How to fill out Hawaii CS-L(MVR)44

This is not your form and you should not be handed it, but it is the only lien document any Hawaii county publishes, so people looking for a release find it and assume it is the one. It is filed by the legal owner - the lender - after taking a vehicle back on default, and its instruction line says so before anything else: to be filed with legal ownership card. Its questions are about the default rather than the sale, asking the kind of lien, the date of sale or lease, the nature of the default and how long it has existed. If your lender has a lien on your certificate and you are selling normally, what you need is an endorsement in Section B on the back of the title, or a lien satisfaction letter - and neither of those is this.

Written against CS-L(MVR)44 (01/2026), issued under City and County of Honolulu Department of Customer Services, Division of Motor Vehicles, filed by the legal owner with the legal ownership card. The reason to know this form exists is to stop looking for it. Sellers hunting for a Hawaii lien release find CS-L(MVR)44 because it is the only county form with the word lien in its subject matter, and it is a repossession application filed by a lender against a borrower. Nothing on it releases a lien on a car you still own.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank CS-L(MVR)44 from the www4.honolulu.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our CS-L(MVR)44 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The lienholder fills this in

   Date, license number and description

   The identity block: the date of the application, the plate the vehicle carried, the make and type, and the vehicle identification number.

   Watch out: A seller reading this far has already gone wrong. If you still own the car, close this form and look at Section B on the back of your certificate instead.

2. 2
   The lienholder fills this in

   Registered owner

   The person the county has on record as the registered owner - the borrower whose default is being asserted.

   Watch out: This is the one field that names the seller, and it names them as the subject of the application rather than as its author.

3. 3
   The lienholder fills this in

   Kind of lien

   The instrument the legal owner is enforcing. It separates a finance agreement from a storage or repair lien, which reach a vehicle by a different route.

   Watch out: There is no tick list. The lender writes the instrument, and the county reads it against the bill of sale in the legal owner's name that must be presented with it.

4. 4
   The lienholder fills this in

   Date of sale or lease

   When the defaulted agreement began, not when it was breached.

   Watch out: It is easy to read this as the date of the repossession sale. It is not - the next two questions cover the default itself.

5. 5
   The lienholder fills this in

   State nature of default

   What the borrower failed to do. One ruled line, and the substance of the whole application.

   Watch out: The county is deciding whether to re-register a vehicle out of one person's name and into another's without that person's signature. A vague answer is not enough for that.

6. 6
   The lienholder fills this in

   How long has default existed

   A duration. Together with the previous line it is the evidence that the lien matured before the vehicle was taken.

   Watch out: The answer here and the date of sale or lease have to be consistent with each other and with the contract.

7. 7
   The lienholder fills this in

   Remarks

   A deep panel for anything else - the location of the vehicle, the repossession agent, the state of the title.

   Watch out: A lender using this panel to explain a missing certificate is telling the county something the boxes never asked, which is exactly what it is for.

8. 8
   The lienholder fills this in

   Signature of legal owner

   One rule at the foot, signed by the lender. There is no signature line for the registered owner anywhere on the sheet.

   Watch out: That absence is the point. If a document about your car has no place for your signature, it is not a document you are meant to be completing.

What gets this one rejected

• •A private seller filing it because a lender is printed on their title. The lien on an ordinary certificate is released in Section B by the lienholder, or by a lien satisfaction letter, and nothing on this sheet does that job.
• •Filing it without the legal ownership card the instruction line names.
• •Leaving the default questions vague. The nature of the default and how long it has existed are the substance of the application - a form that answers neither is a form that describes no default.
• •Using it where a lienholder simply wants to be recorded on a new title. That is Section E on the back of the certificate, which the counties call the application for transfer by new lienholder.
• •Expecting it to work as a notice of transfer. Honolulu's notice of transfer is for registered owner transfers only and explicitly not for lienholder transfers, and this application is not a substitute for either.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The bill of sale requirement is the lender's. The instruction under the heading reads that a bill of sale in the name of the legal owner, and/or the document mentioned below, must also be presented - the lender proves how it came by the vehicle.
• •Legal owner and registered owner are different people here. The form asks for the registered owner as information and takes the legal owner's signature. That split is the whole reason it exists.
• •A seller's route is the certificate, not a form. Honolulu accepts either the lienholder's endorsement in Section B or a lien satisfaction letter in lieu of it. On an out-of-county or out-of-state certificate the original cancelled contract stamped PAID IN FULL will also do.
• •Electronic liens end by notification. Where the lender holds the title, the county's answer is that once your lienholder notifies the Motor Vehicle Registration Branch that the lien is satisfied, your title will be updated and mailed to you at the address on file.
• •A lien you have paid off still blocks the sale until it is released. A discharged loan that was never endorsed on the certificate looks identical to a live one at the counter. Ask the lender for the satisfaction letter before you advertise.

Every line here was read off CS-L(MVR)44 (01/2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the City and County of Honolulu Division of Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits 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 Hawaii seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Hawaii involves.