Form MV-104: The New York Report Drivers Forget to File
After a collision in New York, the police may write a report. That report is theirs. Separately, the law requires you to file your own — Form MV-104 — with the Department of Motor Vehicles within ten days. Drivers skip it constantly, almost always because officers attended and they assume that covered it. It did not, and the penalty for missing it is your license.
Who has to file, and when
Under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 605, a driver involved in an accident must report it to the DMV within 10 days if either:
- anyone was injured or killed, or
- damage to the property of any one person exceeds $1,000.
Two things about that threshold. It is per person, not in total — so a collision doing $700 to each of two other vehicles can still be reportable. And $1,000 of damage to a modern vehicle is a bumper and a sensor. Assume you are over it.
The obligation is the driver's, and each driver files separately. If a driver is physically unable to file, the requirement generally falls to the vehicle's owner. The form is on the DMV website and can be filed by mail or online.
What happens if you do not file
The DMV may suspend your driving privileges until the report is filed. It is an administrative consequence, not a criminal one, and it arrives by letter — frequently to an old address, which is how people discover they have been driving on a suspended license for a month.
A missing MV-104 also gives an adjuster something to work with. It will not defeat a claim, but "you did not think it was serious enough to report" is an argument, and it is entirely avoidable.
MV-104 is not the police report — and neither is the other one
Three documents get confused with each other:
- MV-104 — your report, filed by you, within 10 days.
- MV-104A — the police accident report, prepared by the responding officer. You obtain a copy; you do not file it.
- NF-2 — the no-fault application, sent to your own insurer within 30 days. Different form, different recipient, different deadline, and the one that pays your medical bills. See how New York no-fault works.
Filing one does not satisfy the others. A driver can comfortably do the MV-104 correctly and still lose their no-fault benefits by missing the 30-day application.
Filling it in: this is a statement, and it lasts
The form is short, which makes people casual with it. It becomes part of the record of the collision, and it can be produced in a claim years later against whatever you wrote in the first week. A few points worth care:
- Do not guess. Speeds, distances and times you did not observe should be left as unknown rather than estimated. A number you invented at the curbside becomes a number you are cross-examined on.
- Do not write that you were uninjured because you feel able to drive home. Concussion, and neck and back injuries, commonly declare themselves over the following days — see concussion after a car accident. If you are unsure, say symptoms were developing, or that you were being evaluated.
- Do not apologize or assign blame, to yourself or anyone else. Describe what happened. Fault is a legal conclusion, not something for you to record.
- Draw the diagram carefully, matching the narrative. Contradictions between the two are noticed.
- Keep a copy of everything you send, with the date.
If you are already represented, send the form to your attorney before filing it. If you are not and the accident involved a serious injury, that is a reasonable moment to get advice — see do I need a lawyer for a car accident.
Where the MV-104 matters more than usual
Uninsured or hit-and-run drivers. If the other driver has no insurance or left the scene, a claim may lie against the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, and MVAIC's own notice requirements are short — generally within 90 days, with additional police-reporting requirements in a hit-and-run. The MV-104 is part of the paper trail those claims depend on. See hit and run accidents.
Disputed liability. Where the police did not attend — private property, minor-seeming collisions, a lot — the MV-104 may be the only official contemporaneous record that exists. See parking lot accident fault.
Claims against a public body. Reporting to the DMV is not a notice of claim. If a city bus, a municipal vehicle or a public authority is involved, a separate notice is generally due within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e. Read how long you have to file before assuming you have three years.
Common questions
Do I have to file an MV-104 if the police already made a report?
Yes. The police report is a separate document and does not discharge your own obligation under VTL § 605. This is the most common reason the form goes unfiled.
What is the deadline for the MV-104?
Ten days from the accident, where anyone was injured or killed or property damage to any one person exceeds $1,000.
What happens if I miss it?
The DMV may suspend your driving privileges until the report is filed. File it late rather than not at all, and check the address the DMV holds for you.
Does filing an MV-104 start my insurance claim?
No. Notifying your insurer and filing the no-fault application — within 30 days — are separate steps, and the MV-104 does not substitute for either.
Should I say I was not injured?
Only if you are certain, and after a collision you often are not. Injuries frequently emerge over the following days, and a written statement that you were uninjured is used to argue that whatever appeared later came from something else.
This page is general information about New York law. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Davidov & Cohen Law. To talk about your own situation, tell us what happened.
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