How to fill out Michigan TR-210

Not the seller's form, and worth knowing about for exactly that reason. It is what a dealership uses when the finance a buyer was approved for falls through after delivery: the buyer authorises the dealer to assume the loan itself, and a corrected title is issued showing the dealership as the new secured interest. If you are searching for a Michigan lien form and land here, this is not the one.

Written against TR-210 (11/07), issued under MCL 257.238, under Public Act 300 of 1949. The reason a Michigan seller ends up reading about liens at all is that a financed Michigan vehicle has no paper title. The department holds it electronically and will not transfer it until the lender releases the lien, so the sequence is always: pay the lender, wait for the release, receive the paper certificate, then sell.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TR-210 from the michigan.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   Dealers only

   Vehicle information

   Year, make and VIN in the first box.

   Watch out: The only vehicle detail this form asks for. Everything else on it is about money.

2. 2
   Dealers only

   Vehicle Owner Shown on RD-108 Title Application

   The buyer's name and address, copied from the dealership's own title application.

   Watch out: Shown on RD-108 is doing the work in that heading. If there is no RD-108, this form has nothing to be consistent with.

3. 3
   Dealers only

   Secured Interest Shown on RD-108 Title Application

   The lender the buyer was originally approved by, with a date of original lien.

   Watch out: This is the lender that has just said no. It stays on the form because the department needs to know which interest is being replaced.

4. 4
   Dealers only

   Secured Interest To Be Assumed By

   The dealership taking the loan on itself, with its address.

   Watch out: A dealership financing its own sale is not the same thing as the dealership owning the car, and the corrected title still goes to the buyer.

5. 5
   Dealers only

   Date Lien Transferred

   The date the secured interest moves, in the last box of the dealership block.

   Watch out: It will be later than the date of original lien, and the gap between the two is how long the buyer spent believing they were financed elsewhere.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   Vehicle Purchaser's Signature

   The buyer signs, prints their name and dates it, under the authorisation paragraph.

   Watch out: Read the paragraph above it before signing. It authorises a dealership to become your lender, and it cites MCL 257.238 while doing so.

What gets this one rejected

• •A seller signing it. There is one signature line on the form and it belongs to the vehicle purchaser.
• •Sending it on its own. The instructions require a copy of the original RD-108 title application attached to it.
• •Filing it without the rejection notice. The lienholder shown on the RD-108 has to submit a Notice of Rejection of Vehicle Financing, form TR-209 - a separate document from a separate party.
• •Using it to release a lien. It moves a secured interest from one party to another; it does not remove one.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The corrected title goes to the owner, not the dealer. The last of the four bulleted instructions: a corrected title showing the dealer as the new secured interest will be mailed to the vehicle owner.
• •What a private seller actually needs instead. Michigan publishes no lien release form. The department accepts five things as a termination: the termination statement completed on the title itself, the lienholder's dated and signed paid stamp on the title, a separate signed lien termination statement carrying the VIN, a letter on the lienholder's letterhead listing the VIN and stating the lien is terminated, or the original finance contract marked or stamped paid and signed.

Every line here was read off TR-210 (11/07) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Michigan Department of State 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 Michigan seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Michigan involves.