Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 23 Sec. 2015

  • Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. See
  • Dealer: means a person as defined in subdivision 4(8) of this title. See
  • following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
  • Identification number: means the numbers and letters, if any, on a vehicle designated by the Commissioner for the purpose of identifying the vehicle. See
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Lienholder: means a person holding a security interest in a vehicle. See
  • Owner: shall include any person, corporation, co-partnership, or association holding legal title to a motor vehicle or having exclusive right to the use or control thereof for a period of 30 days or more. See
  • Person: includes any natural person, corporation, association, co-partnership, company, firm, or other aggregation of individuals. See
  • Security agreement: means a written agreement which reserves or creates a security interest. See
  • Security interest: means an interest in a vehicle reserved or created by agreement and which secures payment or performance of an obligation. See
  • State: means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a province of the Dominion of Canada. See
  • Vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined by section 4 of this title. See

§ 2015. Application for certificate

(a) The application for the first certificate of title of a vehicle in this State shall be made by the owner to the Commissioner on the form he or she prescribes and shall contain:

(1) the name, residence, and mail address of the owner;

(2) a description of the vehicle, including, so far as the following data exist, its make, model, identification number, odometer reading, or hubometer reading or clock meter reading on all vehicles, type of body, the number of cylinders, and whether new or used;

(3) the date of purchase by the applicant, the name and address of the person from whom the vehicle was acquired, and the names and addresses of any lienholders in the order of their priority and the dates of their security agreements, and, if a new vehicle, the application shall be accompanied by a manufacturer’s or importer’s certificate of origin; and

(4) any further information the Commissioner reasonably requires to identify the vehicle and to enable him or her to determine whether the owner is entitled to a certificate of title and the existence or nonexistence of security interests in the vehicle.

(5) [Repealed.]

(b) If the application refers to a vehicle purchased from a dealer, it shall contain the name and address of any lienholder holding a security interest created or reserved at the time of the sale and the date of his or her security agreement and be signed by the dealer as well as the owner, and the dealer shall promptly mail or deliver the application to the Commissioner unless title is in the possession of a lienholder at the time of sale, in which case the dealer shall have until 30 calendar days after the date the dealer acquired the vehicle to mail or deliver the application to the Commissioner. The dealer shall not be entitled to the extension if the lien on the vehicle was granted by the dealer to finance vehicle inventory acquisition.

(c) If the application refers to a vehicle last previously registered in another state or country, the application shall contain or be accompanied by:

(1) any certificate of title issued by the other state or country;

(2) any other information and documents the Commissioner reasonably requires to establish the ownership of the vehicle and the existence or nonexistence of security interests in it; and

(3) any other proof of the identity of the vehicle the Commissioner reasonably requires. (Added 1969, No. 297 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1971; amended 1983, No. 60, § 8; 1983, No. 141 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1985; 1995, No. 19, § 12, eff. April 17, 1995; 2019, No. 60, § 19; 2021, No. 76, § 5, eff. April 1, 2020; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 420, eff. July 1, 2022.)