Your lender's form, not yours, and the one that decides whether your sale waits a day or a fortnight. Iowa gives a discharged lienholder two ways out: sign the cancellation on the face of the certificate, or issue this separate notarised release. Which one you get is their choice, and a buyer standing at a county treasurer's counter with a title that still shows an uncancelled lien and no release is sent home.
Written against 411168 (06-25), issued under Iowa Code s. 321.50(5), discharge and cancellation of a security interest.
Do not advertise a car whose title still shows an uncancelled lien on its face. The buyer cannot get a title without either a cancellation signed on the certificate or this release in their hand, and lenders take days rather than hours. Ring the lender, ask which of the two routes they use, and get the fifteen-day request in writing on the same call.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 411168 from the iowadot.forms.govos.com copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 411168, 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 department's own published form and completed the way a lender completes it, because none of it is the seller's to write. Grey marks the notary block. The credit union, the owner and every number here are invented for the sample.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The lienholder fills this in
To County
The county treasurer the release is going to.
Watch out: Normally the county that issued the title. If your lender asks you which one, the answer is on the front of the certificate.
2
The lienholder fills this in
Title Number and Security Interest Number
Two identifiers. The security interest number is the lender's own reference on the Iowa record.
Watch out: If the lender cannot find the security interest number, the county treasurer can read it off the record. It is not something you can supply.
3
The lienholder fills this in
VIN
One full-width box for the vehicle identification number.
Watch out: Check it against your own certificate when the release arrives. A release naming a different VIN is worth nothing at a counter.
4
The lienholder fills this in
Owner's Name
Your name, as it appears on the title.
Watch out: If you have changed name since the loan was taken out, tell the lender before they type it. A mismatch here is a question at the counter.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Security Interest Holder's Name and address
The lender's name, street, city, state and zip.
Watch out: Loans get sold. If the name on the front of your title is not the institution you have been paying, the release has to come from whoever holds it now.
6
The lienholder fills this in
Date Cancelled
The date the security interest was actually discharged.
Watch out: This is the date the fifteen-day forfeiture clock is measured against, alongside your written request.
7
The lienholder fills this in
Signature of Authorized Representative, then the notary
The lender signs and the release is subscribed and sworn before a notary.
Watch out: That notary block is the whole point of the form. An unsworn letter is not the separate notarized release form or letter the statute allows.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
To County
Which county treasurer the release is addressed to.
Title Number and Security Interest Number
Two boxes identifying the certificate and the lien on it.
VIN
The vehicle. One box, full width.
Owner's Name
You - the person whose loan has been paid off.
Security Interest Holder's Name
The lender, on their own line.
Street, City, State, ZIP Code
The lender's address, in four boxes.
Date Cancelled
The date the security interest was discharged, which is not necessarily the date the form was typed.
Signature of Authorized Representative
A printed rule with no box behind it. Somebody at the lender signs it.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this ___ day of ___, Notary Public
The notary block at the foot. This is the notarised route s. 321.50(5)(a) allows as an alternative to signing the title itself.
What gets this one rejected
•A seller filling it in. Every entry describes the lender's own act of discharging their own lien, and the signature line says Authorized Representative.
•An unnotarised release. The statute's alternative route is a separate, notarized release form or letter, and this form's notary block is why it counts as one.
•Sending it and keeping the title. The form's own instructions tell the lender to note the cancellation on the face of the title and attach a copy of this release to it as evidence.
•Sending it to the wrong place. The instruction is to forward it to the Department or a County Treasurer's Office, and then to forward the title on to the next security interest holder, or to whoever the owner has designated, or to the owner.
•Assuming it releases a second lien. It names one security interest number. A vehicle with two lenders on it needs two releases.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The county does it free. s. 321.50(5)(a): the cancellation of the security interest shall be noted on the certificate of title by the county treasurer without charge.
•A lender who drags their feet forfeits $25. Same subsection: a holder of a security interest discharged by payment who fails to release it within fifteen days after being requested in writing to do so shall forfeit twenty-five dollars to the person making the payment. Put the request in writing and date it.
•Iowa has an electronic route as well. Under the state's Electronic Lien and Title programme a participating lender releases the lien by electronic message and the title may never have been printed at all. The paper release is for lenders who are not in the programme.
•Where the title goes next is not automatic. The order is set out in the statute and on the form: to the next secured party if there is one, otherwise to whoever the owner has directed in writing, otherwise to the owner. Form 411094 is that written direction.
•A foreign title can discharge it by implication. s. 321.50(5)(d): a security interest noted on an Iowa title is presumed discharged on presentation of a valid title later issued by another jurisdiction on which it no longer appears.
