That time of year is here again—when dog owners who haven’t renewed or licensed their pups from last year may face the Civil Forfeiture process.

The RSAs lay out clear guidelines on when each step of the Civil Forfeiture process must be completed. Below is a helpful timeline to keep you on track, along with links to instructions for creating the Civil Forfeiture letters and assigning fees to the appropriate dogs.

• June 1^st to June 20^th: Create your unlicensed dog warrant and list for all dogs that have not been renewed and/or have never been licensed. (Utilities | Unlicensed Dog Warrant). This list and warrant need to be given to your governing body (selectmen/alderman/councilors) for their signatures to authorize the issuance of the civil forfeiture letters and corresponding fees. (RSA 466:14 Warrants; Proceedings).
• June 21^st to July 11^th: Your governing body will issue the warrant to “a local official authorized to issue a civil forfeiture for each unlicensed dog.” This could be your local police department, dog officer, or even you, if you send the letters by certified mail. (Utilities | Dog Civil Forfeitures). Note, if you use Invoice Cloud to process online dog payments, you need to update your dog invoices online, at least monthly.
• By August 31^st: Your local law enforcement officer, or whomever was named on the unlicensed dog warrant, must return a list showing the owners who paid and licensed their dogs, the dogs that were seized, and the owners who have not licensed their dogs, and may need to receive a summons to your district court. (RSA 466:16 Returns).

It is extremely important for you to be uploading your dogs to Invoice Cloud (if you have this functionality), on the first of each month, to include the $1.00/month late fee. For information on how to upload dog invoices to Invoice Cloud, and the frequency in which you should do so, select Dog Invoice Upload.