How to fill out Montana MV81A

The form that moves a security interest from one lender to another without touching who owns the car - a loan sold on, a credit union merged, a servicing book transferred. It matters to a seller for a reason its title does not advertise: the manual also names it as the forced-title route. Where a buyer has let the forty days run out, MCA 61-3-220(4) lets the secured party pay the title and lien fees itself and have a title issued, and this is the form it submits. The purchaser's signature is not required in the title application section when that happens.

Written against MV81A (7/26), issued under MCA 61-3-111 and 61-3-220(4); filed with the Vehicle Services Bureau. If you are the seller and your buyer has gone quiet past day forty, this form is what their lender may use next - and the title that results is issued to the buyer, not to you. It closes the record either way, but it happens on the lender's timetable rather than yours, which is worth knowing before you decide to wait it out.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV81A from the mvdmt.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV81A 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

   Section 2: the vehicle and its title number

   Year, make, model, Montana title number and VIN.

   Watch out: Everything on this form hangs off the title number. It is the field to check against the certificate rather than against a loan file.

2. 2
   The lienholder fills this in

   Section 3: the borrower, unchanged

   Both borrowers by legal name and identification number, with contact details for the first.

   Watch out: If the borrower has genuinely changed, this is the wrong form - an assignment moves the lender's side only.

3. 3
   The lienholder fills this in

   Section 4: the assignor

   The lender giving up the interest, by legal name and identification or ELT number.

   Watch out: Where more than one party holds the interest, every name goes on the additional assignors row. A partial list is an assignment nobody can rely on.

4. 4
   The lienholder fills this in

   Section 4: the assignee

   The lender taking it on, with its identification or ELT number and full mailing address.

   Watch out: The assignee is who a release will have to come from afterwards. If you are the owner, this is the name that matters when you eventually pay the loan off.

5. 5
   The lienholder fills this in

   Section 5: both lenders sign

   Assignor and assignee signatures with dates, each certifying authority to sign for its own business.

   Watch out: One signature is not an assignment. The department is recording a transfer between two parties, and both have to say it happened.

What gets this one rejected

• •One signature. Both the assignor and the assignee sign, and each certifies its own authority to sign for the business named.
• •A co-holder left off. The form's own instruction on the additional rows is that if the security interest is held by more than one person, names must be listed.
• •A borrower identification number omitted. Both borrower fields are marked required, as they are on the MV81B.
• •The wrong title number. The department attaches the assignment to a record; a title number from a certificate that has since been replaced points at a voided document.
• •No fee. The $8.24 must accompany this form to be processed.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It moves the interest, not the ownership. Nothing on this form changes the borrower or the registered owner. It is the lender's side of the record being rewritten.
• •It is also the forced-title form. The manual: if an applicant does not apply for a title within 40 days of purchase, a secured party or lienholder may pay title and lien fees to have a title issued, and must submit form MV81A. The secured party is not subject to the late penalty the statute imposes on the transferee.
• •The purchaser's signature can be dispensed with. In that forced-title situation the manual allows the title to issue without the purchaser signing the application section, provided a signed copy of the MV81B accompanies it.
• •The title gets redirected to the counter. The manual's own instruction for a forced title: put a line through the applicant's address so as not to obliterate it, change it to in care of the county treasurer, and the title is held there until the person registers the vehicle.
• •An assignment is not a release. Nothing here removes an interest. A release is a separate document from the lender named on the face, and the division accepts a lien release form, the generic MV37A, or a release on the lender's letterhead.

What it costs

Every line here was read off MV81A (7/26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Montana Department of Justice, Motor Vehicle Division, Vehicle Services Bureau 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 Montana seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Montana involves.