How to fill out Alaska Form 857

The newest form in the Alaska set, and it exists to solve a specific dead end: a vehicle already branded junk, not yet reconstructed, and therefore holding no ownership document anybody can transfer. The salvage title the Division issues on this application is not a licence to drive - it says so on the certificate itself - but it is a formal ownership document, and the form lists what it is for: surrendering the vehicle to an insurance company, transferring it to a salvage company, retrieving it from impound, or demonstrating proof of ownership in other circumstances. Two things are not eligible at all, and the form says so before the first box.

Written against Form 857 (Rev 08/2025), issued under 2 AAC 92.190 as amended on 1 August 2025, which first allowed the Division to issue a salvage title over an existing junk brand. Read the affidavit certification before you sign, because it contains a fact people find out too late: an incomplete, junk, salvage or dismantled vehicle must be reconstructed in the jurisdiction that it is physically located in. Buying a salvage vehicle in Alaska and shipping it south to be rebuilt means the rebuild and its inspection happen under that state's rules, not Alaska's, and the certificate that comes out the other end is that state's certificate.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 857 from the dmv.alaska.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Form 857 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank Form 857 — Application For Salvage Vehicle Title PDF at dmv.alaska.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in Form 857 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual Form 857, rendered from the PDF the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration 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 Alaska DMV Form 857, Application For Salvage Vehicle Title. The vehicle identification comb reads 7J2SFB4A37R330985 for a 2007 Subaru Forester X, 4D Wagon. The owner's mailing and residence addresses are both 3712 Pioneer Loop, Palmer, AK 99645, applicant type Individual is ticked, and the owner block names Talia R. Sturdevant, carrying an Alaska driver licence number, an email address and a telephone number. The affidavit section records that the vehicle was branded Junk in March 2026 after a total loss, has not been reconstructed, and that a salvage title is requested to prove ownership before sale to a salvage yard. The owner has signed and dated it 08/24/2026. The conjunction ticks and the co-owner block are shaded grey. — Rendered from the Division's own PDF, filled in for the situation the form was written for - a junk-branded vehicle with no transferable ownership document, being sold to a yard. Amber is the applicant's; grey is the second owner's half, the conjunction that only matters when there are two of them, and the DMV block at the foot. Every name, address and vehicle identification number is invented.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
The vehicle identification comb
One character per cell across the top of the vehicle block.
Watch out: On a junk-branded vehicle the VIN is the only identity left - there is no valid registration and often no plate. Read it off the vehicle and check it against the branded record.
2
You fill this in
Year, make, model, body style
The description row under the comb.
Watch out: Describe the vehicle as the record does. This application is amending a record that already exists, with a junk brand on it.
3
You fill this in
Mailing and residence addresses
Both address lines, each with city, state and zip.
Watch out: Both, even when they are the same. The Division asks for the pair on every application it has rewritten recently.
4
You fill this in
Applicant type
Individual, business or company, trust, charitable or non-profit, or government agency.
Watch out: A salvage yard buying the vehicle is a business; the person selling it to them is usually an individual. Tick what you are, not what the vehicle is heading towards.
5
You fill this in
Full legal name including suffix
The name the salvage certificate will be issued in.
Watch out: It has to match the name the junk brand was recorded against, or the counter has two records and no way to connect them.
6
You fill this in
Identification
Alaska driver licence number, or social security number, or date of birth - one of the three - with a tax identification number for a business.
Watch out: An Alaska licence number is the fastest, for the same reason it is on every other Division form: it already ties to a record.
7
You fill this in
Conjunction, only if there are two of you
AND or OR, left blank for a single owner.
Watch out: Two owners on a salvage title face the same signature arithmetic as two owners on an ordinary one, and it is worth deciding now rather than at the yard.
8
You fill this in
The affidavit section
Why the salvage title is being asked for, written into the ruled area above the certification.
Watch out: Say when the vehicle was branded, why, and what you intend to do with it. This is the paragraph that tells the counter which of the form's four uses applies to you.
9
You fill this in
Sign and date
Owner signature and date of signature at the foot of the page.
Watch out: Read the certification above it first - it includes an acknowledgement about reconstruction that is easy to sign past and expensive to discover later.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
What it may be used for	Four bullets at the head of the form, and they are the reasons a salvage title is worth having: surrender to an insurance company under 2 AAC 92.170, transfer to a salvage company, retrieval from impound, and proof of ownership in other circumstances.
What is excluded	Two notes in the same block. An incomplete vehicle is not required to receive a salvage title and may be transferred with a bill of sale or other contract - and salvage titles are not available for boats, manufactured homes or off-highway vehicles.
Vehicle Information	A vehicle identification number comb, then year, make, model and body style with the Division's usual worked examples printed into the labels.
Address Information	Owner mailing address and owner residence address, each with city, state and zip - the same pair the Vehicle Transaction Application asks for.
Owner Information	Applicant type - individual, business or company, trust, charitable or non-profit organisation, government agency - then full legal name including suffix, a company or trust name where one applies, identification by Alaska driver licence number or social security number or date of birth, a tax identification number for non-individuals, and email and phone.
Conjunction Type	The same AND or OR choice as the title application, needed only where there is more than one registered owner, and carrying the same warning that AND cannot be selected if owned by anything other than two or more individuals.
Co-Owner Information	The applicant type, name and identification block repeated for a second owner.
Affidavit Section	A ruled area over the certification. The certification itself is worth reading before writing in it: that you are the legal owner, that all statements are true and correct, that the certification is made voluntarily without coercion or undue influence, and that you understand that before an incomplete, junk, salvage or dismantled vehicle can be registered it must be reconstructed in the jurisdiction that it is physically located in. False statements are punishable under AS 11.56.210.
Owner Signature and Date of Signature	One signature line at the foot, over a DMV use only block.
What the resulting certificate looks like	The Division describes its own output: the words SALVAGE in the upper portion of the title, the model code SVG, and a remarks section reading that this is an incomplete vehicle not for roadway use and that a reconstructed title must be obtained prior to registration.

