Contents
What retention of title on a car is
How to know if your car has retention of title
What having retention of title means: what you can and cannot do
How to cancel retention of title step by step
How much it costs to cancel retention of title
How long it takes for retention of title to be lifted
What happens if you have already paid the finance but the retention is still active
Consequences of selling a car with an active retention of title
Special cases: inheritances, renting and leasing
Frequently asked questions
If you financed your car, it is very likely to have a retention of title recorded with the DGT. And if you're thinking of selling it, this encumbrance is the first thing you need to sort out, because while it is active, the transfer of ownership is blocked.
Retention of title is one of the concepts that causes the most confusion among owners of financed cars. Many people do not realise they have it, do not know how to check it, and when they want to sell, they discover they cannot complete the transaction until it is cancelled.
In this article we explain everything you need to know about retention of title: what it is, how it affects you in practice, how to cancel it and how much it is going to cost you.
What retention of title on a car is
Retention of title is a clause that the finance company includes in the contract when you buy a car with finance. Through this clause, the finance company retains ownership of the vehicle until you have repaid the loan in full.
In practice, this means that although you are shown as the car's registered keeper with the DGT, you drive it, pay the insurance and the taxes, the finance company keeps a right over the vehicle that allows it to recover it if you stop paying. It is a guarantee for the finance company, similar to what happens with a mortgage on a house.
Retention of title is recorded in two registers. On the one hand, in the DGT Vehicle Register, where it appears as an encumbrance or annotation against the vehicle. On the other, in the Register of Movable Property for the corresponding province, which is the official register showing the legal title.
It is important not to confuse retention of title with a seizure order. A seizure order is a judicial or administrative hold for an unpaid debt. Retention of title is a contractual guarantee agreed voluntarily when signing the finance agreement. The former is a problem; the latter is simply a formality that is resolved when you finish paying.
How to know if your car has retention of title
Before trying to sell your car or start any procedure, the first thing is to confirm whether it actually has retention of title. Not all finance agreements include it: some personal loans not linked to the vehicle do not create this encumbrance.
There are four ways to check.
DGT online office. With a digital certificate, electronic ID or Cl@ve, you can access your vehicle report at sede.dgt.gob.es. That report shows all active encumbrances and annotations, including retention of title. It is free and the most direct source.
Official extract from the Register of Movable Property. You can request it in the province where the car is registered. The extract contains the full registry information, including the finance company that has the retention recorded. The cost is about 5 euros.
Your finance agreement. The contract you signed with the finance company should state whether retention of title was established. Check it or contact the company directly to confirm.
Vehicle history report. Services such as CARFAX or Carvertical include the vehicle's registry status in their reports. They are paid services (between 10 and 30 euros), but they also provide additional information such as accident history, changes of owner and recorded mileage.
The recommendation is clear: check the situation before taking any step. Discovering the retention of title when you already have a buyer waiting is the surest way to lose the deal and waste your time.
In addition to checking the retention, make sure you have all the paperwork ready. See the documents needed to sell a car.
What having retention of title means: what you can and cannot do
While retention of title is active, you can use your car as normal in day-to-day life. You can drive it, insure it, pass the MOT and pay the taxes. The retention does not affect the vehicle's everyday use.
What you cannot do is dispose of the car as the full owner. Specifically, retention of title prevents you from carrying out the following actions.
Sell or transfer the car. The DGT will reject the change of ownership while an active encumbrance exists. The buyer will not be able to register it in their name.
Take the vehicle off the road. You cannot request a permanent or temporary deregistration without the finance company's consent.
Use the car as security for another loan. You cannot offer the vehicle as collateral for another finance agreement if it already has retention of title.
In practice, the limitation that affects private owners most is the inability to sell. Everything else (driving, using, maintaining) works normally.
If your car is free of retention, the selling process follows the usual steps for selling a car in Spain.
How to cancel retention of title step by step
Cancelling retention of title is a straightforward procedure, but it requires following the steps in order and waiting for each body to complete its deadlines. This is the full process.
