The fallback where a private sale produced no paperwork about the money. Oklahoma works its excise tax out from the actual sales price, so a transfer arriving without a purchase contract or a bill of sale has nothing to calculate from - and this affidavit, sworn before a notary, supplies it. Read carefully, it is not the seller's form at all: the affiant certifies that they are the assigned owner of the vehicle, and swears they were unable to obtain a contract or bill of sale from the seller.
Written against 722-1 (Rev 01/2023), issued under 68 O.S. 2103 and 2104.
The best thing a seller can do with this form is make sure the buyer never needs it. Two lines on a sheet of paper - the vehicle, the price, the date, both names, both signatures - and the buyer walks into the licensed operator with a bill of sale instead of an affidavit about not having one.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 722-1 from the oklahoma.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 722-1, rendered from the PDF the Service Oklahoma, Motor Vehicle Services 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
Completed by the buyer, which is what the form's opening certification requires - the affiant is the assigned owner. The affiant's signature line and the acknowledgment beneath it are printed rules with no field behind them, so they stay empty here; on the day they are filled in with a notary watching.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The buyer fills this in
Year, Make and Vehicle Identification Number
The vehicle being declared, on the two rules under the opening certification.
Watch out: Copy the identification number from the assignment or the 718, not from the vehicle. This affidavit only works if it can be matched to the transfer it belongs to.
2
The buyer fills this in
On (date), I purchased the above vehicle from
The date of the sale and the name of the person who sold it.
Watch out: The date has to be the date of sale used everywhere else in the packet. Two dates for one handover is exactly the sort of thing a licensed operator notices.
3
The buyer fills this in
Therefore, I hereby declare a total purchase price of $
The amount actually paid, excluding any trade-in credit.
Watch out: This is sworn, and it is the number excise tax is calculated on. If the vehicle was a genuine gift between qualifying family members, the family affidavit is the right route and this one is not.
4
The buyer fills this in
Affiant, Date, Daytime Phone Number and Email Address
Signature, date and contact details for the person swearing to it.
Watch out: Sign in front of the notary and not before. The contact fields exist so Service Oklahoma can come back to the affiant, so give a number that will be answered.
5
Somebody else fills this in
The notary block
The day, month and year of the swearing, the commission expiry, the notary's signature and the seal.
Watch out: This is the part that makes the declaration mean anything. A photocopied or pre-stamped block is not a notarisation.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
I, the undersigned affiant, certify that I am the assigned owner of the following vehicle
The opening certification. The affiant is the person who has taken the vehicle, not the person who sold it.
Year and Make
Two boxes on the first vehicle rule, with generous room on the make.
Vehicle Identification Number
One wide field under them.
On (date), I purchased the above vehicle from (name)
A date box early in the sentence and a long name box at the end of it.
I hereby confirm no contract or bill of sale was prepared at the time of purchase and I am unable to obtain a contract or bill of sale from the seller
Printed text with no box - the statement the whole form exists to make.
Therefore, I hereby declare a total purchase price of $
The figure, in a box inside the sentence, with the words excluding credit for any trade in printed after it.
Affiant and Date
Signature and date on one rule.
Daytime Phone Number and Email Address
Two contact boxes underneath.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this
The notary block, with the day, month and year, the commission expiry, a signature rule and a seal box.
What gets this one rejected
•A seller filling it in. The affiant certifies to being the assigned owner of the vehicle, which after a sale is the buyer.
•Filing it when a bill of sale does exist. The sworn statement is that none was prepared and none can be obtained, and one of those has to be true.
•A price that is not what was paid. This is the figure the excise tax is calculated on and it is sworn, so a convenient number is a false affidavit rather than a favour.
•Trade-in arithmetic. The printed words are excluding credit for any trade in, so the figure is the price of this vehicle and nothing else.
•No notary. The form has an acknowledgment block and a seal box and is worthless without both filled in.
•Treating it as proof of ownership. Its own opening line says completion of this form does not convey ownership.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It also covers a manufactured home. The form says so in its second sentence, which is why it turns up in packets that have nothing to do with cars.
•A bill of sale offered only to establish price does not need notarising. The reason this affidavit is notarised is that it is sworn testimony rather than a receipt. An ordinary handwritten bill of sale, offered only to show what was paid, is not sworn at all - which is why writing one takes two minutes and this takes a trip.
Every line here was read off 722-1 (Rev 01/2023) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Service Oklahoma, Motor Vehicle Services pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
