The one document in a financed Connecticut sale that the department does not print, cannot look up and will not accept a substitute for. Connecticut runs no electronic lien system at all, so when a lienholder is named on the face of your certificate the only thing that clears it is a letter from that lender, on that lender's paper, saying five specific things. This page is about what those five things are and what to do when the lender no longer exists.
Written against Lien release letter (there is no form), issued under Conn. Gen. Stat. s. 14-188(a), which requires the lienholder to execute a release within ten days of demand and in any event within thirty days. Start this before you advertise the car. A lien release is the only part of a Connecticut sale whose timing is entirely outside your control, and the buyer cannot register the vehicle without it.
There is no download link for the Lien release letter here because there is not one anywhere - the CT DMV does not publish it. The card below explains where it does come from.
There is no form to show filled in because Connecticut publishes none - the release is a letter the lender composes on its own paper, and what the department publishes instead is a list of the things that letter has to contain. Those seven items are set out in the table on this page in the department's own words.
| On the form | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| The lender's own letterhead | The department's first requirement: the letter should be on loan institution letterhead. A printed email, a screenshot of an app or a payoff statement is not the same document. |
| Owner(s) name | The names as they appear on the certificate. Where the title carries two owners joined by AND, both belong in the letter. |
| Vehicle description: year, make, identification number | Enough to tie the release to this car and no other. The VIN is the item that does the work. |
| The operative statement | That the loan has been paid in full or there is no interest in the vehicle - the department's wording gives both alternatives, because a lender that never advanced the money releases differently from one that was repaid. |
| Signature of an authorised agent | The letter has to be signed by somebody at the institution rather than generated. It is the only signature in the Connecticut lien set. |
| The alternative where the lien is over ten years old | Not a letter at all: Section 2 of the H-6B, a YES/NO answer to whether all liens have been satisfied, with names and addresses if the answer is no. The department accepts it where the loan origination date is more than ten years back and the lender cannot be reached. |
| The other alternative | A Motor Vehicle Ownership Affidavit, form H-115, which the department names as acceptable in lieu of the lien release where the lienholder is out of business or has changed name. |
There is no Lien release letter to read: the CT DMV does not publish it, so nothing on this page describes its contents beyond what the agency itself says about it — that is here — and what is on the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.
Back to all Connecticut seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Connecticut involves.