Oregon Simple Estate Affidavit: Three Limits at Once

General information, not legal advice. Oregon uses separate testate and intestate versions of the form and filings are commonly rejected over fixable errors. Confirm requirements with the circuit court before filing.

Test all three Oregon limits ↓

What are the Oregon limits?

ORS 114.510 sets three ceilings that must all be satisfied simultaneously. The fair market value of the estate has to be $275,000 or less overall. Within that, no more than $75,000 may be attributable to personal property, and no more than $200,000 to real property. An estate can therefore fail on the combined figure even when each component looks fine, or fail on the personal property ceiling while the house sits comfortably under its own. Run all three tests rather than checking whichever number you happened to read first, because families routinely clear one and assume they have cleared the rest.

Gross value, no deductions

Here is where Oregon filings die. Values are taken without reducing for liens or debts, so a house worth $240,000 with a $90,000 mortgage counts as $240,000, not $150,000, and it blows past the $200,000 real property ceiling. The same logic applies to a financed car: full value counts, not the equity. This is the exact opposite of Arizona, where the limits are measured net of liens, which is why advice imported from another state is dangerous here. Subtracting the mortgage to squeeze under the limit does not merely risk rejection; an over-limit estate strips your authority under the statute, so the filing was never valid to begin with.

It is a court filing, not a bank errand

Unlike Colorado or Minnesota, where you hand the affidavit to whoever holds the asset, Oregon's is filed with the clerk of the probate court in a county with venue, the county where the decedent died, was domiciled, or where the property is located, and it becomes part of the probate records. It cannot be filed until at least 30 days after the death. The Oregon Judicial Department publishes separate testate and intestate versions of the form, so picking the right one is your first real decision. Common rejections are mundane and avoidable: filing before the 30 days run, or forgetting to attach a certified death record.

What happens after you file

Filing is not the end of your obligations. Within 30 days of filing with the circuit court, the affiant must deliver complete copies of the affidavit and all addendums to the other recipients of the estate. Beyond that, Oregon allows a claiming successor who has not been paid in full, or certain creditors, to petition the probate court for a summary review of the administration within two years of the filing, so the affidavit does not close the door permanently. Two practical notes: if there is a safe deposit box, its contents must be inventoried before the affidavit is filed, and known creditors should be paid before you rely on the affidavit at all.

Written by the Trámites Notariales US editorial team, based on ORS 114.505 to 114.560 and Oregon Judicial Department forms. Confirm current requirements with the circuit court.