How to fill out West Virginia WV-4S

Five boxes and one sworn sentence for the plate you cannot hand back: I/we hereby state under penalty of false swearing, the above vehicle registration plate has been lost or stolen and cannot be surrendered to the Division of Motor Vehicles as required by West Virginia Law Code 17D-2A-1 et. seq. That citation is the compulsory-insurance article - the reason surrender matters at all is that a plate is supposed to come back when its insurance stops, and this statement is what stands in for the tin when the tin is gone.

Written against WV-4S (Rev 08/22), issued under W. Va. Code 17D-2A-1 et seq.. The oath is the whole form - under penalty of false swearing is printed above your signature, and the statement it swears is that the plate cannot be surrendered. Sign it while the plate hangs in the shed and you have sworn falsely over something with your name stamped on the record; find the plate later and the honest move is destruction, because its number was retired the day this statement landed.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank WV-4S from the webapps.transportation.wv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our WV-4S guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Names as the title shows them

   Every owner the title prints, written as it prints them.

   Watch out: Match the certificate, not the checkbook. The statement is filed against the title record, and the names are how it lands there.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Plate, title, make and year

   The four identifying boxes down the right side.

   Watch out: The registration card carries all four. If the card vanished with the plate, the certificate covers everything but the plate number - which an old insurance card or a photo of the car usually supplies.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Sign and date the statement

   The (X) line under the printed oath, and the date of this signed statement beside it.

   Watch out: Stolen rather than lost? Ring the State Police first, then file this - the two reports do different jobs and the Division expects both.

What gets this one rejected

• •Using it for a plate you still have. This is a statement that surrender is impossible - a plate in the garage goes back to the Division, not onto an affidavit.
• •A guessed title number. The statement ties the missing plate to one registration record; pull the number off the registration card or the certificate rather than approximating.
• •One signature for two owners. The sentence begins I/we for a reason - owners as shown on the title make the statement together.
• •Forgetting the police when the plate was stolen. The Division's registration page says to immediately notify the West Virginia State Police if a license plate is lost or stolen - this form tells the DMV, not law enforcement.
• •Filing it instead of the sold notice. This statement accounts for the plate; the DMV-1-S reports the sale. After a sale with a lost plate you may well owe both.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •A reported plate is dead. Once a plate is reported lost or stolen, the same plate number cannot be used again - the Division's rule, and the reason a found plate goes in a drawer, not back on a bumper.
• •It closes the insurance loop. The verification computer wants every active plate insured or accounted for. This statement is the accounting, which is why it exists at all.
• •Personalised plates have a replica route. A lost personalised plate can be re-issued as a replica through the Division's application, with a letter explaining a plate-check may still read it as stolen - a different form and a different decision.

Every line here was read off WV-4S (Rev 08/22) 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.