How to fill out Louisiana DPSMV 1807

Not your form, and worth recognising for exactly that reason. This is what an insurance company files when it has settled a total loss and cannot get the certificate of title out of the owner or the lienholder within thirty days. It is here because a seller whose car has been written off will see it referred to, may be asked to sign something that is not it, and should know what the insurer is actually allowed to do when the title has gone missing.

Written against DPSMV 1807 (R0418), issued under R.S. 32:707(I), application for salvage title by an insurer. The revision is R0418. If you are being asked to sign something during a total loss settlement, check which document it is: this affidavit is sworn by the insurer, the salvage-reconstructed application is sworn by the owner or rebuilder, and neither is a substitute for endorsing the certificate itself.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DPSMV 1807 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
   Somebody else fills this in

   Party Making Application For Title

   The name box at the head of the sheet, with a phone number and a mailing address under it.

   Watch out: The insurance company, or an authorised agent acting for it. An owner's name here is the clearest possible sign that the wrong form is being filled in.

2. 2
   Somebody else fills this in

   Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)

   First box of the vehicle block.

   Watch out: It has to match the vehicle the claim was paid on. This affidavit is the department's only evidence of ownership in the absence of an endorsed certificate, so the identification has to be exact.

3. 3
   Somebody else fills this in

   Title # (if available)

   Under the vehicle description row, with a state box beside it.

   Watch out: Often blank, because the whole reason for the affidavit is that the certificate could not be obtained. Where the insurer knows the number from its own file, giving it saves the department a search.

4. 4
   Somebody else fills this in

   I, ______ (Insurance Company/Authorized Agent)

   The blank in the sworn paragraph.

   Watch out: The full name of the insurer as it is registered. Where an agent is applying in its own name instead, the file also needs a notarised authorisation from the insurance company naming that agent and describing the vehicle in full.

5. 5
   Somebody else fills this in

   payment of a proof of loss claim involving the motor vehicle on ______

   A date in the second sworn statement.

   Watch out: This is the date the thirty days ran from. It is the single most consequential figure on the sheet, because it is what makes the affidavit available at all.

6. 6
   Somebody else fills this in

   Notary ID #

   Bottom right, under the notary's signature and printed name, with two witness rules facing it.

   Watch out: Two witnesses and a notary on this one. The identification number goes in the box that names it, and the rules beside it carry no fillable boxes because the department expects them signed in ink.

What gets this one rejected

• •Fewer than two written attempts, or attempts sent by ordinary post. The affidavit swears to certified mail with return receipt requested, or a delivery service with a tracking system.
• •Proof of mailing not attached, which the note at the foot of the sheet requires in terms.
• •The date of the proof of loss payment left blank, which is what the thirty days are counted from.
• •Signed by an owner. The affidavit is sworn by the insurance company or its authorised agent and there is nowhere on it for anybody else.
• •A notary block with no identification number in the box that names it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The owner has a duty here too, and it comes first. Where a vehicle is declared a total loss as the result of an insurance settlement, the insurer, its authorised agent or the vehicle owner has to send the certificate of title, properly endorsed, to the office of motor vehicles with an application for a salvage title within thirty days of the settlement. This affidavit is the fallback when that does not happen.
• •Where the insurer's agent is taking the title, more is needed. Titling in the name of an authorised agent rather than the insurance company calls for a notarised authorisation from the insurer naming the agent and giving the model year, make, body style and complete vehicle identification number.
• •Retained salvage is a different form again. An owner keeping the wreck after a settlement is a salvage retention transaction, which the department handles under its own policy and its own sheet.

Every line here was read off DPSMV 1807 (R0418) 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.

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