Step 1: Settle the debt with the finance company. If you are still paying instalments, you need to repay the loan early. Contact the finance company and ask for the exact early settlement amount, which includes the outstanding principal plus any fees. By law, the early settlement fee is capped at 1% of the outstanding principal (or 0.5% if there are fewer than 12 months left on the loan).
If you have already finished paying all the instalments, go straight to step 2.
Step 2: Request the cancellation letter from the finance company. Once the debt has been settled, the finance company must issue a document certifying that the credit has been paid in full. This document is known as a "release of encumbrances letter" or "cancellation certificate". The finance company has a legal deadline of 15 days to issue it, although many do so in less than a week.
Step 3: Request an official extract from the Register of Movable Property. Go to the Register of Movable Property in the province where your car is registered and request an updated official extract. This confirms the vehicle's registry status and serves as the starting point for the cancellation.
Step 4: Submit the cancellation letter to the Register of Movable Property. With the finance company's release of encumbrances letter, request the cancellation of the retention of title at the Register. The Register will process the cancellation and issue a new official extract without the encumbrance.
Step 5: Check the removal at the DGT. Once the retention has been cancelled at the Register of Movable Property, the DGT updates the vehicle information. You can check it in the online office. When the encumbrance has disappeared from the DGT register, the car will be clear and you will be able to sell or transfer it without restrictions.
If the process seems tedious, many agencies will handle all these steps for you for a fixed price, usually between 80 and 120 euros.
Once the vehicle is free of encumbrances, you can sell your car without restrictions. If your finance agreement is still active, see our full guide on how to sell a financed car.
How much it costs to cancel retention of title
The total cost has several components, but in no case is it high apart from the actual outstanding debt, if there is one.
Early repayment fee for the loan. This only applies if you cancel before paying all the instalments. By law it is capped at 1% of the outstanding principal (or 0.5% if there are fewer than 12 months left). For a loan with 5,000 euros outstanding, the maximum fee would be 50 euros.
Official extract from the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 5 euros.
Cancellation fee at the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 10 euros.
Agency fees (optional). If you outsource the process, between 80 and 120 euros for the whole procedure.
In total, excluding the debt itself, the administrative costs are between 15 euros (if you do it yourself) and 130 euros (if you use an agency). It is a small cost compared with the value of the car and with what you lose if you cannot sell it.
How long it takes for retention of title to be lifted
The timing depends on how quickly the finance company and the Register of Movable Property work.
Issue of the cancellation letter by the finance company. Legal deadline of 15 days, although many companies do it in 3-7 days.
Processing at the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 15 working days under normal conditions.
Update at the DGT. Once the retention has been cancelled at the Register, the DGT usually updates the information within a few days.
In total, the full process can take between 2 and 5 weeks through the standard route. If you need it faster, some specialist agencies can reduce the time to 48-72 hours through urgent processing, although the cost is higher.
That is why, if you are thinking of selling your car, it is worth starting the cancellation of retention of title in advance, before you have a buyer waiting.
What happens if you have already paid the finance but the retention is still active
It is one of the most common situations and the one that causes the biggest surprises. You have finished paying all the loan instalments, months or even years have passed, and when you want to sell your car you discover that retention of title still appears at the DGT.
This happens because settling the debt does not automatically cancel retention of title. They are two separate procedures. Paying the final instalment extinguishes your obligation to the finance company, but the annotation in the Register of Movable Property and at the DGT remains until someone (you or the finance company) processes its cancellation.
In practice, many finance companies do not cancel the retention on their own initiative. They wait for the registered keeper to request it. This means there are thousands of cars in Spain with active retentions of title on loans that were paid off years ago.
If you are in this situation, the process is the same as described above: you contact the finance company, request the cancellation letter (which they must issue at no cost and without objection, since the debt has already been settled) and submit it to the Register of Movable Property.
Consequences of selling a car with an active retention of title
Trying to sell a car without first cancelling the retention of title has serious consequences for both parties.
For the seller. Selling a car over which the finance company still holds rights may be considered misappropriation, especially if the debt has not been settled. It is a criminal offence under the Penal Code. Even if the debt has already been paid but the retention is still active, the sale cannot be formalised because the DGT will block the transfer.
