Gets a car legally destroyed when you cannot produce a title for it. Texas issues a Certificate of Authority on the back of this, and a demolisher will take the vehicle on that certificate alone. It is the honest answer to the old truck behind the house that nobody can find paperwork for.
Written against VTR-71-2 (Rev 11/20), issued under Texas Transportation Code 683.055 and 501.099.
This is a one-way door and it is meant to be. Once the department issues the authority, the vehicle exists to be destroyed - it cannot be retitled by you, by the demolisher, or by anybody down the line. If the car is worth anything at all, sell it before you take this route.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VTR-71-2 from the txdmv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VTR-71-2 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VTR-71-2, rendered from the PDF the Texas 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 real VTR-71-2, filled in for an old car with no title sitting behind the house. The Exempt odometer box is ticked because a 2002 model year is past the federal disclosure window - the same rule our odometer section explains.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle information
VIN, year, make, body style, model, and the plate if the car still carries one.
Watch out: If the VIN plate is unreadable, stop here - this route needs a VIN and there is a separate process for assigning one.
2
You fill this in
Odometer disclosure
The reading with no tenths, and one of the three ticks if the reading is not the actual mileage.
Watch out: Exempt is about the model year, not the condition. A car too new to be exempt still needs an honest reading even on its way to the crusher.
3
You fill this in
Where the vehicle is
The physical location of the car, which is not necessarily your mailing address.
Watch out: Be specific. This is what the department and the demolisher use to find it.
4
You fill this in
Why you can apply
One of three ticks: recorded owner or transferred to you, abandoned and in your possession, or abandoned and on your property.
Watch out: The two abandoned routes trigger the 20-day notice to any owner and lienholder. The owner route does not, and is much faster.
5
You fill this in
Sign and date
Signature, printed name and date, with the certification that the vehicle goes to a demolisher for destruction only.
Watch out: Read the certification first. It is where you agree the car can never come back.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle information
VIN, year, make, body style, model, plate if there is one, odometer reading with the three disclosure ticks, and where the vehicle physically sits.
Applicant information
Your name and address.
Statement of facts
Three tick boxes - you are the recorded owner or it was transferred to you, it is abandoned and in your possession, or it is abandoned and on your property - plus room for a statement of facts.
Certification
Signature, printed name and date, certifying the facts and that you understand the vehicle can only go to a demolisher.
What gets this one rejected
•No fee, or the wrong kind. Two dollars, by check or money order payable to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. The form rules out credit and debit cards, temporary checks and cash, and says the fee is non-refundable.
•Ticking none of the three reasons. An application under this process must be for one of them, and only one applies to any given car.
•Not surrendering a Texas title you still hold. If the car was last titled in Texas and the title is not lost or destroyed, it goes in - unless the department can already verify you as the owner in its own system.
•Applying as somebody who is not the owner without evidence. If you are not the recorded owner you have to show the vehicle was transferred to you - a title, a manufacturer’s certificate of origin, a registration receipt on a non-titled vehicle, or a law enforcement auction sales receipt.
•Expecting the car back afterwards. The certification is explicit: this vehicle cannot be repaired, rebuilt, reconstructed, made operable, or retitled, and may only go to a demolisher for permanent destruction.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Abandoned has a definition, and it is six-part. Inoperable, over five years old and left on public property more than 48 hours; illegally on public property more than 48 hours; on private property without consent more than 48 hours; on a designated highway right-of-way more than 48 hours; more than 24 hours on a turnpike or controlled-access right-of-way; or an impounded commercial vehicle whose administrative penalty is unpaid by the eleventh day.
•Somebody else gets warned first. On an abandoned vehicle the department must notify any owner and lienholder it can find, and publish a notice on its website if it finds no record. They then have 20 days from the date the notice is mailed or published to claim the car.
•Allow a month. Because of that notice period the department says issuance of a Certificate of Authority may take up to 30 days from the date the application is received.
•The odometer boxes still apply. Not Actual, Exceeds Mechanical Limits, Exempt - the same three as on every other Texas form. On a car headed for the crusher the disclosure rules have not gone away.
Every line here was read off VTR-71-2 (Rev 11/20) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Texas 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.
