A single sheet that lets somebody else sign your name on the title and registration documents for one described vehicle. Oregon's version is unusually blunt about its own limits: it is valid only if three specific things are filled in, it cannot be handed on to anybody else, and it has to be used on the very document the authority was granted for. The back of the form carries a worked example of how to sign with it, which is worth reading, because a power of attorney exercised the wrong way is a signature DMV will not accept.
Written against 735-500 (4-18), issued under ORS 803.075 and DMV Title & Registration Handbook Chapter G.
Revised April 2018. Read the instructions on the reverse before anybody signs anything: the way the authority is exercised matters as much as the way it is granted, and both are on the same sheet.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 735-500 from the oregon.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 735-500, rendered from the PDF the Oregon Department of Transportation, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division 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 735-500 at revision 4-18, completed with all three of the sections the form says it is valid only if you complete: the appointed attorney, the vehicle identifier, and the owner's signature. The joint owner block stays empty because the title is in one name.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Name of person or firm appointed as attorney (printed)
One line, near the foot of the front. The first of the three sections that make the document valid.
Watch out: Print the name exactly as the person will sign it. When the authority is exercised, that name has to follow the word by, and a mismatch there is what stops it working.
2
You fill this in
Description of vehicle — year, make, body style
Three boxes describing the car, copied from the certificate.
Watch out: The description is not decoration. It is what limits the authority to one vehicle, which is the reason a signed blank power of attorney is such a bad idea.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle identification number and title number
Two more boxes, and the second of the three required sections.
Watch out: The form accepts a plate number, a VIN or a title number as the identifier. Fill in all three you have and the question never arises.
4
You fill this in
Plate number
The plate currently on the vehicle.
Watch out: If you have already taken the plates off to keep them, write the number that was on it anyway. It is still the number DMV's record carries.
5
You fill this in
Name of owner (printed) and signature of owner
A printed name, a signature on the X, and a date. The third required section.
Watch out: Original ink. A power of attorney is not one of the two documents Oregon accepts a carbon copy of, and a photocopied grant of authority is no authority at all.
6
Somebody else fills this in
Name of joint owner and signature of joint owner
A second pair of lines with its own date.
Watch out: Empty on a one-owner title. On a two-owner title, an authority signed by one owner only carries one owner's signature — the other still has to release their own interest somehow.
7
Somebody else fills this in
The instructions on the reverse
Not a field: how the authority is exercised, with the example Sharon Smith by Jane Doe.
Watch out: This is the half people skip and the half that gets rejected. The representative writes the owner's name, then by, then signs — and a firm signs and countersigns.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
I authorize the person or firm named below
The opening sentence: to act as my representative and to sign my name to any forms necessary concerning the titling and/or registration of the vehicle described below.
Name of person or firm appointed as attorney (printed)
The first of the three things that make the document valid.
Description of vehicle
Year, make, body style, vehicle identification number, plate number and title number — the second of the three.
Name of owner (printed) and signature of owner
The third. A printed name and a signature on an X, with a date beside it.
Name of joint owner and signature of joint owner
A second pair of lines with its own date, for a vehicle titled in two names.
The validity note
Printed above the boxes: this power of attorney is valid ONLY if the following sections are completed — the name of the person or firm appointed as attorney, the plate number, vehicle identification number or title number, and the signature of owner.
The non-transfer note
Set in its own block: THIS POWER OF ATTORNEY MAY NOT BE TRANSFERRED TO ANY OTHER PERSON OR FIRM.
The instructions on the back
How to exercise it — write the name of the owner followed by the representative's signature, with the example Sharon Smith by Jane Doe, and a second example for a firm, Sharon Smith by Morrison's Garage, where the representative must sign and countersign.
What gets this one rejected
•Any of the three required sections left empty. The form's own note says it is valid only if the appointed attorney, the vehicle identifier and the owner's signature are all completed.
•A signature that does not name the owner. The instructions require the owner's name, then the word by, then the representative's signature — a representative signing only their own name has not exercised the authority.
•A firm signing once. Where the named representative is a company, the representative must sign and countersign.
•Exercised on a different document from the one the authority was granted for. The instructions require it to be exercised on the title or document for which the authority was granted in order to be valid.
•Passed along to a third party, which the block in the middle of the form prohibits outright.
•Used to disclose an odometer reading in ordinary circumstances. That takes a secure power of attorney, and only where the title is lost, destroyed, mutilated or held by a security interest holder.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is for one vehicle. The description block is part of what makes it valid, so a power of attorney with no vehicle on it is not a power of attorney. A second car needs a second sheet.
•It does not reach the odometer. DMV's odometer page draws the line: you can only use a secure power of attorney to disclose odometer if the title is lost, destroyed, mutilated, or held by a security interest holder. That is a different, controlled document — form 735-402A — and this one is not a substitute for it.
•A parent or guardian signs differently. The handbook's own example for a minor is John Doe, 10, by John Doe, parent — the age goes in, and where a guardian signs, a copy of the court papers showing guardianship has to come with it.
•Revised in 2018 and still current. This is the oldest form in the Oregon set by some distance. That is not an error on the DMV forms page — it has simply not needed changing.