For the buyer. If someone buys a car with retention of title without knowing it, they will not be able to transfer it into their name. In addition, if the seller's debt was not settled, the finance company could claim the vehicle back, leaving the buyer without the car and without the money.
For the transaction. The DGT rejects the transfer when it detects the encumbrance. The sale is blocked until the situation is resolved, which may cause the buyer to withdraw from the deal.
The way to avoid all this is simple: always check the vehicle's registry status before closing any transaction, whether you are the seller or the buyer.
Retention of title is only one of the types of encumbrances a vehicle may have. See our guide on how to sell a car with encumbrances to learn about all the options.
Special cases: inheritances, renting and leasing
Inherited car with retention of title
If you inherit a car with active retention of title, the legal heirs can handle the cancellation. You will need to prove your status as heir (death certificate, will or declaration of heirs) and contact the finance company to check whether the debt has been settled or is still outstanding. If it has been settled, the cancellation follows the usual process. If there is an outstanding debt, the heirs can choose to pay it off or reject the inheritance of the vehicle.
Renting car
Under renting contracts, the car is owned by the renting company for the entire duration of the contract. If the contract includes a purchase option and you decide to exercise it, the company will transfer ownership and cancel any retention once you complete payment. Until then, the car is not yours and you cannot sell it.
Leasing car
Leasing works in a similar way to renting, but with the particularity that it usually includes a purchase option at the end of the contract. While the leasing period lasts, the vehicle is owned by the finance company. If you exercise the purchase option, you will need the company to cancel the retention before you can transfer or sell the car.
Car with retention of title from a finance company that no longer exists
Sometimes the finance company that registered the retention has been taken over by another company or has disappeared. In these cases, the successor company assumes the obligations of the previous one, including issuing the cancellation letter. If you cannot identify the successor company, a specialist agency can help you trace the situation and process the cancellation.
Dealcar: value your car for free and receive offers from dealerships
If you want to sell your car and it has retention of title, that is not an obstacle. With Dealcar, you can get a free valuation of your car in less than 30 seconds and indicate that it has active finance. The dealerships in the network know this from the start and, if they are interested, they bid for your car and take care of managing the cancellation of retention of title, the transfer and all the paperwork.
100% free for you. No fees or hidden costs.
You get paid before handing over the keys. The money reaches your account by bank transfer before you hand over the car.
We collect the car from your home. The purchasing dealer collects the car wherever you say.
No paperwork. The buyer handles the finance, retention of title, transfer and all the paperwork.
On average, 1,400 euros more than selling on Wallapop.
More than 12,000 cars sold and an average rating of 4.9 out of 5.
If you want to know how much your car is worth, use Dealcar's free valuation tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I drive my car if it has retention of title?
Yes. Retention of title does not affect the use of the vehicle. You can drive it, insure it and pass the MOT as normal. What you cannot do is sell or transfer it until you cancel the retention.
How long does it take to cancel retention of title?
Between 2 and 5 weeks through the standard route: the finance company issues the cancellation letter in about 7-15 days, and the Register of Movable Property processes the cancellation in another 15 days approximately. With an urgent agency, it can be reduced to 48-72 hours.
Can I sell my car if I have already paid the finance but the retention is still active?
Not directly. Even if the debt has been settled, you need to formally cancel the retention at the Register of Movable Property. Until the encumbrance disappears from the DGT register, the transfer will be blocked.
Do all car finance agreements include retention of title?
No. It depends on the lender and the type of loan. Brand finance companies almost always include it. Personal loans not tied to the vehicle usually do not create retention of title. Check your contract or ask the company.
Can a dealership buy my car if it has retention of title?
Yes. Professional dealerships are used to handling this type of transaction. Many of them directly handle the finance cancellation, lift the retention and complete the transfer. If you sell through Dealcar, the buying dealer manages the whole process.
Can I cancel the retention of title on an inherited car?
Yes. The legal heirs can process the cancellation by proving their status with the relevant documents (death certificate, will or declaration of heirs).
