What gets used when the lien release cannot be found. The Notice of Recorded Lien is the document a lender endorses to prove your loan is paid, it is not downloadable, and if the paper copy has been lost or the electronic filing never arrived, this is the request that produces another one.
Written against MV-901.1 (3/23), issued under the NYS DMV Title Bureau's lien records procedure.
Start this one early. It is a posted request, processed in the order received, and it sits between you and a sale you may already have agreed - which is a bad place for a document you cannot chase.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV-901.1 from the dmv.ny.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV-901.1 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MV-901.1, 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
Completed the way a credit union would when a borrower reports the release missing. Note how little of it is about the borrower - one line - which is the clearest possible signal about whose request this is.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The lienholder fills this in
Lienholder code
The filing code the DMV assigned to the lender, in the first box on the form.
Watch out: If your lender cannot find its own code, that is the conversation to have before anything is posted. Nothing else on the form identifies the institution to the Title Bureau.
2
You fill this in
Borrower / vehicle owner
Your name, on the single line that concerns you.
Watch out: Give the lender the name exactly as the certificate has it. The lien was recorded against that spelling and the duplicate is being matched to it.
3
The lienholder fills this in
Which vehicle the lien is against
Identification number, year and make, in three cells across the middle of the form.
Watch out: Read it off your certificate and pass it on rather than letting the lender pull it from an old loan record. Loan systems and title records drift apart over ten years.
4
The lienholder fills this in
Reason for ordering
Paper copy lost, or the electronic filing was never received.
Watch out: The second box is the one that catches people whose loan was filed through the electronic lien transfer programme and who have never held a paper release at all.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Lienholder code
The filing code the DMV assigned the lender. The whole form is addressed from the lienholder's side, not the borrower's.
Lienholder name and address
Name, address, state and ZIP of the institution asking for the duplicate.
Borrower / vehicle owner
You. One line, and it is the only line on the form that is about you rather than about the lender.
Vehicle identification number, then year and make
Three cells identifying which lien is being replaced.
Reason for ordering duplicate
Two boxes, and only two: paper Notice of Recorded Lien lost, or never received electronic filing.
The fee and the address
Ten dollars by check or money order payable to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, posted to the Title Bureau at Empire State Plaza in Albany.
What gets this one rejected
•A borrower filing it in their own name. The form asks for a lienholder code before it asks for anything else - it is the lender's request, and the lender is who the duplicate is sent to.
•An incomplete form. The first instruction is to complete all fields below.
•Cash. The fee is $10 by check or money order payable to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles.
•Expecting it back by return. The form's own note is that requests are processed in the order they are received.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•What to ask your lender for. Not this form by name - ask for the lien release. The DMV describes it as a Notice of Recorded Lien marked and endorsed by the lender proving payment, or a letter on the lender's stationery naming the borrower and the vehicle by make, year and identification number, certifying the date of full payment and release of the security interest, signed by an officer of the lending institution.
•Only the original will do. The department accepts only the signed, original release. A scan, an emailed PDF and a photocopy are all refusals, and finding that out at the counter with a buyer waiting is the expensive version.
Every line here was read off MV-901.1 (3/23) 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.
