How to fill out New York MV-900

The form that put the lender's name on your certificate in the first place. It is not a seller's form and you cannot use it to remove anything - it is here because it is what a seller finds when they search for how a New York lien works, and because understanding it explains why the document you actually need looks nothing like it.

Written against MV-900 (12/24), issued under the Uniform Motor Vehicle Certificate of Title Act, title X article 46 of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law. Check your certificate for a lienholder block before you advertise the car, not after a buyer asks. A loan paid off years ago stays printed on the record until somebody produces the release, and the lender is the only place that document can come from.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV-900 from the dmv.ny.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV-900 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank MV-900 — Notice of Lien PDF at dmv.ny.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in MV-900 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual MV-900, rendered from the PDF the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles 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

A New York MV-900 Notice of Lien completed by a credit union: a 2015 Nissan Rogue with identification number 5N1AT2MV6FC812743 and plate JHR-4820, the vehicle box ticked, borrower Havemeyer Rosalind T. of Kingston, a lien filing code, the lienholder Rondout Valley Federal Credit Union, a security agreement dated 14 March 2019, and the no box ticked against whether a certificate has been issued to the borrower. — Filled in as the lender would have completed it when the loan was written - which is what a seller is looking at when a name appears in the lienholder block of their certificate. Amber is what gets entered; the grey blocks are the ones this transaction does not use.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The lienholder fills this in
Identification number and vehicle
The identification number, year, make and body type, with the borrower's plate number if there is one.
Watch out: Check this against your own certificate if a lien you do not recognise appears on it. The DMV's advice for a lienholder unknown to you is to contact a DMV contact centre rather than to assume it is an error.
2
The lienholder fills this in
Owner information
Your name and licence number as the borrower, and the mailing address the new certificate will be posted to.
Watch out: The name has to match the certificate exactly. This is why a lien sometimes fails to record against a title held in a slightly different version of the same name.
3
You fill this in
Owner's statement and signature
The borrower signs to acknowledge that the lienholder is sending the notice in and that any existing certificate went with it.
Watch out: It must be an original signature, and if a power of attorney is used a copy of it has to be attached. This is the one line on the form the borrower actually completes.
4
The lienholder fills this in
Lien information
The filing code the DMV assigned the lender, the lienholder name and address, the lienholder's signature and the date of the security agreement.
Watch out: The lienholder's signature may be a facsimile stamp - which is worth knowing, because the release you will later be handed may not look hand-signed either.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Has a certificate been issued to this borrower?
Yes or no. If yes, the existing certificate is attached and goes to Albany.
Watch out: This is why a car financed after purchase disappears for a few weeks: the certificate physically travels to the Title Bureau and comes back reprinted with the lender on it.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The typing rule	Across the head: all information except the signature must be typed, and if information is not legible, is incorrect, or not complete, the lien is NOT recorded.
Vehicle, boat or manufactured home information	Identification number, year, make, body type or hull, and the borrower's registration or plate number if there is one, then four boxes for what the thing actually is.
Owner information	The borrower. Name, licence or non-driver identification card number, co-owner if there is one, and the current mailing address - with a box to tick if that address is new since the last title was issued.
The name-matching rule	A note in the middle of the form: the lien is recorded only if the name listed as owner is exactly the same as the owner recorded, or to be recorded, on the certificate of title.
Owner's statement	The borrower acknowledges that the lienholder sends the notice to the DMV, that any title already issued was given to the lienholder to send in with it, and that a new certificate showing the lienholder's name will be posted to them.
Lien information	The lien filing code the DMV assigned to the lender, the lienholder's name and mailing address, the lienholder's signature - which may be an original or a facsimile stamp - and the date of the security agreement.
Has a certificate of title been issued to this borrower?	Yes or no, with the instruction that if yes, the title is attached and goes to Albany with the form.

What gets this one rejected

•A seller sending it in. It is filed by the lienholder, with the $5 fee paid by the lienholder, and the form says the lien fee cannot be paid by the owner.
•Handwriting anything but the signatures. The instruction is that all information except signature must be typed, and illegible information means the lien is simply not recorded.
•A name that does not match the certificate exactly. That is the single condition the form states for recording at all.
•Using it to remove a lien. Nothing on this form releases anything - it is the filing document, and the release is a different piece of paper entirely.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•The document you are actually looking for. When the loan is paid off the lienholder sends the borrower a lien release. Usually that is the Notice of Recorded Lien the DMV issued - marked and endorsed by the lender - or a letter on the lender's stationery identifying the borrower and the vehicle by make, year and identification number, certifying the date of full payment and signed by an officer. Only the signed original is accepted.
•You do not have to clear the certificate before selling. The DMV's position is that you are not required to get a clear title after the lien has been satisfied. Keep the original release, attach it to your certificate, and give it to the purchaser when you transfer ownership.
•And you may sell with the lien still open. The department's guide for lenders says the Vehicle and Traffic Law allows owners to sell with open liens, and that the open lien carries forward onto the new owner's certificate. The debt does not travel with it - the lienholder keeps its recourse against whoever signed the contract, and can repossess from the new owner.

Every line here was read off MV-900 (12/24) itself — the PDF is here — and off the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles 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 New York seller paperwork, or what selling a car in New York involves.

How to fill out New York MV-900

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Identification number and vehicle

Owner information

Owner's statement and signature

Lien information

Has a certificate been issued to this borrower?

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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