How to fill out California REG 488C

Turns a totalled car's title into a salvage certificate, or into a nonrepairable certificate for a vehicle that will never go back on the road. If you settled with your insurer and kept the car, this is what has to be filed before it can be sold on.

Top of the blank California REG 488C, Application for Salvage Certificate or Nonrepairable Vehicle Certificate, as the agency publishes it

Step 1 · the form itself Blank REG 488C — Application for Salvage Certificate or Nonrepairable Vehicle Certificate PDF at dmv.ca.gov · new tab View the blank REG 488C

Top of our filled-in example of California REG 488C, Application for Salvage Certificate or Nonrepairable Vehicle Certificate

Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in REG 488C guide PDF · 3 pages · 570 KB · new tab See our filled-in example

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank REG 488C from the dmv.ca.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our REG 488C guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Written against REG 488C (Rev 8/2008), issued under California Vehicle Code 11515 and 11515.2. Salvage and nonrepairable are not two words for the same thing. A salvage certificate can become a revived title after inspection; a nonrepairable certificate is the end of that vehicle's road life.

Last updated August 22, 2026.

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual REG 488C, rendered from the PDF the California Department of Motor Vehicles 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

The California REG 488C completed for a salvage certificate: ORIGINAL ticked at the top, the 2013 Subaru's plate, make, year and VIN across section 1 with the state of last registration, the claim number and the date the car was wrecked, Priya Raman named and signed as the applicant, and in section 3 the plates recorded as being surrendered, two of them. — Section 1 and section 3, and nothing in between. The instruction under the title is one line long - complete only section 1 or section 2 with section 3 - so the whole nonrepairable half of the sheet stays empty on an application for a salvage certificate. The date stolen and date recovered boxes stay empty too, because this car was not stolen.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Original or duplicate
Two boxes beside the title. A first application is an original.
Watch out: Duplicate is for replacing a certificate that was already issued. Ticking it on a first application asks the department for a copy of a document that does not exist yet.
2
You fill this in
Section 1, the vehicle
Licence plate number, make, year and vehicle identification number, then the state of last registration and the date the registration expires.
Watch out: This is the salvage half of the form. If you are here because the car will never go back on the road, you are on the wrong half - that is section 2, and the two are never completed together.
3
You fill this in
Claim number
The insurer's claim reference for the total loss.
Watch out: It is the thread that ties this application to the settlement your insurer already reported. It should match the number on the REG 481 they filed, character for character.
4
You fill this in
Cost or value, and the dates
The value of the vehicle, the date it was wrecked or destroyed, and - only where they apply - the dates it was stolen and recovered.
Watch out: The note printed under this row cites CVC 11515(f): a salvage certificate cannot be issued on a stolen vehicle unless it has been recovered and determined to be a total loss.
5
You fill this in
Date and signature of applicant
The undersigned certifies that the vehicle described is a total-loss salvage, that properly endorsed titling documents are attached, and asks the department to issue the certificate.
Watch out: Properly endorsed titling documents means the title, signed. Sending the application without them is the difference between a queue and a rejection.
6
You fill this in
Printed name of insurance company or applicant
Your name, where you are the one applying, with a driver licence or ID number beside it.
Watch out: The box is shared with insurers because insurers file this too. When you kept the car, the applicant is you, and the agent and occupational licence boxes beneath stay empty.
7
You fill this in
Street address, city, state, zip
Where the salvage certificate is posted to.
Watch out: Nothing about the car can be sold on until that certificate arrives, so this is not a line to give an address you are about to leave.
8
You fill this in
Section 3, certification of licence plate disposition
Four options for what happened to the plates, with a count of one or two where they are being surrendered.
Watch out: Surrendering them is the usual answer, because the notice your insurer filed already told you the plates go back. Lost, destroyed and retained each have their own box and their own consequences.
9
You fill this in
The second date and signature
Section 3 carries its own perjury declaration and its own signature line, below the plate boxes.
Watch out: People sign the first one, see a familiar block at the foot and stop reading. An application with only one of the two signatures on it is incomplete.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Original or duplicate	Two boxes at the top. Original is the normal case.
Section 1 or section 2, never both	The instruction is to complete only section 1 or section 2, with section 3. Section 1 is a salvage certificate; section 2 is a nonrepairable vehicle certificate.
Section 1 details	Plate number, make, year, VIN, state of last registration, registration expiry, claim number, cost or value, and the dates wrecked, destroyed, stolen or recovered.
The certification	That the vehicle is a total-loss salvage, with properly endorsed titling documents attached, and a request that the DMV issue the certificate.
Signature block	Date and signature of applicant or authorised agent, printed name of the insurance company or applicant, licence or ID number, address, and an occupational licence number where one applies.

What gets this one rejected

•Applying for a salvage certificate on a stolen vehicle that has not been recovered. The note under section 1 cites CVC 11515(f): it cannot be issued unless the vehicle has been recovered and determined to be a total loss.
•Completing both sections 1 and 2. A vehicle is one or the other.
•Filing without the endorsed titling documents attached, unless you are on the route that uses an unobtainable title certification instead.
•Choosing nonrepairable to save a step. A vehicle declared nonrepairable may never be titled or registered again, and that decision does not reverse.

Every line here was read off REG 488C (Rev 8/2008) itself — the PDF is here — and off the California Department of Motor Vehicles pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Forms that go with this one

Once you've settled with your insurer and kept the car, see getting an offer on a salvage or branded-title car in Oakland.

Back to all California seller paperwork, or what selling a car in California involves.

How to fill out California REG 488C

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Original or duplicate

Section 1, the vehicle

Claim number

Cost or value, and the dates

Date and signature of applicant

Printed name of insurance company or applicant

Street address, city, state, zip

Section 3, certification of licence plate disposition

The second date and signature

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Forms that go with this one

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