The one form on this whole site that exists purely for the person selling the car. It tells DMV the vehicle has gone, names who took it, and puts a dated line on your record saying so. Oregon gives you ten days from the transfer to file it, and the form spends its first four bullet points explaining what it is not: it is not a bill of sale, it does not change ownership on DMV records, and the owner shown on the record will not change until the buyer is issued a title.
Written against 735-6890 (5-26), issued under ORS 803.112.
Revised May 2026. If you file on DMV2U instead you are filing the same notice — the online service is the department's preferred route and it timestamps itself, which the posted form does not.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 735-6890 from the oregon.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is all 2 pages of the actual 735-6890, 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
Page 1 of 2. The notice itself. The buyer's half is filled in from the licence they showed at the sale; their signature lines are marked if available and stay empty, because a seller normally files this after the car has gone.Page 2 of 2. The reverse, which is instructions rather than fields: the two ways to file, the dealer's separate route, and DMV's own argument for taking the plates off the car.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
PLATE NUMBER, YEAR, MAKE
The first row of the vehicle block.
Watch out: Give the plate number even if you took the plates off. It is how DMV finds the registration record attached to the vehicle you are reporting.
2
You fill this in
VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER and TITLE NUMBER
The second row. Both are on the face of the certificate you have just signed over.
Watch out: Photograph the front of the title before you hand it across. Everything this form asks for is on that one face, and once the certificate is gone it is gone.
3
You fill this in
NAME OF BUYER OR TRANSFEREE (PLEASE PRINT)
The buyer's printed name, with an ODL or customer number beside it marked if available.
Watch out: Print it as their licence prints it. The customer number is optional but it is the thing that lets DMV attach the notice to a real person rather than to a name.
4
You fill this in
PHONE NUMBER and DATE OF BIRTH (MM-DD-YYYY)
An area code box and a number, then a date of birth in the department's own order.
Watch out: Leave a box empty rather than filling it with something plausible. A wrong date of birth here is not a harmless blank — knowingly submitting false information about a transfer is a Class C misdemeanour.
5
You fill this in
ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE
One line for where the buyer lives.
Watch out: DMV's instruction on its selling page is to include the name and address of the buyer, and this is the line it means. It is also the line that turns the notice from a shrug into a record.
6
The buyer fills this in
SIGNATURE OF BUYER OR TRANSFEREE (IF AVAILABLE)
Two signature lines in the buyer's half, each with a date of purchase, both marked if available.
Watch out: Genuinely optional — the department expects most of these to be filed by the seller alone after the buyer has driven away. If the buyer is still standing there, a signature costs nothing and makes the notice harder to argue with.
7
You fill this in
NAME OF SELLER OR TRANSFEROR (PLEASE PRINT)
Your printed name, customer number, area code, phone and date of birth, with a second row for a co-owner.
Watch out: Use the name DMV holds for you. The handbook's rule for the whole system is to always use your customer number and the same name with DMV, because every record hangs off that number.
8
Somebody else fills this in
The second seller row
An identical identity block for a second registered owner.
Watch out: A jointly owned car is jointly sold. Both owners have released interest on the certificate, and both belong on the notice that says so.
9
You fill this in
SIGNATURE OF SELLER OR TRANSFEROR and DATE OF SALE
The last block on the form, and the only signature it actually requires.
Watch out: The date of sale here has to be the same date you wrote in the reassignment block on the title. Two documents in the same envelope disagreeing about the day the car changed hands is the kind of discrepancy that generates a letter.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Vehicle block
Plate number, year and make on the first row; vehicle identification number and title number on the second.
Buyer / transferee
Under the line “The vehicle was sold or ownership transferred to:” — printed name, ODL or customer number if available, phone number with a separate area code box, and date of birth as MM-DD-YYYY. The whole set repeats for a second buyer.
Buyer's address
One full-width line taking address, city, state and ZIP code.
Buyer's signature
Two signature lines, each with a date of purchase beside it, both marked if available.
Seller / transferor
The same identity block again for the seller: printed name, ODL or customer number, area code and phone, date of birth, repeated for a second seller.
Seller's address
A full-width line for address, city, state and ZIP.
Signature of seller or transferor
Two signature lines with a date of sale beside each. These are the only signatures on the form that are not marked optional.
The four bullets at the top
Printed conditions rather than fields: the form is not a bill of sale, must be submitted to DMV within 10 days of transfer of interest, is only used by DMV to note on the vehicle record that it is sold, and does not change ownership on DMV records.
The dealer note on page two
Dealers retain a copy and do not submit this form with the buyer's title transaction; a vehicle taken into dealer stock is notified on a Dealer Notice of Vehicle Purchase, Form 735-165, instead.
What gets this one rejected
•Filing it in place of a release. The form prints the warning across its own foot: this form is NOT an assignment or release of interest in the vehicle. Sending it instead of signing the title leaves the transfer exactly where it was.
•A buyer's name with no address. DMV asks specifically for the name and address of the buyer, and a notice that cannot say where the vehicle went is a notice that does very little.
•Guessed detail. Knowingly submitting false information about a transfer is a Class C misdemeanour under ORS 803.116, and an invented date of birth or address is exactly that.
•Filing one for a transfer that has not happened. Knowingly submitting a false notice of transfer is a separate Class C misdemeanour under ORS 803.114.
•A dealer submitting it with the buyer's title paperwork, which the form's own dealer note tells them not to do.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Three ways to file, and the fastest is not this one. The reverse of your certificate lists all three under SELLER NOTICE: online at DMV2U.Oregon.gov, on this form by post, or by completing the back of your registration card. The online route is the one DMV's own selling page names first.
•Ten days, and no penalty for missing it. ORS 803.112 sets the deadline and attaches no fine to it. The reason to file inside ten days is not enforcement — it is that the record shows the transfer from the date you filed, and a citation that arrives afterwards has somebody else's name attached to it.
•Some transfers are exempt. The statute lifts the requirement where the change is a security interest or a lease rather than ownership, where a court has awarded the vehicle, and for dealers moving a vehicle to another dealer or filing the buyer's title application for them.
•The plate advice printed on page two. DMV uses the back of this form to make the case for taking the plates off: one way to ensure you don't get tickets or towing charges after selling your car is to remove the plates when you sell it, and the buyer can get a 21-day trip permit from DMV.
