How to fill out Louisiana DPSMV 1637

How a vehicle that was written off gets back onto the road with a title that says what happened to it. The application does two separate jobs on one sheet: it applies for the reconstructed title, and it carries the disclosure R.S. 32:706.1 requires - salvaged, reconstructed, water damaged or hail-damaged - which is the disclosure that has to be made in writing to a buyer before any later sale closes. In a state that floods, the water damage half of this form gets more use than the rest of it put together.

Written against DPSMV 1637 (R0213jg), issued under R.S. 32:707, salvage title; R.S. 32:706.1, disclosure of branded vehicles. The revision here reads R0213jg - a bare month and year with somebody's initials on the end, which is how one or two OMV forms are dated. The statutory citations printed on it are the thing to check against a current copy: the disclosure regime in R.S. 32:706.1 and the water damage provisions carry the penalties, and a form quoting the wrong section is worse than none.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DPSMV 1637 from the public.powerdms.com copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Check one only: Dealer / Individual

   Two ticks at the very top of the owner block.

   Watch out: Individual for a private owner rebuilding their own vehicle. Ticking Dealer without a licence behind it puts the application into a queue with different requirements attached to it.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Name

   First box of the owner block, with a phone number beside it and three address rows underneath.

   Watch out: The person who will hold the reconstructed title. Fill the mailing address row even where it is the same as the residential one - the department posts the certificate to what is written in the mailing row.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Vehicle ID Number (VIN)

   Seventeen single-character boxes across the sheet.

   Watch out: One character per box, left to right, no spaces and no dashes. Running the number together in the first few boxes is the single most common way this row goes wrong, and it is visible at a glance from across a counter.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Salvage Title #: (if available)

   A wide box under the vehicle description row, with a State box after it.

   Watch out: The number off the salvage title the vehicle currently holds. Where the salvage title came from another state, put that state in the box beside it - the department needs to know which record it is superseding.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Rebuilder information

   A second full block, headed if different from owner.

   Watch out: If a shop did the work, this is the shop. If you did it yourself, repeat your own details rather than leaving it empty - the block is asking who is responsible for the repairs, and a blank is not an answer to that.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Statement of Repairs (required by law)

   Two statements with a tick each, marked check one only.

   Watch out: The first is a rebuilt vehicle; the second is a stolen vehicle that was recovered. They lead to different outcomes on the record, and ticking both makes the application internally contradictory.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Disclosure ticks: Salvaged Vehicle / Reconstructed Vehicle

   Under the second printed-name blank, in the block citing R.S. 32:706.1.

   Watch out: This is the disclosure half of the form and it is the half with the penalties attached. Whatever is ticked here is what has to be disclosed in writing to every future buyer, so it is worth getting exactly right rather than approximately right.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Signed by ______ under penalties of perjury this __ day of

   The execution line at the foot, with the penalty printed under it.

   Watch out: Three separate certifications sit above this signature - about identification numbers, about the salvage document, and about the application itself. Read all three before signing, because the line underneath names fine, imprisonment or both.

What gets this one rejected

• •Both statements of repairs ticked, on a block that says check one only.
• •The VIN comb filled with the characters run together rather than one per box.
• •A water-damaged vehicle with the components question left blank. Three ticks and the statute behind them are asking a specific question about the power train, the computer and the electrical system.
• •Dealer and Individual both ticked at the head of the owner block, which is also marked check one only.
• •A rebuilder block left empty where somebody other than the owner did the work, since the form asks for it if different from owner.
• •No salvage title number and no explanation. If available is doing real work in that label, but a blank with nothing attached leaves the department without the record to attach the application to.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The disclosure survives this transaction and attaches to the next one. Once a brand is on the record, every later transfer of that vehicle has to disclose it in a conspicuous written document before the sale, exchange or donation completes. A buyer who was not told may demand the sale be rescinded and recover the price and any fees or taxes paid, and the seller faces a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars plus community service.
• •A salvage title comes first and it has its own deadline. Where an insurance settlement declares a vehicle a total loss, the insurance company, its authorized agent or the vehicle owner must apply for a salvage title within thirty days of the settlement of the property damage claim. This application is the step after that one.
• •Louisiana will not take another state's bonded title. An out-of-state certificate branded Bonded Title or Bonded Vehicle Title cannot be accepted for any type of title in this state, which closes off a route people sometimes try with a rebuilt vehicle bought elsewhere.

Every line here was read off DPSMV 1637 (R0213jg) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Louisiana Office 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.

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