Contents
What retention of title on a car is
How to know if your car has retention of title
What having retention of title means: what you can and cannot do
How to cancel retention of title step by step
How much it costs to cancel retention of title
How long it takes for retention of title to be lifted
What happens if you have already paid the finance but the retention is still active
Consequences of selling a car with an active retention of title
Special cases: inheritances, renting and leasing
Frequently asked questions
If you financed your car, it is very likely to have a retention of title recorded with the DGT. And if you're thinking of selling it, this encumbrance is the first thing you need to sort out, because while it is active, the transfer of ownership is blocked.
Retention of title is one of the concepts that causes the most confusion among owners of financed cars. Many people do not realise they have it, do not know how to check it, and when they want to sell, they discover they cannot complete the transaction until it is cancelled.
In this article we explain everything you need to know about retention of title: what it is, how it affects you in practice, how to cancel it and how much it is going to cost you.
What retention of title on a car is
Retention of title is a clause that the finance company includes in the contract when you buy a car with finance. Through this clause, the finance company retains ownership of the vehicle until you have repaid the loan in full.
In practice, this means that although you are shown as the car's registered keeper with the DGT, you drive it, pay the insurance and the taxes, the finance company keeps a right over the vehicle that allows it to recover it if you stop paying. It is a guarantee for the finance company, similar to what happens with a mortgage on a house.
Retention of title is recorded in two registers. On the one hand, in the DGT Vehicle Register, where it appears as an encumbrance or annotation against the vehicle. On the other, in the Register of Movable Property for the corresponding province, which is the official register showing the legal title.
It is important not to confuse retention of title with a seizure order. A seizure order is a judicial or administrative hold for an unpaid debt. Retention of title is a contractual guarantee agreed voluntarily when signing the finance agreement. The former is a problem; the latter is simply a formality that is resolved when you finish paying.
How to know if your car has retention of title
Before trying to sell your car or start any procedure, the first thing is to confirm whether it actually has retention of title. Not all finance agreements include it: some personal loans not linked to the vehicle do not create this encumbrance.
There are four ways to check.
DGT online office. With a digital certificate, electronic ID or Cl@ve, you can access your vehicle report at sede.dgt.gob.es. That report shows all active encumbrances and annotations, including retention of title. It is free and the most direct source.
Official extract from the Register of Movable Property. You can request it in the province where the car is registered. The extract contains the full registry information, including the finance company that has the retention recorded. The cost is about 5 euros.
Your finance agreement. The contract you signed with the finance company should state whether retention of title was established. Check it or contact the company directly to confirm.
Vehicle history report. Services such as CARFAX or Carvertical include the vehicle's registry status in their reports. They are paid services (between 10 and 30 euros), but they also provide additional information such as accident history, changes of owner and recorded mileage.
The recommendation is clear: check the situation before taking any step. Discovering the retention of title when you already have a buyer waiting is the surest way to lose the deal and waste your time.
In addition to checking the retention, make sure you have all the paperwork ready. See the documents needed to sell a car.
What having retention of title means: what you can and cannot do
While retention of title is active, you can use your car as normal in day-to-day life. You can drive it, insure it, pass the MOT and pay the taxes. The retention does not affect the vehicle's everyday use.
What you cannot do is dispose of the car as the full owner. Specifically, retention of title prevents you from carrying out the following actions.
Sell or transfer the car. The DGT will reject the change of ownership while an active encumbrance exists. The buyer will not be able to register it in their name.
Take the vehicle off the road. You cannot request a permanent or temporary deregistration without the finance company's consent.
Use the car as security for another loan. You cannot offer the vehicle as collateral for another finance agreement if it already has retention of title.
In practice, the limitation that affects private owners most is the inability to sell. Everything else (driving, using, maintaining) works normally.
If your car is free of retention, the selling process follows the usual steps for selling a car in Spain.
How to cancel retention of title step by step
Cancelling retention of title is a straightforward procedure, but it requires following the steps in order and waiting for each body to complete its deadlines. This is the full process.
