One page, fifteen boxes, and the only Oregon document in this whole set that a seller can complete on their own doorstep without the certificate in front of them. It is a release of interest, not a receipt: DMV accepts it in place of a signature on the title where the person releasing cannot sign the title itself, and it is what a buyer is told to ask for when the name on the certificate is not the name of the person selling the car. It is also the form that prints the ten-day rule where a seller will actually see it.
Written against 735-501 (4-25), issued under ORS 803.112 and the release-of-interest requirements in DMV Title & Registration Handbook Chapter E.
Revised April 2025. The ten-day and thirty-day notes printed down the right-hand side are part of the form, not commentary added here — check they are still on the copy you download.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 735-501 from the oregon.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 735-501, 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 735-501 at revision 4-25, completed for a one-owner sale. The second seller row stays empty because the certificate is in one name; where it is in two, both rows get used or the second owner releases on a separate sheet.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
The full-width box across the top of the form, with a tick box beside it for a VIN that begins with the letters OR.
Watch out: The OR box is for a DMV-assigned identification number — the kind issued to an assembled or reconstructed vehicle after an inspection. If your VIN came from a factory, leave it alone.
2
You fill this in
Plate Number, Year, Make, Title Number
Four boxes on the second row, describing the vehicle as the certificate describes it.
Watch out: Any one of plate, VIN or title number is enough for DMV to identify the vehicle, but a bill of sale carrying all four is a bill of sale nobody has to ring you about.
3
You fill this in
I transfer all rights, title and interest ... to
The buyer's printed name, last, first, middle, and the date of purchase beside it.
Watch out: That opening sentence is the part that makes this a release rather than a receipt. Cross it out or reword it and DMV is holding a document it cannot use.
4
You fill this in
Buyer's address
A full-width line under the buyer's name.
Watch out: Take it off the licence they are showing you. You need the same address again within ten days, on the seller notice, and reconstructing it from memory is where sellers guess.
5
You fill this in
Printed name of seller and date of release
The first seller row. A printed name — or a business name, where the seller is a business — and the date interest is released.
Watch out: Print it as the title has it. A release from a business needs the business name and an authorised representative's signature both, which is why the row's label names them separately.
6
You fill this in
Signature of seller
The signature line inside the first seller row.
Watch out: Original ink, blue or black, and no photocopies — the note at the top of the form says exactly that. Hand-printing is acceptable; the handbook does not require cursive.
7
Somebody else fills this in
The second seller row
A second printed name, date of release and signature, for a certificate issued in two names.
Watch out: Left blank on a one-owner sale. If the front of the title shows two owners and only one signs anywhere, the transfer stops until the other releases — here or on their own document.
8
You fill this in
Seller's address
The last line on the form.
Watch out: Give the address DMV has for you if you can. The department matches people by customer number and name, and an address it has never seen is one more thing for a clerk to reconcile.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle description
Vehicle identification number across the top, with a tick box beside it for a VIN that begins with the letters OR, then plate number, year, make and title number on the row below.
I transfer all rights, title and interest in the above described vehicle to
The printed name of the buyer, last, first, middle, and the date of purchase.
Buyer's address
A single full-width line under the buyer's name.
Printed name of seller
Two seller rows, each taking a printed name and a date of release. The first row's label adds: business name if seller is a business.
Signature of seller
A signature line inside each seller row, the first of them labelled authorized representative of business.
Seller's address
The last line on the sheet, below both signature rows.
The note above the boxes
Printed instructions rather than a field: use only blue or black ink, do not white out or strike through any name, and it must be an original seller's signature with no photocopies.
The two side notes
One says you must provide notification to DMV of the sale within 10 days of the sale, citing ORS 803.112. The other says that if the buyer does not apply for a title within 30 days from the date of purchase, they may be subject to a late title transfer fee.
What gets this one rejected
•A photocopy. The note at the top of the form says original seller's signature, no photocopies, and DMV's handbook allows a carbon copy on two documents in the entire system, neither of which is this one.
•A name struck through or whited out. Both are barred in the same printed note, and a correction has to be made on a Statement of Error or Erasure of a Name instead.
•No indication of what is being released. A release of interest has to say the seller is releasing all interest in the vehicle, which is what the form's own opening line does — a bill of sale that only records a price is not a release.
•No vehicle description. DMV requires at least the plate number, the vehicle identification number or the title number, and a document with none of the three cannot be matched to a record.
•No date of sale, which is the date both the ten-day and the thirty-day clocks run from.
•An invoice, a purchase agreement or a purchase order offered instead. The handbook names all three and rejects all three.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It does not have to be this form. The handbook is explicit: a bill of sale does not have to be completed on a DMV form. What it must contain is a vehicle description, all proper signatures with an indication that the seller releases all interest, and the date of sale. The buyer's information is welcome but the document is acceptable without it.
•The buyer's side of the page asks for it. DMV's advice to buyers is to get a bill of sale from the seller if the seller's name is not on the title — and to insist it carries the VIN, a statement releasing interest, the printed name and signature of the seller, and the date of sale, because DMV cannot process one without them.
•Two seller rows, because two owners. Where the certificate is in two names, both release. They can do it on one bill of sale, on separate bills of sale, or on the title itself — Oregon does not require every owner to use the same document.
