How to fill out North Dakota SFN 2876

North Dakota releases a lien on the front of the certificate itself - there is a band printed under the legal owner's block with a lienholder name, an agent's signature and a date, and NDDOT washes it green on its own sample title. This form does the same job on a separate sheet, for when the certificate is not available to be written on or the lender prefers its own paper. The Registration Manual makes the release a precondition of the transfer in one line: all liens, if any, on the front of the certificate of title must be released. It also decides where a duplicate title is posted - if the record shows a lien, the certificate goes to the lienholder unless this release is provided.

Written against SFN 2876 (4-2026), issued under North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division; the lien release the Registration Manual requires before a title transfer under NDCC 39-05. The most common way this goes wrong is not the form at all - it is the assumption that a loan settled years ago has come off the record. It has not necessarily. The department says so in as many words on its duplicate application, and a seller who discovers a live lien on the day of sale is looking at the lender's turnaround time, not at a counter transaction. Request a copy of your title record before listing the car.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SFN 2876 from the dot.nd.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SFN 2876 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank SFN 2876 — Release of Lien by Legal Owner PDF at dot.nd.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in SFN 2876 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual SFN 2876, rendered from the PDF the North Dakota 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

A completed North Dakota SFN 2876, Release of Lien by Legal Owner. The registered owner block names Marlys J. Thorsrud of 1427 Chestnut St, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58201. The vehicle rows show a 2017 Chevrolet Equinox LT, 4-Door SUV, with its vehicle identification number and title number. The lien holder name reads Red River State Bank and the lien holder signature line is signed by Jorunn A. Bakken. The Acknowledgement block below, with the state, county, sworn date, notary name, stamp area, notary signature and commission expiration date, is shaded grey. — The seller identifies the vehicle and the owner; the lender does the rest. The whole acknowledgement block is grey because a notary completes every line of it - which is why no invented commission appears here. The owner, the bank, its agent and the identification number were all invented here.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Registered Owner(s), and the address under it
Your name exactly as the face of the certificate has it, with your mailing address, city, state and ZIP.
Watch out: If the title names two owners, both go here. The release is being made to the registered owner, and the department matches that against its record.
2
You fill this in
Year, Make, Model, Style
The vehicle description row, copied from the certificate.
Watch out: Style is the body style as the certificate states it. Copying it from a sales brochure instead is a small mismatch that still gets noticed.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number and Title Number
The two entries that tie this release to a specific record rather than to a description.
Watch out: The title number is on the face of the certificate. If you cannot find your certificate at all, the lien is probably why - the department mails a liened title to the lienholder.
4
The lienholder fills this in
Lien Holder Name
The lender's name, entered by the lender.
Watch out: It should match the lienholder printed on the face of your certificate. Banks merge and rename; where the two differ the lender needs to say so in its own paperwork.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Lien Holder Signature
The authorised agent signs, and the label tells them where: before a Notary Public or Authorized Officer.
Watch out: This is the whole reason the form takes time. A signature obtained in the branch and posted to you unwitnessed is not a release the department can act on.
6
Somebody else fills this in
The Acknowledgement block
The state and county, the day the oath was taken, the officer's printed name and stamp, their signature, and a commission expiry where the stamp omits it.
Watch out: Not one line of this is yours or the lender's to complete - it belongs to the officer taking the acknowledgement. A form arriving with a stamp but no signature is incomplete.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Registered Owner(s)	You, as the certificate names you, with a mailing address, city, state and ZIP code beneath.
Vehicle description	Year, make, model and style on one row; vehicle identification number and title number on the next.
Lien Holder Name	The lender, written by the lender.
Lien Holder Signature	The signature line, and its label carries the instruction that governs the whole form: sign before a Notary Public or Authorized Officer.
The statement itself	Printed in the box beside the signature. The undersigned, lien holder of the motor vehicle described herein, does hereby state that the lien and encumbrance described was released and discharged, and the certificate of title has been delivered to the registered owner of said vehicle on the date of release.
Acknowledgement	State of, County of, and the line reading signed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this day, with the month, day and year.
The notary's own block	Name of Notary Public or other Authorized Officer typed or printed, a space to affix the notary stamp, the officer's signature, and a commission expiration date if it is not listed on the stamp.

What gets this one rejected

•Filling in the lienholder's half yourself. The name and the signature belong to the lender, and the statement above them is the lender's declaration that the debt was discharged and the certificate handed back.
•A signature with no acknowledgement. The signature label sends the signer to a Notary Public or Authorized Officer, and the Acknowledgement block below is where that officer records it.
•An owner block that does not match the face of the title. The department reads this sheet against the certificate, and Registered Owner means the name printed on it, not a shortened version.
•A missing title number. Year, make, model and style identify the car; the VIN and title number identify the record, and the release attaches to the record.
•Sending it in instead of the lien release printed on the certificate. Where the certificate is in your hands with an empty lien release band on its face, that band is the simpler route - this form is the alternative, not the default.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•A paid-off loan does not clear itself. The department's own warning, printed on the duplicate credentials application, is that even if a loan has been paid off for several years, liens may remain on record if the title was not submitted as required with the appropriate fee to remove the lien. Check the record before you advertise the car, not after.
•It decides who receives a duplicate title. The Registration Manual's duplicate section is explicit: where the division's record shows a lien, the certificate of title must be mailed to the lien holder unless a lien release is provided. This is that release.
•The notary belongs to the lender, never to you. Nothing a North Dakota seller signs in an ordinary sale is notarised. The acknowledgement on this form is taken on the lienholder's agent's signature, at the lender's expense and in the lender's own time.
•Ask for it in writing early. A lender's release goes through its title department rather than the branch you bank at, and the certificate itself may be sitting in another state. Two weeks is a normal wait and it is not one you can compress on the day a buyer arrives.

Every line here was read off SFN 2876 (4-2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division 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 North Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in North Dakota involves.

How to fill out North Dakota SFN 2876

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Registered Owner(s), and the address under it

Year, Make, Model, Style

Vehicle Identification Number and Title Number

Lien Holder Name

Lien Holder Signature

The Acknowledgement block

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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