Repossessed Motor Vehicle Affidavit Template for the United States

It is the sworn account of how and when a vehicle was recovered, used to support a title application after repossession and to evidence that the process was properly followed. State titling agencies commonly require it before issuing a repossession title. Without that title the vehicle cannot be sold on cleanly, so the affidavit sits on the critical path between recovery and disposal rather than being a file note. It is also the document produced first if the borrower challenges the recovery, which is why it is written at the time and not reconstructed weeks later from a recovery invoice.

Whoever has direct knowledge of the recovery normally signs, which is often the agent who took the vehicle, with the lienholder attesting separately to the default and the notices sent. Splitting it that way keeps each statement inside the signer's own knowledge. It also survives staff turnover better, since an agent who has moved on cannot later be asked to swear to the lender's notice history. Where the agency accepts a single affidavit, it should still identify who did what, and the agent's own contemporaneous report should be kept behind it in the file.

Force, threats and confrontation are ruled out, and taking a vehicle from a closed garage or from behind a locked gate is generally treated as crossing the line. Record where the vehicle was standing and whether anyone was present, because that is the detail challenged later. An objection made at the scene is the moment that decides most disputes: continuing after the borrower or anyone else tells the agent to stop is what turns a lawful recovery into an unlawful one. Note the time, the exact words used, and whether the agent withdrew.

The security interest covers the vehicle rather than its contents, so the borrower's belongings have to be inventoried and made available for collection. Note in the affidavit what was found and how the borrower was told to retrieve it. Photograph the interior before anything is removed, list items individually rather than as a bag of effects, and record where they are stored and until when. Child seats, tools, work equipment and documents are the categories that generate claims, and a vague inventory is no answer to a borrower who says something valuable was in the trunk.

Yes. Each state titling agency has its own affidavit, notice periods and rules on agent licensing, and using the wrong form is a common reason a repossession title application comes back. Take the form from the agency in the state where the title will be issued. Where the vehicle was recovered in one state and is titled in another, both sets of rules bear on the file: the recovery is judged where it happened, the title issued where the record sits. Check the licensing position for the recovery agent in the state of recovery before instructing them.