South Carolina liens die of old age. A lien recorded on a certificate lasts twelve years from the original lien date and then stops, and this is the only way a lender extends one - two more years at a time, requested inside the last six months of the twelve. A seller meets it from the other side: it is the form that explains why a lender who has not been paid a cent since 2013 is still on the record and still has to sign the release.
Written against TI-003A (Rev 03/2024), issued under S.C. Code Ann. 56-19-265.
This is a lender's form and a seller cannot file it. It is here because it explains something sellers run into: a lien that looks decades dead may still be live on the record, and the only signature that clears it is the lienholder's.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TI-003A from the dmv.sc.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual TI-003A, rendered from the PDF the South Carolina 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
Filled in from the lender's side, because no other side can file it. The duplicate-title box is greyed here - the credit union already holds the certificate, which is why the lien is still on it - and the representative's signature rule carries no fillable box, so it stays as the SCDMV publishes it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The lienholder fills this in
Section A, the vehicle and the clock
VIN, current title number and the current lien date - the date the twelve years is counted from.
Watch out: The lien date on the certificate is the one that governs. A payoff schedule, a refinance date or the date the car was bought are all different numbers and none of them starts this clock.
2
The lienholder fills this in
Section B, the owner as the title has them
The owner's name from the title with the SCDMV customer number, and a co-owner if the certificate names one.
Watch out: Names change; the record does not follow on its own. If the owner has married or moved since the lien was recorded, the name here is still the one the certificate prints.
3
The lienholder fills this in
Section C, the lien holder
The institution's name, ELT customer number where it files electronically, a contact name and number, and a full address including county.
Watch out: An electronic lienholder has no paper certificate at all, which is why the ELT number is asked for first. Leaving it out on an ELT lender turns an automatic transaction into a manual one.
4
The lienholder fills this in
The duplicate title box
One tick, and $15.00 with it, where the lender wants a fresh certificate showing the continued lien.
Watch out: It is optional and it is a separate fee. Ticking it without enclosing the money is the single commonest way this form comes back.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Signed this ___ day of ___
The date written into the printed sentence, then the authorized representative's signature.
Watch out: No notary and no witness. South Carolina asks for a signature from somebody entitled to give it, and nothing more.
6
Somebody else fills this in
Section D is not yours
Date of receipt, the date the lien now runs until, and the SCDMV employee's signature.
Watch out: The extension runs from the Department's receipt rather than from the date on the form, so posting it late in the window shortens nothing but the margin for error.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The instruction at the head
Two sentences that are the whole of the form's logic: it must only be used to continue a lien that is going to expire within the next six months, and a lien expires 12 years from the original lien date.
Section A, title and vehicle information
Vehicle identification number, current title number and current lien date, in three cells across the page.
Section B, owner's information
The owner's name as it appears on the title with a customer number beside it, then a co-owner's name and customer number.
Section C, lien holder information
The lien holder's name, an ELT customer number where the lender files electronically, a contact name and contact number, then a full address row with a county cell.
The continuation sentence
A printed paragraph stating that the lien of record is continued for an additional two years from receipt of this request by the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles.
The duplicate title box
One tick box reading that a duplicate title is requested with $15.00 enclosed.
Execution
Signed this ___ day of ___, 20__, then a rule for the authorized representative of the financial institution.
Section D, for SCDMV use only
Date of receipt, the date the lien is continued until, and the employee's signature.
What gets this one rejected
•Sent by the vehicle's owner. The paragraph on the form is written from the lender's side - the financial institution of record wishes to continue the lien - and the signature rule is for its authorized representative.
•Sent more than six months before expiry. The instruction limits it to a lien going to expire within the next six months, and an early request is not banked.
•Sent after the lien has already lapsed. There is nothing left to continue and the route is a fresh lien rather than a continuation.
•A current lien date that does not match the certificate. The two-year extension runs from the Department's receipt of the request, but the twelve-year clock it is extending is the one printed on the title.
•The duplicate title box ticked with no fee. It carries its own $15.00 and the form says so on the same line.
•Posted to the general titles box. This one has its own suffix, 29016-0051, printed at the head of the form.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Two years, not another twelve. The continuation is for an additional two years from receipt. A lender that wants longer files again.
•The release is still on the face of the certificate. South Carolina publishes no lien release form because there is nothing to publish - the 1ST LIEN RELEASED line, a date and an authorized agent's signature are printed on the front of the title itself.
Every line here was read off TI-003A (Rev 03/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the South Carolina 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.
