How to fill out North Dakota SFN 61982

One sheet that replaces any credential the department issues, with a price list printed beside each option: duplicate plates, tabs and registration card at $5.00, a remake of a current personalised plate at $5.00, duplicate tabs and registration card at $3.00, a duplicate registration card only at $2.00, a duplicate title at $5.00, and a duplicate title with a lien removed or added at $10.00. For a seller it is almost always the fifth of those. Every option asks the same question in the same three boxes - Lost, Stolen or Mutilated - and mutilated is the one North Dakota sellers reach for, because a certificate marked in the wrong place is a certificate the department will not take.

Written against SFN 61982 (4-2026), issued under North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division; duplicate certificates of title under NDCC 39-05-09.1, with the false-statement penalty at NDCC 39-04 and 39-05. There is a version of this that costs a seller a sale. You mark the certificate wrongly, apply for a duplicate under Mutilated, and the department's record still shows a lien from a loan cleared years ago - so the replacement certificate is posted to a bank rather than to you, and the buyer waits twice. The two questions to settle before you send anything are whether a lien is on the record and, if it is, whether you are using the $10.00 row with the notarised release rather than the $5.00 row on its own.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SFN 61982 from the dot.nd.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SFN 61982 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank SFN 61982 — Application for Duplicate Credentials PDF at dot.nd.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in SFN 61982 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual SFN 61982, rendered from the PDF the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division 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

A completed North Dakota SFN 61982, Application for Duplicate Credentials. In section I the Duplicate title row is ticked at $5.00 with the Lost reason box marked; the plates, tabs, registration card and duplicate-title-with-lien rows are shaded grey. Section II names the applicant Marlys J. Thorsrud, an individual, of 1427 Chestnut St, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58201, Grand Forks County, with her driver's licence number and telephone. Section III shows a 2017 Chevrolet Equinox LT with its vehicle identification number and North Dakota title number. The applicant's signature is dated 08/12/2026, and the co-applicant block is grey. — Completed for the commonest seller's case - a title that has gone missing, no lien on the record, one owner. Grey covers the five duplicate rows that do not apply, the combined lien row, and the co-applicant block. The applicant, the vehicle and every reference number were invented for this example.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
The Duplicate title row
Tick the fifth row in section I, the one priced at $5.00.
Watch out: Check only the row you need. Each carries its own fee and the department processes what is marked, not what was intended.
2
You fill this in
Lost, Stolen or Mutilated
One of the three reason boxes beside the row you ticked.
Watch out: Mutilated is the honest answer for a certificate spoiled by a pen, and it is not treated as an admission of anything - North Dakota simply has no way to repair a marked title.
3
You fill this in
The combined lien row above it
The $10.00 option, used where the vehicle was financed and the loan has been paid off or refinanced, or where a lien is being added.
Watch out: It needs two more documents - the purchaser's certification with exemption 7 shown for a lien change, and a notarised lien release from the lienholder on the record. Reach for it only if a lien is actually on the record.
4
You fill this in
Section II, applicant type and legal name
Whether you are an individual, business, lessor, trust or government entity, then your legal name and your driver's licence or FEIN number.
Watch out: The name has to match the registered owner on the department's record. A duplicate certificate is not a way to change the name on a title.
5
You fill this in
Address, city, state, ZIP and county
Your mailing address - which, absent a lien, is where the new certificate is posted.
Watch out: If you have moved since the title was issued, this is the address that matters. The department prints and mails centrally from Bismarck.
6
You fill this in
Section III, the vehicle
Year, make and model, then the vehicle identification number and North Dakota title number.
Watch out: If the certificate is genuinely lost, the title number is on your registration card - and the department can look the record up from the VIN if it is not.
7
You fill this in
Applicant's Signature (REQUIRED) and date
Your signature over the certification that you are the rightful owner and that the information is correct, with a business name beneath if the vehicle is company owned.
Watch out: REQUIRED is the department's own capitalisation. An unsigned application is a returned application, and the form's footer warns that a fresh sheet may be needed rather than a correction.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
I. This Application is for	Six rows, each a duplicate item with its own fee and its own Lost, Stolen or Mutilated choice. Duplicate title is the fifth.
The lienholder note	Printed against the duplicate title row: the current lienholder on record may apply for a duplicate title, and an agent signature and printed lienholder name are required.
Duplicate title and remove/add lien	The $10.00 row, for a vehicle that was financed and has been paid off or refinanced, or where a new lien is being added. It names two additional documents - the purchaser's certification with tax exemption 7 indicated for a lien change, and a notarised lien release completed by the lienholder on the record.
The department's warning about old loans	Set out under that row: even if a loan has been paid off for several years, liens may remain on record if the title was not submitted as required with appropriate fee to remove the lien.
II. Applicant Information	Applicant Type from Individual, Business, Lessor, Trust or Government Entity; the legal name; an Applicant Number Type choosing between driver's licence and FEIN with the number; telephone; and a mailing address with city, state, ZIP and county.
Co-Applicant	The same block for a second owner named on the certificate.
III. Vehicle Information	Year, make and model, then the vehicle identification number and the North Dakota title number.
IV. PENALTY and certifications	Any person making a false statement on this application for license or title for which another penalty is not specifically provided is guilty of a class B misdemeanor - followed by the applicant's certification that the vehicle will be insured as required by law and that the information set forth is correct.
Applicant's Signature (REQUIRED) and date	With a business name line beneath for a company-owned vehicle.
The footer	Erasure, alteration, or mutilation voids this form, and forms with incomplete or illegible entries may be returned for correction or for completion of a new form. DO NOT SEND CASH.

What gets this one rejected

•Ticking more than one duplicate row without meaning to. Each row has its own fee and its own reason boxes, and a sheet asking for a duplicate title and duplicate plates is asking for two transactions and two fees.
•A duplicate title requested with no reason box marked. Lost, Stolen or Mutilated is the department's own three-way choice and it appears against every row for a reason.
•Applying while a lien sits on the record. The department mails a liened duplicate to the lienholder rather than to you unless a release is provided - which is the whole reason the $10.00 combined row exists.
•An applicant who is not the registered owner. The signature line certifies the applicant is the rightful owner of the vehicle described, and the class B misdemeanor beside it attaches to whoever signs.
•A vehicle block missing the title number. Year, make and model describe the car; the VIN and title number find the record the duplicate is being printed from.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Mutilated is a real category, not an insult. North Dakota voids a certificate for an erasure, an alteration or a mutilation, and offers no way to correct the paper itself. A title spoiled by a signature in the wrong box is replaced through this form under Mutilated, and the spoiled one goes back.
•Apply before you advertise, not on the day. A duplicate is printed centrally in Bismarck and posted. A buyer standing in your driveway while you discover the certificate is missing is the expensive version of this.
•Check the lien record first. The department's warning on this form is unusually direct about old loans surviving on the record. If yours might, ask before you apply - the answer changes both the fee and where the new certificate is posted.
•It is also the plates-and-tabs form. The same sheet replaces plates, tabs and registration cards. If a plate you are about to transfer onto a replacement vehicle has gone missing, this is where the $5.00 replacement comes from.

Every line here was read off SFN 61982 (4-2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all North Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in North Dakota involves.

How to fill out North Dakota SFN 61982

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The Duplicate title row

Lost, Stolen or Mutilated

The combined lien row above it

Section II, applicant type and legal name

Address, city, state, ZIP and county

Section III, the vehicle

Applicant's Signature (REQUIRED) and date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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