plate number
One box. Exactly as it reads on the plate.
Plate class
The three-letter code above the plate number on the registration document. The form gives examples: PAS, COM, TRL, MOT.
First 3 of last name
The first three letters of the last name, or of the company name, on the registration document.
The four instructions
Update your mailing address before you post the plates if it has changed; complete a separate application for each set; there is no fee, so do not include any payment; and post the application and the plates to the DMV at Empire State Plaza in Albany.
What comes back
When the DMV receives the plates it processes the surrender and posts a receipt, form FS-6T, to the address on file. If a refund is owed, the State Comptroller sends the cheque separately.
What gets this one rejected
•Plates with frames or fasteners still attached. The DMV will not accept them that way.
•A payment enclosed. There is no fee to surrender plates by post and the form says not to include any.
•One application for two sets of plates. Complete a separate one for each set.
•Posting them to an old address on the record. Change your address first, because the receipt goes to the address on file rather than the one on the envelope.
•Handing your plates to somebody else to keep. The DMV's instruction is not to give them to another person unless that person will surrender them for you - and to make sure they give you the receipt.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The postmark is the date. The DMV uses the mail postmark date as the date that you surrendered your plates, and asks you to allow 21 days to receive the receipt. On a sale that is the difference between a clean record and a lapse.
•Or do it at a counter. Any DMV office will take them, and a county motor vehicle office charges $1 to process the surrender. Either way you get the FS-6T receipt, which is the document to keep.
•Destroy the stickers. Remove and destroy the registration and inspection stickers from the windshield. They are not part of what you post, and leaving them on a car you no longer own is exactly the exposure surrendering the plates is meant to close.
Every line here was read off PD-7 (6/23) itself —
the PDF is here — and off the New York State Department 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.
