Getting A Lien Release Car Title

How to Get a Lien Released for a Motor Vehicle
So how do you get a lien released for a motor vehicle so you can get your title? There are several different scenarios that come into play. It could be that your loan is paid off. It could be your loan is not paid off. It could be your lender is out of business. There’s a lot of different scenarios that you need to deal with, and each one has a different procedure.

Always Contact the Lien Holder in Writing
How do you do this? Well, first of all, you need to make sure that whatever the scenario is that when you make your contact with the lien holder, you always do it in writing. Never do it by phone, by email, by text message, Facebook, LinkedIn. Never do it that way. Always do it in writing—postal mail.

Why Writing is Important
And here’s why. Lien holders do not have a department of people that are just sitting around waiting to do lien releases. Everybody at that bank is doing some other job—loan payments, new loans, title work, that kind of thing. They’re not doing lien releases. So when you ask them to do a lien release by phone, that person now has to drop everything, find all the right forms, look them up, fill everything out, sign them, and mail them to you.

The Process of Sending Paperwork
They’re not going to do that. They might say they will, but then they’ll just go back to their job. Or sometimes they’ll even tell you, “I’m not going to do that.” So if you take it upon yourself to mail them the paperwork, you’ll get it back. And we’ll talk about specifically what you want to send them. But do it in writing.

If Your Loan is Paid Off
If your loan is paid off, just contact the lender directly. It’s a lot cheaper and faster if you contact the lender. We have a title service—we can do it for you. It’s going to cost more money because now you’re paying us to do the work, and it’ll take a little bit longer. It’ll probably add three or four days to get your lien release if we do it. However, it’s easier because now you don’t have to do all the paperwork. But that’s a personal decision.

If Your Loan is Not Paid Off
If your loan is not paid off, if it’s a charge-off, or a write-off, or delinquent, you still want to contact them in writing. But you also want to include what’s called a letter of non-interest and an affidavit of facts. Those are two things you want to include if your loan is not paid off.

If the Loan is Charged Off
Many times, the lender is going to put it in their computer, type it up, they’re going to see it’s a charge-off, and they send you your lien release. Always make that attempt. If for some reason they don’t respond, you have a backup method, which is a magistrate title, which we’ll talk about afterwards as well.

If the Lender is Out of Business
If the lender is out of business, take your first step and send out the package to the last known address for that lender. And if you don’t know the address, you can look it up in the Secretary of State’s records. You can look it up in the corporate records or the banking records. But send out that package. It might just come bouncing right back to you. That’s, you know, perfectly normal. But at least you can show that you sent it to their last known address.

What to Do If There is No Response
If it comes back to you, or if they’re not there, then what you do is you file that magistrate title—that court order title. You just tell the magistrate, “Look, I tried to contact the lender, they didn’t respond, they didn’t claim the vehicle.” And then the magistrate or the court clerk can sign that lien release, and it still clears it off your title. So that’s your backup method.

If the Loan is in Default
If the loan is in default, charge-off, or write-off, same thing—you want to start with sending it to the lender. If they don’t reply back, then you file it with the magistrate to tell them, “Look, they didn’t respond, and I want the court to sign off on this.”

The Importance of Making a Formal Request
Remember, you have a 0% chance of getting a lien release if you don’t make the formal request. If you make the request, now you have a shot. From what our clients tell us, from them getting lien releases, about 82% of the time, even if there’s money owed, you’ll get a lien release. If the money is paid off, you get it almost all the time.

Always Do It in Writing
Remember, always do it in writing—not by phone or email. If you do it by phone or email, it’s back down to 0%. Even if the loan is paid, the bank probably won’t send it to you if you just call them on the phone and ask them to send you a lien release. Always do it in writing. That way, you’ll have a record, too. If they don’t send it, you know that you at least tried.

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