The instruction that lets a buyer's money reach your lender and the certificate come back released. It is signed by you as the owner but issued and countersigned by a Vermont dealer or an insurance company, which is why it is not a form to download and post on your own - it exists for the case where somebody else is handling the payoff. Read it anyway, because its middle sentence is the exact wording your own lender needs to hear before it will release paper to a stranger.
Written against VT-023 (11/2023), issued under 23 V.S.A. s. 2045 and s. 2046, lienholder's duties on release, certified under penalties of 23 V.S.A. s. 202, s. 203, s. 2082, s. 2083, s. 3829 and s. 3830.
Because a dealer or an insurance company issues this, the copy you are handed may be pre-filled with their details and a payoff figure quoted on a particular day. Check the figure and the date before you sign, not afterwards.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VT-023 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VT-023 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VT-023, 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. The band at the foot is greyed because it is not yours - a dealer or insurance company issues this form and countersigns it, and a private seller who posts it unsigned by either has sent a letter to nobody. The dealership is invented and nobody in this sample exists.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Owner's Name and Co-Owner's Name
Both owners, with their own address blocks beneath.
Watch out: Use the names the lender has on the loan, not the ones on the title, if by some accident they differ. This form is read by the lender first.
2
You fill this in
Name of Purchaser and Address of Purchaser
The person or dealership the certificate is to be surrendered to.
Watch out: This is the whole point of the form. A lender that cannot identify the purchaser will post the certificate to you instead, three weeks later.
3
You fill this in
Make, Model, Model Year, Body/Hull Style
Four boxes describing the car as the certificate describes it.
Watch out: Body style is the department's word for it, not the manufacturer's trim name. Wagon rather than Premium.
4
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number and Title Number
Seventeen characters, and the number printed on the certificate the lender is holding.
Watch out: If you cannot find the title number because the lender has the certificate, it is also noted on the face of your registration.
5
You fill this in
The payoff amount
The full balance due on the account, written into the sentence rather than into a labelled box.
Watch out: Ask for a per-diem figure as well as a payoff quote. A ten-day quote that expires on a Friday is how a Saturday completion falls apart.
6
You fill this in
The salvage, rebuilt or totalled ticks
Three boxes, completed only if any of them applies.
Watch out: A branded car still has to be disclosed to the purchaser orally and in writing. A lender's paperwork does not do that job for you.
7
You fill this in
Owner's and Co-owner's signatures
Both, with dates, under a certification made under six statutory sections.
Watch out: Read the payoff figure once more immediately above your pen. It is the number the lender will act on and the number the buyer will hand over.
8
Dealers only
Dealer/insurance company name and authorised agent's signature
The countersignature that turns this into a three-party instruction.
Watch out: If nobody is going to countersign it because there is no dealer involved, do not use this form at all. Write to your lender with the same sentence and get a payoff letter back.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Owner's Name and Co-Owner's Name
Both, where the certificate carries two, with their mailing addresses beneath.
A full contact block for each owner, because the lender may need to reach either of them.
Name of Purchaser and Address of Purchaser
The buyer, or the dealer taking the car in. This is who the lender is being told to surrender the certificate to.
Make, Model, Model Year, Body/Hull Style, Vessel Length
The vehicle block, in the same order as VT-017.
Vehicle/Vessel/ATV/Snowmobile Identification Number (VIN), and Title Number
The certificate being talked about, identified twice over.
the amount of $______, being the full balance due on my/our account
The payoff figure, written into a sentence rather than into a labelled box.
upon receipt and acceptance of the above amount you are instructed to surrender to said purchaser the Certificate of Title
The operative instruction - properly released and endorsed, in the form's own words.
To be completed only if the vehicle is salvage, salvaged and rebuilt or totaled
Three ticks, the same three as on VT-005, because a payoff on a branded car is still a disclosure event.
Owner's signature and Co-owner's signature, with dates
Both, under a certification made under six separate statutory sections.
Dealer/insurance company name, and Signature (authorized agent of dealer/insurance company), with date
The countersignature that makes this a three-party instruction rather than a letter.
What gets this one rejected
•A private seller sending this in on their own. There is a dealer or insurance company signature block at the foot and the form is not complete without it.
•A payoff figure that has gone stale. Interest accrues daily and a lender will refuse a figure that no longer clears the account.
•One owner's signature where the certificate names two. Both owners are surrendering a certificate; both have to authorise it.
•The purchaser's block left vague. The lender is being told who to hand a certificate of title to, and it will not act on an incomplete name.
•The salvage ticks skipped on a branded vehicle. Section 2093 does not stop applying because a lender is involved.
•A title number left blank where one exists. It is the fastest way for the lender's back office to find the right file, and its absence is a week.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is an instruction to a lender, not an application to the department. Nothing here asks the DMV to do anything. It tells a lienholder what to do when a specific sum arrives.
•The wording is the useful part. "Surrender to said purchaser the Certificate of Title to said motor vehicle, properly released and endorsed" is the sentence to put in your own letter if you are handling a payoff yourself.
•Only a lienholder can release. Section 2045 puts the duty on the lienholder. A seller cannot release their own lien and no wording on any form changes that.
•A dealer with a stubborn lienholder has a form of its own. VD-168, the Release of Security Interest Complaint, exists for dealers to ask the department for help where a lienholder has not released. It is not open to a private seller.