Step 1: Settle the debt with the finance company. If you are still paying instalments, you need to repay the loan early. Contact the finance company and ask for the exact early settlement amount, which includes the outstanding principal plus any fees. By law, the early settlement fee is capped at 1% of the outstanding principal (or 0.5% if there are fewer than 12 months left on the loan).
If you have already finished paying all the instalments, go straight to step 2.
Step 2: Request the cancellation letter from the finance company. Once the debt has been settled, the finance company must issue a document certifying that the credit has been paid in full. This document is known as a "release of encumbrances letter" or "cancellation certificate". The finance company has a legal deadline of 15 days to issue it, although many do so in less than a week.
Step 3: Request an official extract from the Register of Movable Property. Go to the Register of Movable Property in the province where your car is registered and request an updated official extract. This confirms the vehicle's registry status and serves as the starting point for the cancellation.
Step 4: Submit the cancellation letter to the Register of Movable Property. With the finance company's release of encumbrances letter, request the cancellation of the retention of title at the Register. The Register will process the cancellation and issue a new official extract without the encumbrance.
Step 5: Check the removal at the DGT. Once the retention has been cancelled at the Register of Movable Property, the DGT updates the vehicle information. You can check it in the online office. When the encumbrance has disappeared from the DGT register, the car will be clear and you will be able to sell or transfer it without restrictions.
If the process seems tedious, many agencies will handle all these steps for you for a fixed price, usually between 80 and 120 euros.
Once the vehicle is free of encumbrances, you can sell your car without restrictions. If your finance agreement is still active, see our full guide on how to sell a financed car.
How much it costs to cancel retention of title
The total cost has several components, but in no case is it high apart from the actual outstanding debt, if there is one.
Early repayment fee for the loan. This only applies if you cancel before paying all the instalments. By law it is capped at 1% of the outstanding principal (or 0.5% if there are fewer than 12 months left). For a loan with 5,000 euros outstanding, the maximum fee would be 50 euros.
Official extract from the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 5 euros.
Cancellation fee at the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 10 euros.
Agency fees (optional). If you outsource the process, between 80 and 120 euros for the whole procedure.
In total, excluding the debt itself, the administrative costs are between 15 euros (if you do it yourself) and 130 euros (if you use an agency). It is a small cost compared with the value of the car and with what you lose if you cannot sell it.
How long it takes for retention of title to be lifted
The timing depends on how quickly the finance company and the Register of Movable Property work.
Issue of the cancellation letter by the finance company. Legal deadline of 15 days, although many companies do it in 3-7 days.
Processing at the Register of Movable Property. Approximately 15 working days under normal conditions.
Update at the DGT. Once the retention has been cancelled at the Register, the DGT usually updates the information within a few days.
In total, the full process can take between 2 and 5 weeks through the standard route. If you need it faster, some specialist agencies can reduce the time to 48-72 hours through urgent processing, although the cost is higher.
That is why, if you are thinking of selling your car, it is worth starting the cancellation of retention of title in advance, before you have a buyer waiting.
What happens if you have already paid the finance but the retention is still active
It is one of the most common situations and the one that causes the biggest surprises. You have finished paying all the loan instalments, months or even years have passed, and when you want to sell your car you discover that retention of title still appears at the DGT.
This happens because settling the debt does not automatically cancel retention of title. They are two separate procedures. Paying the final instalment extinguishes your obligation to the finance company, but the annotation in the Register of Movable Property and at the DGT remains until someone (you or the finance company) processes its cancellation.
In practice, many finance companies do not cancel the retention on their own initiative. They wait for the registered keeper to request it. This means there are thousands of cars in Spain with active retentions of title on loans that were paid off years ago.
If you are in this situation, the process is the same as described above: you contact the finance company, request the cancellation letter (which they must issue at no cost and without objection, since the debt has already been settled) and submit it to the Register of Movable Property.
Consequences of selling a car with an active retention of title
Trying to sell a car without first cancelling the retention of title has serious consequences for both parties.
For the seller. Selling a car over which the finance company still holds rights may be considered misappropriation, especially if the debt has not been settled. It is a criminal offence under the Penal Code. Even if the debt has already been paid but the retention is still active, the sale cannot be formalised because the DGT will block the transfer.