What gets this one rejected

•Applying for a vehicle that is not currently branded junk. The form's first line describes what it is for - a vehicle currently branded as Junk that has not yet been reconstructed - and an ordinary damaged car is not that.
•Applying for a boat, a manufactured home or an off-highway vehicle. The exclusion is printed in the same paragraph as the eligibility, and it is absolute.
•Expecting to register the vehicle afterwards. The certification you sign says the opposite: reconstruction comes first, in the jurisdiction where the vehicle physically is.
•Leaving the affidavit section empty. It is the only place on the form where the circumstances are explained, and a salvage application with no explanation is a transaction the counter has to reconstruct from nothing.
•Ticking AND as the conjunction for a vehicle owned by a company. The warning is printed beside the tick: AND cannot be selected if owned by anything other than two or more individuals.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is proof of ownership, not permission to drive. The remarks band the Division prints on the resulting certificate is the whole point: incomplete vehicle not for roadway use, must obtain reconstructed title prior to registration.
•An incomplete vehicle can be sold without one. The form volunteers this, which is unusual: it is not required, and the vehicle may be transferred with a bill of sale or other contract. The salvage title is for when a buyer, an insurer or an impound lot wants something better than a receipt.
•The change is recent. Before the regulation changed on 1 August 2025 there was no route from a junk brand to a salvage title at all. Any advice older than that will tell you it cannot be done.
•The brand travels with the vehicle. A salvage title is not a clean title with an asterisk. Everything issued afterwards carries the history, and a buyer who discovers it late is a buyer who walks away.
•Reconstruction is the next form, not this one. Turning a salvage vehicle back into a registrable one means the reconstructed vehicle affidavit and a physical inspection, with the bills of sale for every major part in the envelope.

Every line here was read off Form 857 (Rev 08/2025) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration 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 Alaska seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Alaska involves.

How to fill out Alaska Form 857

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The vehicle identification comb

Year, make, model, body style

Mailing and residence addresses

Applicant type

Full legal name including suffix

Identification

Conjunction, only if there are two of you

The affidavit section

Sign and date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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