How to fill out West Virginia DMV-38-AB

The Division's money-back form, and its header sets the terms before any blank: refunds will only be given for unused decals and unused plates with the return of the decal, plate, and registration card, all requests need copies of canceled checks front and back or the transaction receipts, and all applications for refund must be tendered to the Division of Motor Vehicles within six months after the date of transaction. For a seller, the live case is narrow but real: you renewed, then sold before the new plate or decal ever touched the car - the unused registration can come back as money, if the paper trail and the calendar cooperate.

Written against DMV-38-AB (Rev 09/2021), issued under W. Va. Code 17A-10-12. Time the sequence, because two rules interlock: the refund wants the unused plate returned, and the sold notice wants the sale reported. Sell just after renewing, send the DMV-1-S, and put the untouched plate, decal and registration card behind this application with your proof of payment - inside six months of the renewal, not of the sale. The order protects both the money and the record.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DMV-38-AB from the webapps.transportation.wv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our DMV-38-AB guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank DMV-38-AB — Application for Refund PDF at webapps.transportation.wv.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in DMV-38-AB guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual DMV-38-AB, rendered from the PDF the West Virginia 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

The West Virginia DMV-38-AB application for refund filled in: Rosalie M. Burdette of St. Albans requests a refund of an unused registration renewal after selling her 2014 Ford Escape, plate number entered with its space, the reason line explaining the plate and decal were never used, dated within six months of the renewal. — The renewal that never reached the sold car, claimed back. The plate, decal and registration card travel in the same envelope - the return is the condition the refund policy sets in its first line.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Who the money goes to
Name and address, then the license number, expiry and date of birth that identify you against the record.
Watch out: The refund cheque is drawn to this name. A jointly held registration is cleanest claimed in the name the payment came from.
2
You fill this in
The vehicle and the plate
Plate number - include spaces, the form insists - VIN, make, model, year, weight and title number.
Watch out: Include spaces is not decoration: the plate is matched by exact string, and JKL 123 and JKL123 are two different records to a computer.
3
You fill this in
Reason and total
One plain sentence - renewed, sold before use, plate and decal enclosed - and the amount you are claiming.
Watch out: Claim the figure your receipt shows, not a rounding of it. The accounting sign-off on the Division's half reconciles to the cent.
4
You fill this in
Sign inside the window
Sign the certification and date it - within six months of the transaction being refunded.
Watch out: The clock runs from the renewal payment, and it is the applications that arrive in month seven that fund the policy's bluntness.
5
You fill this in
Pack the envelope
Application, plate, decal, registration card, and the canceled check copies or receipts, to the PO Box 17700 refund address on the letterhead.
Watch out: Photograph the plate and paperwork together before sealing it. If the packet and the record ever disagree, your photograph is the tiebreaker.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
A) Required refund information	Refund to (name), address, city, state and zip; your driver's license number, its expiration date and date of birth; then the vehicle: plate number - include spaces - VIN number, make, model, year, weight and title number.
Reason for refund	A ruled free-text band - the place to say, plainly, that the registration was renewed and the vehicle sold before the decal and plate were used.
Refund total, signature and date	The amount claimed, the signature line labelled you must sign here to certify your request, and a date box whose own caption repeats the deadline: date of request - must be within six months of transaction date.
B) Credit card payment detail	Card type and the last four digits of card number - governed by the printed policy that a refund goes to a credit card only if a credit card was originally used, and it must be the same credit card used in the initial transaction.
Division use only	The supervisor's signature block - if error was made by DMV, a supervisor must sign - the OASIS document ID, accounting sign-off and warrant number: the state's half of the ledger.

What gets this one rejected

•A used plate or peeled decal. The policy line is absolute - unused, and returned, with the registration card, or there is nothing to refund.
•No proof of payment. Canceled checks copied front and back, or the transaction receipts - the request is audited against them, not against your memory.
•Six months and a day. The deadline is printed twice, in the header and under the date box, and it runs from the transaction, not from the sale.
•Asking for the refund on a different card. The credit card policy requires the same card the original payment rode on.
•Claiming driver's-license or CDL money back for a change of heart. The policy refunds those only on a departmental error, with a supervisor's signature on the state's side of the form.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•What is actually refundable for a seller. Unused decals and unused plates - the renewal that never reached the car. Registration time you drove on is spent, however short the year was cut.
•Duplicate payments come back too. Pay twice by accident and the policy refunds with both cash receipts and copies of both canceled checks - the doubled paperwork requirement is the point.
•The plate goes in the envelope. The refund condition is return of the decal, plate, and registration card - which neatly satisfies the plate-surrender duty at the same time. One envelope, two obligations.

Every line here was read off DMV-38-AB (Rev 09/2021) itself — the PDF is here — and off the West Virginia 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.

Back to all West Virginia seller paperwork, or what selling a car in West Virginia involves.

How to fill out West Virginia DMV-38-AB

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Who the money goes to

The vehicle and the plate

Reason and total

Sign inside the window

Pack the envelope

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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