The seller's own form, and the only one in this section with a deadline in statute printed on its face. It quotes R.S. 47:510(B) at you - any person, upon transferring a motor vehicle, trailer or semi-trailer, whether by sale, lease, or otherwise, shall give a written notice of such transfer to the commissioner within fifteen days - and then quotes the penalty provision underneath, in case the first quotation had not landed. The OMV's own web page describes filing it as something you may do. The statute uses the word shall.
Written against DPSMV 1697 (Rev 04/06/2026), issued under R.S. 47:510(B), notice of sale or transfer.
Revised 6 April 2026. The statutory quotations on the face of this form are the reason to use this copy rather than an older printout - a form quoting a superseded penalty is worse than no form, and this is one of the few OMV sheets that quotes a statute at all.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DPSMV 1697 from the public.powerdms.com copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual DPSMV 1697, rendered from the PDF the Louisiana Office 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 actual DPSMV 1697, revised 04/06/2026. The two paragraphs in the middle are the statute, printed by the department on its own form, and they are the reason this is the one piece of Louisiana seller paperwork with a hard deadline attached.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
First box on the sheet, in the block headed the vehicle is presently licensed and titled as follows.
Watch out: Take it off your registration certificate rather than the title if the title has already gone with the buyer. This form gets filed after the car leaves, which is exactly when the certificate is no longer to hand.
2
You fill this in
License Number
Top right, beside the VIN.
Watch out: Your plate, not a plate the buyer might put on. The plate is not transferable to them, and this notice is the department's record of which registration is ending.
3
You fill this in
Name and Driver's License Number
The seller's identity row, halfway down the top block.
Watch out: This is what the department matches the notice to. A licence number transposed here means the flag lands on nobody's record, and you will not be told.
4
You fill this in
Sold / Donated / Traded to
Three short blanks on one line, in the middle of the sheet.
Watch out: Mark one. A donation and a sale are taxed completely differently at the other end, and a trade means the vehicle went to a dealer, who has their own reporting duty on top of yours.
5
You fill this in
Name and Address of the buyer
The lower block: name, street, then city, state and ZIP.
Watch out: Copy it off the buyer's driver's licence while they are still standing there. The statute makes the transferee's name and address part of what the notice must contain, and afterwards is too late to ask.
6
You fill this in
Date of Sale/Donation/Trade
Bottom left, above the signature.
Watch out: The date the vehicle actually changed hands, because that is the date the fifteen days run from. Backdating it to buy yourself time makes a false statement out of a form whose whole purpose is to fix a date.
7
You fill this in
Sales Price (if applicable)
Bottom right, beside the date.
Watch out: The same figure as the title assignment and the bill of sale. If applicable means it is left blank on a donation, not that it is optional on a sale.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The vehicle is presently licensed and titled as follows
The heading over the top block, with the instruction Please type or use black ink beneath it.
Vehicle Identification Number, License Number
The first row, describing the vehicle as the OMV currently holds it rather than as the buyer will register it.
Year, Make, Model, Body Style
Four boxes across the second row.
Name, Driver's License Number
Yours, the seller's, exactly as the record has them.
Address, City, State, Zip
Your address on the record, not the buyer's.
The statutory quotations
Two paragraphs in the middle of the sheet: R.S. 47:510(B) with the fifteen-day duty, and R.S. 47:537, which sets the fine for a violation of this Chapter with no penalty specifically provided at not more than one hundred dollars, or imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both.
The Vehicle was Sold / Donated / Traded to
Three tick blanks on one line. Exactly one of them gets a mark.
Name, Address, City, State, Zip
The buyer, donee or dealer. Four rules and a row of three boxes.
Date of Sale/Donation/Trade, Sales Price (if applicable)
A pair at the foot. The price is marked if applicable because a donation has none.
Signature of Seller/Donor/Trader
One rule, full width. There is no notary block anywhere on this form and none is wanted.
Warning! This is not a transfer.
Printed under the signature: this vehicle will not be legally transferred until the new owner makes proper application.
What gets this one rejected
•Sent in more than fifteen days after the vehicle changed hands. It still gets recorded, but the duty in the statute quoted on the form has already been missed.
•Signed with none of Sold, Donated or Traded ticked, which leaves the department unable to record what actually happened to the car.
•The buyer's address left off. The statute requires the notice to contain the name and address of the transferor and transferee, and the form has rules for both because both are needed.
•Sent instead of assigning the certificate. This is a notice, and the warning printed under the signature says so - nothing here transfers anything.
•Filled in with the buyer's plate number rather than yours. The vehicle is described as it is presently licensed and titled, which means the plate you are about to take off.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Online does the same job in less time. The OMV runs a Notice of Vehicle Transfer service that takes the same facts - plate number, expiration date, VIN, your licence number, the buyer's name and address, the date and the price - and flags your record immediately. There is no advantage to the paper unless you want a copy with your own signature on it.
•It flags the record, it does not clear it. Filing this puts a note on the OMV record showing the disposition of the vehicle. Ownership still does not move until the new owner applies for a title, which is why the buyer's deadline matters to you as well as to them.
•Post it to the address on the form. P.O. Box 64886, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70896-4886, which is printed across the bottom of the sheet with the department's phone number beside it.
Every line here was read off DPSMV 1697 (Rev 04/06/2026) 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.
