Not your form, and worth a page precisely because it looks like it might be. This is the notice an insurance company files when it declares a vehicle a total loss, and it carries the instructions the insurer has to give you. If your car has just been written off, this is the document your insurer owes DMV within thirty days — and the reason you will shortly be asked to surrender a certificate you may have been planning to sell.
Written against 735-7282 (4-26), issued under ORS 819.014.
Revised April 2026. If you are a private seller reading this page, the useful part is the three duties in the middle — those are the things your insurer is obliged to tell you, and the things a buyer will later hold you to.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 735-7282 from the oregon.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 735-7282, 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 735-7282 at revision 4-26, completed by the insurer rather than the owner. Every box on it is theirs — it is here so a seller can recognise the document behind the letter that arrives and knows what it obliges the insurer to tell them.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The insurance agent fills this in
Insurance company name, address and telephone number
The insurer's own identification at the head of the form, with a separate mailing address if it differs.
Watch out: If you are the owner and this box is being filled in on your behalf, it is not your form. Ask for a copy of it anyway — it dates the declaration.
2
The insurance agent fills this in
Date of loss and claim number
Two boxes tying the notice to the claim.
Watch out: The date of loss and the date the vehicle was declared a total loss are not always the same day, and it is the declaration that starts the thirty days.
3
The insurance agent fills this in
Vehicle year, make, plate number and state of registration
The vehicle block, with the plate marked if known.
Watch out: State of registration matters because the form is only for Oregon-titled vehicles. Anything else goes to the state that issued the title.
4
The insurance agent fills this in
Vehicle identification number
The identifier DMV attaches the totalled brand to.
Watch out: Once this notice lands, the brand follows the VIN. Nothing done to the car afterwards takes it off the record.
5
The insurance agent fills this in
Date submitted to DMV
One box, and the one the thirty-day duty is measured against.
Watch out: You must notify DMV within 30 days of the date the vehicle is declared a total loss — the form prints the duty directly above the boxes.
6
The insurance agent fills this in
Notify the registered owner
Two printed obligations rather than fields: tell the owner to surrender the title to DMV, and tell them they must inform any buyer that the vehicle is totalled.
Watch out: That second obligation is the one that reaches a private sale months later. A totalled car sold without the disclosure is a problem that arrives with the buyer's own title application.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Insurance company and date of loss
Insurance company name, address, telephone number, a mailing address if different, the date of loss and a claim number.
Vehicle information
Vehicle year, make, plate number and state of registration if known, and the vehicle identification number.
Date submitted to DMV
One dated box, which is the date the thirty days is measured against.
The instructions block
An insurer may use this form to notify DMV when the vehicle has been declared a total loss, as required by ORS 819.014 — followed by what the insurer must do.
The three duties
Notify DMV within 30 days of the date the vehicle is declared a total loss; notify the registered owner that they must surrender the title to DMV; and notify the registered owner that they must inform any buyer that the vehicle is totalled.
The out-of-state note
You only need to submit this form to Oregon DMV if the vehicle is titled in Oregon; otherwise check the notice requirements for the title-holding state.
The availability note
This form is only available on DMV's website at www.OregonDMV.com.
What gets this one rejected
•Filed by an owner. It is an insurer's notification, and an owner surrendering a title after a total loss is doing something different — usually applying for a salvage title.
•Filed for a vehicle titled in another state. The form's own instruction is to check the notice requirements for the title-holding state instead.
•Filed later than thirty days from the declaration. The duty in ORS 819.014 runs from the date the vehicle is declared a total loss, not from the date the claim settles.
•Sent to the general DMV address. It goes to DMV Totaled Vehicle Notice, 1905 Lana Ave NE, Salem OR 97314.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It creates two duties for you, not one. The insurer has to tell the registered owner both things: surrender the title to DMV, and inform any buyer that the vehicle is totalled. The second one outlives the claim — it attaches to the sale you make afterwards.
•Your thirty days runs alongside theirs. DMV's outlier page puts the same deadline on the owner: if your vehicle is a total loss, you must submit the title to DMV, or to your insurer, within 30 days of the declared loss.
•A settlement you kept the car out of does not end it. Even if no repairs are done, the vehicle must be re-titled because of the totalled status — either as a salvage title or, once rebuilt, as an assembled, reconstructed or replica vehicle.
