After purchasing a vehicle from a licensed dealer, the dealer will give you a Certificate of Title to bring with you when you register the vehicle with the DMV. YOU MUST HAVE A TITLE BEFORE YOU REGISTER A VEHICLE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. That way you can’t steal a car and register it in your name, not that you would ever do that…

If you purchase a vehicle from an individual, you can apply for a Certificate of Title through the town or city clerk.

Either way, you’re going to need a title that is properly assigned to you. Keep it in a safe place (i.e. NOT in the car), as it’s pretty important.

NOTE: If your car is more than 15 years old and isn’t a heavy truck or truck-tractor weighing more than 18,000 pounds, then you don’t actually need a title. It’s still a good idea to have one, though, just in case your 4th cousin Ricky decides to let his friend Keith “borrow” the car indefinitely without telling you.

If you are a New Hampshire resident, then your motor vehicle must be registered in New Hampshire. To do this, head to your town or city clerk so you can pay the permit fee and obtain a registration permit. Make sure you bring these fancy documents with you:

1. Proof of residency. Like, I don’t know, your new driver license?

2. Proof of vehicle ownership. Remember how important that Certificate of Title is?

3. Proof of ID.

4. Money for the fees.

Once you’ve got the permit, head on down to the DMV and do yourself some registerating! If you’re lucky, your town or city clerk will actually be an authorized Municipal Agent for the DMV, and you’ll be able to get everything done right there.

You can also mail in your registration permit, along with the proper fees (Check or Money Order ONLY), to: Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Safety, 23 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH 03305. Make the check or money order payable to “State of New Hampshire – MV.” Make sure you mail it out early in the month, though. Because of delays, they don’t like receiving registration permits after the 15th.

You’ll be issued license plates, and both must be displaced if you receive two. If you don’t like the numbers on them, feel free to head over to DMV and upgrade those suckers to personalized vanity plates. The license plate of the Shmoop company car reads “SHMOOP!” It took us a long time to come up with that.

The process for registering a motorcycle or trailer is the same as that of a car. The process for a moped is basically the same, except everything takes place at the DMV.