The lender's one-page certificate, and the sheet most likely to stall a sale years after the loan ended. It does two different jobs, split by a pair of checkboxes at the foot: the lien is Satisfied and hereby released as of a date, or it is Not satisfied but the lienholder grants permission to issue a replacement title in a named person's name. DFA's replacement-title instructions lean on it from both directions - a lender with a live lien completes it to have the replacement mailed to them, and a customer claiming a recorded lien was released must produce a release, after which the lienholder still gets ten business days to object before the title prints.
Written against 10-315 (Rev 12/06), issued under Ark. Code Ann. Title 27, Chapter 14.
Chase this sheet before you advertise the car, not after a buyer is standing in the driveway. Lenders merge, rename and dissolve, and the successor's title department can take weeks to find a fifteen-year-old account - while the buyer's sixty-day registration clock will not wait for them.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 10-315 from the dfa.arkansas.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 10-315 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 10-315, rendered from the PDF the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Motor Vehicle publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Every entry is washed grey because every entry is the lender's - the owner's part is delivering the sheet, not writing on it. The satisfied box is ticked and the not-satisfied permission box stays empty, because the two are alternatives; the as-of date sits on a printed rule the document draws no cell around, so it is left for the lender's pen.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Find who actually holds the lien now
The lender named on your title, or whoever bought, absorbed or renamed it since.
Watch out: Start from the name on the certificate's lien block and search forward through the mergers. The release must come from the current holder of the paper, not the brand you remember paying.
2
Somebody else fills this in
The lender identifies its lien
Name, address, the vehicle row, the VIN, the recording date and the amount, and the borrower's name.
Watch out: Give the lender the VIN and the contract date from your old paperwork and they can pull the account in one search instead of three phone calls.
3
Somebody else fills this in
One box, dated
Satisfied and released as of a date - or, mid-loan, permission for a replacement title in a named owner's name.
Watch out: For a sale you want the first box. The permission box exists for replacing a lost certificate while the loan runs, and it sends the new title to the lender, not to you.
4
Somebody else fills this in
An officer signs
The signature of the lien holder, meaning a person authorised to sign for it.
Watch out: Ask for it on the form or on letterhead carrying the same facts, and ask for a wet signature - this is the one document in your sale where DFA may go back to the source to check.
5
You fill this in
Deliver it with the title work
The release travels with the assigned title to the Revenue Office, or with your 10-381 if you are replacing a lost certificate first.
Watch out: Keep a copy forever. A lien release is the single hardest document in this set to obtain twice, and the record it corrects has already outlived one loan.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
This is to certify that the lien held by (Name of Lien Holder)
The lender, as the state's lien record spells it - the certificate opens as the lienholder's own statement, addressed To Whom It May Concern.
(Address of Lien Holder)
Where the lender is - or was, which is the usual problem by the time this sheet is needed.
Year, Make, Model, Body Style
The vehicle the lien attached to, across one row.
VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
The seventeen characters the lien record is indexed under.
Dated and in the amount of
When the lien was recorded and for how much - the contract date and figure from the original financing.
Owned by (Owner's Name)
The borrower, which after years and a marriage or two may not be quite the name on your driver's license.
Checkbox: Satisfied and hereby released as of (date)
The release itself. The date matters: it is the day the state can treat the encumbrance as ended.
Checkbox: Not satisfied. Permission is granted to issue a replacement title in the name of:
The other job - a lender agreeing to a replacement certificate while the loan still runs, naming who it issues to.
(Signature of Lien Holder)
The one signature on the sheet, and it is not yours. An officer of the lender signs, and the form is worthless signed by anybody else.
What gets this one rejected
•The owner filling it in. Every line is the lienholder's certificate about its own lien; a seller's handwriting on the signature rule is exactly the forgery the process exists to prevent.
•Both boxes checked, or neither. Released and not-satisfied are alternatives; the sheet does one job per filing.
•A release for the wrong vehicle. The VIN is matched against the lien record, and a lender that financed you twice can release the wrong one.
•No date on the release. Satisfied as of when is the operative fact - an undated release invites the ten-business-day objection window to be spent arguing.
•A letterhead letter that skips the form's facts. DFA can accept a release, but it needs the lien identified: lender, vehicle, VIN, date and amount, owner - the exact rows this sheet prints.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Ten business days belong to the lender. On a replacement application where the customer says the lien was released, DFA notifies the lienholder and waits: no response in ten business days and the title prints for the owner; a response that the release is not valid and the title mails to the lienholder instead.
•The lien fee explains the record. Recording a lien cost 50 cents on DFA's fee schedule, and the record it bought does not expire on its own - which is why a 2011 loan paid off in 2014 can still stop a 2026 sale.