For the buyer. If someone buys a car with retention of title without knowing it, they will not be able to transfer it into their name. In addition, if the seller's debt was not settled, the finance company could claim the vehicle back, leaving the buyer without the car and without the money.
For the transaction. The DGT rejects the transfer when it detects the encumbrance. The sale is blocked until the situation is resolved, which may cause the buyer to withdraw from the deal.
The way to avoid all this is simple: always check the vehicle's registry status before closing any transaction, whether you are the seller or the buyer.
Retention of title is only one of the types of encumbrances a vehicle may have. See our guide on how to sell a car with encumbrances to learn about all the options.
Special cases: inheritances, renting and leasing
Inherited car with retention of title
If you inherit a car with active retention of title, the legal heirs can handle the cancellation. You will need to prove your status as heir (death certificate, will or declaration of heirs) and contact the finance company to check whether the debt has been settled or is still outstanding. If it has been settled, the cancellation follows the usual process. If there is an outstanding debt, the heirs can choose to pay it off or reject the inheritance of the vehicle.
Renting car
Under renting contracts, the car is owned by the renting company for the entire duration of the contract. If the contract includes a purchase option and you decide to exercise it, the company will transfer ownership and cancel any retention once you complete payment. Until then, the car is not yours and you cannot sell it.
Leasing car
Leasing works in a similar way to renting, but with the particularity that it usually includes a purchase option at the end of the contract. While the leasing period lasts, the vehicle is owned by the finance company. If you exercise the purchase option, you will need the company to cancel the retention before you can transfer or sell the car.
Car with retention of title from a finance company that no longer exists
Sometimes the finance company that registered the retention has been taken over by another company or has disappeared. In these cases, the successor company assumes the obligations of the previous one, including issuing the cancellation letter. If you cannot identify the successor company, a specialist agency can help you trace the situation and process the cancellation.
Dealcar: value your car for free and receive offers from dealerships
If you want to sell your car and it has retention of title, that is not an obstacle. With Dealcar, you can get a free valuation of your car in less than 30 seconds and indicate that it has active finance. The dealerships in the network know this from the start and, if they are interested, they bid for your car and take care of managing the cancellation of retention of title, the transfer and all the paperwork.
100% free for you. No fees or hidden costs.
You get paid before handing over the keys. The money reaches your account by bank transfer before you hand over the car.
We collect the car from your home. The purchasing dealer collects the car wherever you say.
No paperwork. The buyer handles the finance, retention of title, transfer and all the paperwork.
On average, 1,400 euros more than selling on Wallapop.
More than 12,000 cars sold and an average rating of 4.9 out of 5.
If you want to know how much your car is worth, use Dealcar's free valuation tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I drive my car if it has retention of title?
Yes. Retention of title does not affect the use of the vehicle. You can drive it, insure it and pass the MOT as normal. What you cannot do is sell or transfer it until you cancel the retention.
How long does it take to cancel retention of title?
Between 2 and 5 weeks through the standard route: the finance company issues the cancellation letter in about 7-15 days, and the Register of Movable Property processes the cancellation in another 15 days approximately. With an urgent agency, it can be reduced to 48-72 hours.
Can I sell my car if I have already paid the finance but the retention is still active?
Not directly. Even if the debt has been settled, you need to formally cancel the retention at the Register of Movable Property. Until the encumbrance disappears from the DGT register, the transfer will be blocked.
Do all car finance agreements include retention of title?
No. It depends on the lender and the type of loan. Brand finance companies almost always include it. Personal loans not tied to the vehicle usually do not create retention of title. Check your contract or ask the company.
Can a dealership buy my car if it has retention of title?
Yes. Professional dealerships are used to handling this type of transaction. Many of them directly handle the finance cancellation, lift the retention and complete the transfer. If you sell through Dealcar, the buying dealer manages the whole process.
Can I cancel the retention of title on an inherited car?
Yes. The legal heirs can process the cancellation by proving their status with the relevant documents (death certificate, will or declaration of heirs).
