Kansas Vehicle Title Bond: Not Available

Why there is no Kansas title bond

Thirty-five states have adopted some form of the Uniform Motor Vehicle Certificate of Title and Anti-Theft Act's bond provision, which lets an applicant who cannot prove ownership post a surety bond and receive a branded title. Kansas has not. Its vehicle code requires the titling agency to be satisfied as to ownership before a title issues, and gives the applicant an administrative or judicial route when the paper trail is broken. A surety bond that the agency has no authority to accept does not help, and we will not sell you one for a Kansas-titled vehicle.

What Kansas does instead

1. Kansas accepts no surety bond in place of proof of ownership; its answer is the TR-90 Ownership Affidavit, under which the applicant personally swears to ownership and indemnifies any subsequent purchaser for loss if someone proves a superior claim.
2. The TR-90 is limited to specific classes: mobile homes, all-terrain vehicles, boat trailers, trailers of 2,000 lbs or less, micro utility trucks and work-site utility vehicles that have never been titled or registered in any state; antique passenger vehicles, trucks, motorcycles and military vehicles (35 model years or older), with the purchase details and possession dates stated; and motors, with the seller's bill of sale attached.
3. Antique vehicles 60 years old or newer that rely on the TR-90 or a bill of sale must first obtain an MVE-1 Motor Vehicle Examination from the Kansas Highway Patrol, attached to the application at the county treasurer's motor vehicle office.
4. A false statement on the TR-90 is penalized under K.S.A. 8-142.
5. For an ordinary titled passenger vehicle whose seller cannot be located, the Division of Vehicles directs the buyer to consult an attorney and obtain a court order through a quiet title action naming the Department of Revenue (and the Highway Patrol if the vehicle is not Kansas-registered), followed by a Highway Patrol VIN inspection and county treasurer titling.
6. Duplicate titles issue only to the owner of record.

When a title bond may still apply

If the vehicle was last titled in a state that does bond titles, the fastest path is often to obtain a bonded title there and surrender it to Kansas. Oregon's DMV manual, for example, expressly accepts other states' bonded titles and issues a clean Oregon title against them, and most non-bond states take the same view because the surrendered bonded title is a valid certificate of title from the issuing state. The catch is that the bonding state will usually require you to be its resident or to have the vehicle physically inside its borders. Our underwriters can read the prior-state record and tell you whether that route is open.

If the vehicle has never been titled anywhere, or Kansas is the only state in its record, the Kansas route above is the only one.

Kansas FAQ

Primary sources

States that do bond titles

Written and reviewed by C. Constantin Poindexter, MA, JD, CPCU, AFSB, ASLI, ARe, AINS, AIS, CPLP, founder of Surety One, Inc. and CEO of Janus Assurance Re, with more than thirty years of surety and reinsurance underwriting experience. Author of The Contractor's Guide to Surety Bonds. Reflects state law and DMV practice as of November 5, 2026. More about the author →