TX lost title bonds.
From $125. Enter your amount.
When you cannot prove ownership of a vehicle, Texas lets you file a surety bond under Transportation Code § 501.053 and take a bonded title. This is the clean version of that case: state records show no lien, so there is no release of lien to chase. Apply at TxDMV first — a Regional Service Center issues a Notice of Determination (Form VTR-130-ND) stating the exact bond amount. Premiums cost 0.9% of that amount, with a $125 minimum, and your exact price appears at the application.
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Get the TxDMV notice first, then enter its amount, pay, and take the executed bond to your county tax office. Here is the whole thing:
Get your Notice of Determination
Send Form VTR-130-SOF, your evidence of ownership, photo ID and the $15 administrative fee to the TxDMV Regional Service Center that serves your county. If the paperwork is approved you get Form VTR-130-ND, stating the bond amount. You need that notice before you buy the bond.
Apply online & get issued
Enter the VIN, year, make, model and body style, your details, and the amount from the notice. The application collects no credit information, and most applicants are issued the moment they pay.
File at the county tax office
Take the original notice, the executed bond, Form 130-U and the rest of your step-one documents to your county tax assessor-collector within 30 days of buying the bond. We mail the wet-ink original signed by the surety, so it is ready for the counter.
What it is and who needs it.
What the bonded title actually does
When the ownership paperwork for a vehicle is missing, lost, or rejected, Transportation Code § 501.053 lets you take a title by filing a bond with the department instead of going through a § 501.052 hearing. The section opens three doors, and this bond is the first and cleanest of them: the vehicle is in your possession and there is no security interest on it. The other two are a lien at least ten years old, or a full release of all liens filed with the bond.
That distinction is the whole reason the state record matters. TxDMV is explicit that you are not eligible for a bonded title if a recorded lienholder of ten years or less exists and you cannot get a release of lien or a letter of no interest. When the record comes back clean, none of that applies — you go straight from the Notice of Determination to the bond to the county counter.
The bond runs to the department and is conditioned to indemnify all prior owners and lienholders, all later purchasers, anyone who takes a security interest, and their successors against loss, expense or damage — including reasonable attorney's fees — arising from the title being issued or from a defect in your right to the vehicle. Any interested person can sue on it, and the surety's total liability to everyone is capped at the bond amount. It expires on the third anniversary of its effective date; if nobody with a better claim surfaces in those three years, the brand comes off and a clean title issues. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you repay the surety.
You need this bond if you are
Get your TxDMV notice, then apply here.
Enter the bond amount from your Notice of Determination — your exact price is set at the application, most applicants are issued the moment they pay, and the wet-ink original is mailed for the county counter.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Texas bonds.
Bonded title, priced off your notice.
Enter the amount TxDMV printed on your Notice of Determination and see your exact price at the application. Free until issued.