How to fill out Washington 420-080

Not a form at all - an insert the department hands to somebody whose vehicle has been declared a total loss, setting out the three things they can do next. It is included here because it is the only published document that walks a Washington owner through selling a destroyed vehicle, and because it contains an instruction found nowhere else in the set: what a notarised bill of sale for a part has to contain.

Written against 420-080 (R/6/16), issued under RCW 46.12.600 and RCW 46.12.560. The two deadlines on this insert are easy to conflate and they belong to different people. Yours starts when the vehicle is destroyed, and the certificate has to be marked and posted - not handed to the insurer, not filed with a licensing office, but posted to the Wreckers desk in Olympia.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 420-080 from the dol.wa.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank 420-080 — Destroyed Vehicle Information PDF at dol.wa.gov · new tab

Not shown filled in

Why there is no completed 420-080 here

This is an information insert rather than a form: the department publishes it as a one-page explanation handed to the owner of a total-loss vehicle, and it carries no fields to complete. Reading its own PDF back through the AcroForm confirms it - the only three objects on the page are the three printed headings, and there is not a single box, tick or signature line anywhere on it. What it does carry is the list of what a notarised bill of sale for a part has to contain, which is why it has a page here.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Helpful information if	The opening test: the vehicle is damaged to the extent that it has been declared a total loss, and somebody has determined it would not be economical to repair.
Reporting	Two deadlines side by side. The registered or legal owner sends the title within 15 days of the vehicle's destruction; the insurance company sends it within 15 days of settlement of the claim.
What to write on the certificate	Write DESTROYED and the date it was destroyed across the face of the title, then send it to the Wreckers desk at the department in Olympia.
Owner option 1 - keep the vehicle	Take the registration, the notice of cancellation letter and the fees to a vehicle licensing office and apply for a title.
Owner option 2 - sell the vehicle	Four things go to the buyer: the notice of cancellation letter, this insert, a notarised bill of sale, and an odometer disclosure statement if the vehicle is less than ten years old - which the insert says must be printed by a vehicle licensing office.
The seller's report	Submit a seller Report of Sale to the department within five days from the date of sale, at any vehicle licensing office or online.
What the buyer must do	Have the vehicle inspected by the Washington State Patrol before it can be titled or licensed, presenting all original receipts for the parts used to repair it.
Owner option 3 - sell the parts	A notarised bill of sale for each part sold, and the insert lists what it must include: a description of the parts, the identification number, and the name of the last registered owner of record.

What gets this one rejected

•Bills of sale for parts made out to somebody else. The rule the insert restates is that they must be in the name of the person presenting the documents and the vehicle for inspection.
•Internet bid receipts. The insert names them and rejects them: internet bid receipts will not be accepted.
•Selling the remainder of the vehicle on a parts receipt. When the rest of the vehicle is sold the notarised bill of sale must include the vehicle description and the identification number.
•Assuming the buyer can simply register it. A destroyed vehicle has to pass a state patrol inspection before it can be titled or licensed.
•Holding on to the certificate. It is a gross misdemeanor to have a destroyed vehicle's title in your possession on the sixteenth day after the destruction.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Two fifteen-day clocks, and they start on different events. Yours runs from the destruction of the vehicle. The insurer's runs from the settlement of the claim.
•The odometer statement cannot be downloaded. For a destroyed vehicle less than ten years old the insert says the statement must be printed by a vehicle licensing office - the same tamper-proof paper rule that applies everywhere else in Washington.
•Selling a wreck still needs a Report of Sale. The insert repeats it in the sale option, and the department's list of reportable transfers includes giving a vehicle to a wrecking yard.
•The state patrol inspection is about provenance. It exists to establish that the major component parts used in the rebuild were obtained legally, which is why original receipts rather than copies are demanded.
•A rebuilt vehicle carries a mark for life. A vehicle identification number specialist attaches a marking at the driver's door latch pillar recording that the vehicle was previously destroyed, and removing it is a class C felony.

Every line here was read off 420-080 (R/6/16) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Washington State Department of Licensing pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Washington seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Washington involves.

How to fill out Washington 420-080

Why there is no completed 420-080 here

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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