The department's own release form, signed by the lender rather than by you. Vermont does not run an electronic lien system, so a paid-off loan leaves a certificate with a lienholder still printed on its face and nothing in the department's record to contradict it. This form, or a letter on the lender's letterhead, is what clears it - and the fee is the point most sellers miss: the release travels with the existing title and $42.00, because what the department is doing is issuing a fresh certificate without the lender's name on it.
Written against VT-008 (11/2023), issued under 23 V.S.A. s. 2045, release of security interest, declared under penalties of 23 V.S.A. s. 202, s. 203 and s. 3829.
The odometer block on this form is a real disclosure, not a formality - it carries the same three certifications as the title. Do not let a lender's back office write a rounded figure into it on a car whose reading you have already disclosed on a VT-005.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VT-008 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VT-008 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VT-008, rendered from the PDF the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Agency of Transportation 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
Rendered from the department's own PDF. Everything in the lower band is greyed because it belongs to the lender: the seller fills in the vehicle and the owners, and the release itself is somebody else's signature. The credit union is invented, nobody in this sample exists, and the VIN carries a correct check digit but identifies no vehicle.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Name (Owner/Lessee), and License #
Your name exactly as the certificate prints it, with your Vermont credential number.
Watch out: If the certificate carries a name you no longer use, fill in the previous-names box rather than writing today's name and hoping. The department matches this against the record it already holds.
2
You fill this in
The two address lines
Where you get mail and where you live, each with its own city, state and ZIP.
Watch out: The corrected certificate is posted to the mailing address. Getting it wrong on a document that only exists to produce a new title is an expensive kind of careless.
3
You fill this in
Rights of survivorship
One of five ticks, compulsory wherever two owners are named.
Watch out: It has to match what is already printed on the certificate. This form is not the place to change it - that is VT-019, and it costs a title fee.
4
You fill this in
Model Year, Make, Model, Body Type, Curb Weight
Five boxes describing the car, curb weight included.
Watch out: Curb weight is on the certificate and on the registration. It is not the towing capacity and it is not the gross weight.
5
You fill this in
Serial Number (VIN)
Seventeen characters, matching the certificate you are surrendering.
Watch out: This form and the certificate travel in the same envelope, so a mismatch is caught immediately - but it is caught in Montpelier, a week later.
6
You fill this in
Mileage, and its certification
The reading at the moment of release, in whole numbers, with one of three boxes ticked.
Watch out: Use the same figure you gave the buyer. Two different readings for one car in one month is exactly the pattern the department's brand codes exist to record.
7
The lienholder fills this in
Lienholder's Name, Date of Lien and Date of Release
The lender's own block: who held the security interest, when it was created and when it ended.
Watch out: The lien date has to match what is printed on the certificate. A lender's system sometimes carries the funding date instead, and the two can be days apart.
8
The lienholder fills this in
Job Title of Lienholder or Authorized Agent
A named role, beside the signature.
Watch out: A signature with no title is the most common reason a release comes back. It costs the lender ten seconds and it costs you two weeks.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Email and Phone
Contact details for the owner, at the head of the form rather than the foot.
Owner: Name (Owner/Lessee), License #
You, as the person named on the certificate, with your Vermont credential number.
Address where you get Mail, and Address where you live
Two separate lines with their own city, state and ZIP boxes. The department wants both where they differ.
If name has changed, list previous name(s), and Date of birth
A box that exists because a certificate issued before a marriage carries a name that no longer matches a licence.
Co-Owner: Name (Co-Owner/Lessor), and the same address block again
The second owner, where the certificate names one.
Rights of survivorship: Spouses, Joint Tenants, Tenants In Common, Partners (business), TOD
Five ticks under a heading in red reading Must Indicate Rights Of Survivorship. It is compulsory on a certificate in more than one name.
Model Year, Make, Model, Body Type, Curb Weight
The vehicle block. Curb weight is asked for here and not on most of the sibling forms.
Vessel Length (if boat), and Body/Hull Type (if boat)
Blank on a car, and the reason the fee on this form has two figures.
Serial Number (VIN)
Seventeen characters, matching the certificate being surrendered.
Mileage (No Tenths), with Miles, Km or Hours
The reading at the moment of release, with one of three units.
I certify that the odometer reading: three certifications
Reflects the actual mileage; reflects the amount of mileage in excess of its mechanical limits; or NOT the actual mileage - warning odometer discrepancy.
Lienholder's Name, Date of Lien, Date of Release
The lender, the date the security interest was created and the date it ended. Two dates, and the department reads them against its own record.
Lienholder's Address
In full. It is how the department matches the release to the lien printed on the certificate.
Job Title of Lienholder or Authorized Agent, and Signature
A job title as well as a signature, because the department is checking that whoever signed had authority to.
What gets this one rejected
•The form arriving without the certificate. Its own instruction is to complete this form and send the existing title to DMV with the fee.
•The wrong fee. It is $42.00 for a vehicle and $27.00 for a boat, ATV or snowmobile, and the form prints both figures so there is no excuse for guessing.
•A signature with no job title beside it. The department is checking authority, and an unnamed role is an unanswered question.
•The survivorship block left blank on a two-name certificate. The heading is printed in red and the department means it.
•An owner filling in the lienholder's half. Only the lienholder or an authorised agent can release a security interest, and a release signed by the borrower is worth nothing.
•A release sent in while the loan is still live. The department has no way to check a payoff and will simply issue a certificate that is wrong.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•A letter works just as well. The department's replacement-title page offers both routes: a lien release on this form, or one on the lien holder's letterhead including the make, model, year, vehicle identification number, the owner's name and the signature of the lien holder.
•Paired with a replacement application the fee does not double. Where this release is received along with an Application for Replacement Title, the form says the total fee is $42.00 for a vehicle and $27.00 for a vessel, ATV or snowmobile.
•Only the lienholder can apply for a replacement while the lien is live. VT-004's instructions say so directly, which is why a seller whose certificate has been lost by the lender cannot simply order a new one.
•Adding a lien is a different form. VT-019 creates a security interest and prints the lienholder onto a corrected certificate. This one only ever removes.
