The one piece of paper an Iowa seller can file about their own sale, and the state does not make you file it. Section 2 is the seller's half: you certify that you conveyed ownership and handed over the properly assigned title, and from the day a county treasurer receives it the record carries a presumption that you did. Section 1 is a different transaction entirely - a lease ending - and most people who print this form only ever need the bottom half of it.
Written against 411107 (04-20), issued under Iowa Code s. 321.46(5), affidavit of sale and delivery of title, filed with any county treasurer.
This form carries a notary block under each of its two sections, which is the only place in an ordinary Iowa sale a notary appears at all. Nothing you sign on the title itself is notarised. If you are filing the Section 2 affidavit, take it to a notary rather than posting it signed - and take photo identification, because the notary has to witness the signature rather than certify a copy of it.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 411107 from the iowadot.forms.govos.com copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 411107, rendered from the PDF the Iowa Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division 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
Rendered from the Motor Vehicle Division's own published form and completed as a private seller would complete it. Amber is what you write; grey is the half of the sheet that belongs to a leasing company. Every name, address, plate and identification number here is invented for the sample and the vehicle identification number identifies no vehicle.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Skip Section 1 entirely
The whole top half is an affidavit that a lease expired or was terminated. On a private sale nothing in it applies.
Watch out: It is at the top of the page and it has its own notary block, which is why people fill it in by accident. If you are not a leasing company or a lessee, start at SECTION 2.
2
You fill this in
Name of Purchaser
The buyer's full name, printed, on the line after the certification sentence.
Watch out: Copy it from what they wrote on the back of the title, not from memory. If the two disagree, the affidavit is asserting a sale to somebody who is not on the certificate.
3
You fill this in
Address
One line for the whole address. Street, town and zip run together.
Watch out: Take it off their driving licence when you are standing next to them. An address you cannot support is the weakest part of an affidavit you are swearing to.
4
You fill this in
Date of Assignment of Title
The day you signed the assignment on the back of the certificate and handed it over.
Watch out: This is the date the presumption attaches to. It should be the same date you wrote in the TRANSFER/SALE DATE box on the title itself, and a mismatch between the two is worth avoiding.
5
You fill this in
Vehicle Year, Make, VIN, Plate No.
Four boxes on one line. Year and make are short; the VIN is seventeen characters and the plate is the one you removed.
Watch out: Iowa plates go with the owner, so the plate number here is a plate that is now in your garage or on a treasurer's counter. It is on your registration receipt if you cannot remember it.
6
You fill this in
I/We ______ certify under penalty of perjury
Your printed name, inside the sentence. The form asks for the name in print before it asks for the signature.
Watch out: Print it exactly as it appears on the front of the title. If the title says Marlys J. Vandenberg, the affidavit should not say Marly Vandenberg.
7
You fill this in
Signature of seller
On the X line under the certification, in front of a notary.
Watch out: Do not sign it at the kitchen table and post it. The notary block underneath is real, and the treasurer is being asked to accept a sworn statement.
8
Somebody else fills this in
Subscribed and sworn to before me
Day, month, year and the notary's signature. The notary completes it, not you.
Watch out: Banks and county offices in Iowa commonly notarise for free or for a couple of dollars. This is the only notarised document in an ordinary Iowa sale and it is the optional one.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Name of Purchaser
Who took the car. One line, and it is the only place on the form the buyer is identified.
Address
The buyer's address, on the line under their name. There is no separate city, state and zip - it is one run of writing.
Date of Assignment of Title
The day you signed the back of the certificate over to them, which in a normal sale is the day they drove it away.
Vehicle Year, Make, VIN and Plate No.
Four short boxes across one line. The plate number is the one you took off the car, not one the buyer has put on.
I/We (printed name of seller)
Your name in print, inside the sentence that begins the certification - the form asks for it before it asks for your signature.
Signature of seller
On the X line. This is the certification that you conveyed ownership and delivered the title properly assigned.
By (if firm, association, Corporation, or Attorney in Fact)
The second signature line, used only when the seller is not a person signing for themselves.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this ___ day of ___
A notary block, day, month and year. See the caution below - it is the one surprising thing on this form.
Section 1 - lease termination
The top half: owner or lessee name, plate number, year, make and VIN, a tick for Expired or Been terminated, and the date the leased vehicle went back to the owner. Nothing to do with a private sale.
What gets this one rejected
•Filing it instead of signing the title. The form certifies that you assigned and delivered the certificate; it does not transfer anything on its own and a county treasurer cannot issue a title from it.
•Filling in Section 1 because it is at the top of the page. That section is an Affidavit of Lease Termination or Expiration and it is surrendered when a leasing company or a lessee claims a refund.
•Expecting it to take the car off your name. It does not change the owner on the record - only the buyer's title application does that. What it changes is what the record says about whether you handed the title over.
•Leaving the date of assignment blank. It is the date the presumption attaches to, and without it the affidavit says a sale happened at no particular time.
•Taking it to the Motor Vehicle Division in Ankeny. It is filed with a county treasurer - any county treasurer - and the statute says the treasurer notes it in the system on the day it arrives.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is optional, and that is unusual. Iowa Code s. 321.46(5) is written in the permissive - the seller or transferor may file an affidavit - with no deadline anywhere in it and no penalty for never filing one. Most states make the seller's notice compulsory. Iowa does not.
•What you get for filing is a presumption. Upon filing the affidavit, it shall be presumed that the seller or transferor has assigned and delivered the certificate of title for the vehicle. That is the whole benefit, and in an argument about whether the buyer ever got the title it is worth a great deal.
•It is not what protects you from the buyer's driving. s. 321.493(3) does that, and it turns on delivering possession after a bona fide sale rather than on filing anything. The same subsection says the title rules in s. 321.45(2) do not decide the question.
•The lease half of the form travels with a refund claim. The department's own instruction is that Section 1 must be completed and surrendered to the county treasurer when making application for refund for a leased vehicle, and Form 411047 goes in beside it.
•Any county will take it. Not the county the car is registered in, not your county of residence - the statute says any county treasurer, and the form is one page.
