How to fill out South Dakota Form 1501

A lender's form, listed here for what it refuses. When a South Dakota seller asks a lender to send the paper title so the car can be sold, this is the sheet the lender would have to file - and the department has printed the answer on it in advance. Under the heading noting that paper title requests will not be approved for the following reasons, the first two are the seller's exact request: selling vehicle, because a lien release must be submitted to the county treasurer when a vehicle is sold or traded; and loan payoff, because a lien release must be submitted to the county treasurer. The route out of an electronic title before a sale is the release, not a printed certificate.

Written against Form 1501 (no revision printed), issued under South Dakota Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, submitted by a non-participating lender under the electronic title exceptions in SDCL 32-3-70. If a lender tells a South Dakota seller that they have requested the paper title so the sale can go ahead, that is worth a second question. The department has published, on the lender's own form, that it will not approve a paper-title request made because the vehicle is being sold or the loan is being paid off. What both of those situations need is a lien release - electronic through the lender's provider, or on Form 1503 - after which the department prints the certificate and mails it to the owner without anybody requesting anything.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 1501 from the sddor.seamlessdocs.com copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Form 1501 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank Form 1501 — Lender Paper Title Request PDF at sddor.seamlessdocs.com · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in Form 1501 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual Form 1501, rendered from the PDF the South Dakota Department of Revenue, 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 South Dakota Lender Paper Title Request, Form 1501. The vehicle and owner block names Marlene D. Tschetter with a title number and vehicle identification number. The title mailing block carries Big Sioux Valley Credit Union's Brookings address. Under the request reason, the Court Order box is ticked. The lender name, the unsworn declaration dated at Brookings, South Dakota, and the agent's name, email and phone are completed, and the department-use block at the foot is shaded grey. — Completed with a court order as the reason, because that is one the department will approve. The two reasons a seller would reach for - selling the vehicle and paying off the loan - are printed on this form as reasons it will be refused, which is the whole point of showing it. The department-use block is washed grey: nothing in it belongs to the filer.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The lienholder fills this in
Owner, title number and VIN
The record the request attaches to, taken from the department's own title record rather than from the loan file.
Watch out: The lender has to be shown on that record. A servicer that bought the loan and never had the lien reassigned cannot file this.
2
The lienholder fills this in
Where the title should be mailed
Name and address for the printed certificate. On a lender's request that is normally the lender's own title department.
Watch out: This is not the owner's address by default, which is the difference between this form and the lien release - there the title goes to the owner unless the lender says otherwise.
3
The lienholder fills this in
One of the five reasons
Moving to another state, insurance claim or total loss, court order, a name change or an owner being added or deleted, or Other with the department's approval.
Watch out: Read the note beneath before ticking anything. Selling the vehicle, a loan payoff, a repossession and simply not participating in the system are all listed as reasons a request will be refused.
4
The lienholder fills this in
Lender name and the declaration
The institution, then the day, month, city and state of signing under penalty of perjury.
Watch out: The declaration is the lender's, not the owner's. An owner who needs a printed title in their own right files Form 1504 instead.
5
The lienholder fills this in
Agent name, email and phone
A named person at the lender, with contact details the department can use before it denies the request.
Watch out: The department-use block underneath prints a denial reason line. A request with no reachable contact gets denied rather than queried.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Vehicle Owner(s)	The owner as the title record holds them. The form notes that lenders requesting a paper title must be shown on the vehicle's title record.
Title Number, VIN/HIN	The record the request attaches to.
Title Mailing Information - Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code	Where the printed title should be sent, which on a lender's request is usually the lender.
Request Reason - five ticks	Moving to Another State; Insurance Claim/Total Loss; Court Order; Name Change, Addition or Deletion of an Owner; and Other, which must be approved by the Motor Vehicle Division.
Lender Name	The requesting institution.
Unsworn Declaration - day, month, city, state	The same declaration under penalty of perjury that runs through the department's forms.
Agent Name, Agent Signature, Email Address, Phone	The individual filing for the lender, with contact details.
For Department Use Only	Approved or Denied, the date reviewed, an MVD agent signature and a denial reason.

What gets this one rejected

•Selling the vehicle. The form names it as a reason a request will not be approved, and points to the lien release instead.
•A loan payoff. Also named, with the same answer - the release goes to the county treasurer.
•A repossession. The form directs lenders to apply for a repossession title through South Dakota rather than asking for the existing one to be printed.
•A lender that does not participate in the Electronic Lien & Title system asking for a title in order to see its lien. The form points those lenders to the state's online portal to check the status of their lien.
•A lender not shown on the vehicle's title record. The instruction limits the request to lenders that appear on it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is for non-participating lenders only. The instruction: this request can only be completed by lenders that do not use a provider.
•It is emailed or posted, not filed at a county. The department gives an address for it - the Motor Vehicle Division's electronic lien and title mailbox, or the Pierre office by post.
•The refusal list is the useful part. Four reasons are printed as not approvable, and two of them are the reasons a seller would ask.
•It prints a title with the lien still on it. The heading says so: to print a paper title with the lien noted on the title. It does not release anything.

Every line here was read off Form 1501 (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the South Dakota Department of Revenue, 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 South Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in South Dakota involves.

How to fill out South Dakota Form 1501

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Owner, title number and VIN

Where the title should be mailed

One of the five reasons

Lender name and the declaration

Agent name, email and phone

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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