Probate Notice to Creditors and Claim Deadlines in Oregon

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Publication upon appointment

ORS § 113.155 requires the personal representative to publish once upon appointment in a newspaper published in the county where the estate proceeding is pending. If the county has no newspaper, the court designates one. The notice must identify the court, decedent, personal representative, and claim address; give the four-month warning and publication date; and state where additional information may be obtained. Proof containing a copy of the notice must be filed in the estate proceeding.

If the original representative leaves office before the first four-month period expires, ORS § 113.225 requires the successor to republish and gives a new four-month presentation warning.

Search and individual notice

ORS § 115.003 gives the personal representative three months after appointment to make reasonably diligent efforts. The statute specifically requires an investigation of the decedent's financial records and affairs plus any further actions reasonably necessary to identify each person who has or asserts a claim and find that person's address. The representative must request, and the court must allow, more time when that work cannot reasonably be completed in the existing period.

Within 30 days after the search period ends, including any extension, the representative must mail or deliver the statutory notice to every person known during that period to have or assert a claim. Already presented, accepted, or fully paid claims and merely conjectural claims do not require notice. Proof of the search and notices is due within 60 days after the search period ends.

Presentation and form

ORS § 115.005 makes delivery to the personal representative essential:

“Filing a claim with the court does not constitute presentation to the personal representative.”

The creditor may mail or personally deliver the claim to one of the addresses specified by the statute. Email or fax works only if the representative has authorized that method and designated the destination. ORS § 115.025 requires a writing that describes the nature and ascertainable amount of the claim and states the claimant's and any attorney's names and addresses. ORS § 115.035 allows the representative or court to waive a defect in a timely claim's form.

Short deadline and late-payment route

Under ORS § 115.005, a claim ordinarily is barred from payment from the estate unless it is presented within the otherwise applicable limitation period and before the later of four months after publication or, for a claimant entitled to individual notice, 45 days after compliant notice is mailed or delivered to the claimant's last-known address.

A later claim must still be paid if it arrives before both the applicable limitation period expires and the final account is filed, the claimant did not receive individual notice more than 30 days earlier and is not an assignee of someone who did, and the claim would otherwise be allowable. That claim is subordinated to priority expenses and all previously presented claims.

Limitation periods and express exceptions

Oregon does not supply a separate death-based outside cap in the researched probate-claims scheme. ORS § 115.215 instead supplies a minimum window: a claim not already time-barred at death remains unbarred by its limitation period until at least one year after death. ORS § 115.205 generally prevents allowance of an already time-barred claim without written direction or consent from every interested person adversely affected.

ORS § 115.005 preserves lien, title, instrument-reformation, and insurance-only proceedings. ORS § 115.065 separately lets a secured creditor present the debt as unsecured without waiving the security and provides a deficiency method. ORS § 115.008 applies the chapter's time limits to the state, counties, and public corporations unless another provision specifically says otherwise. ORS § 115.315 lets an action pending at death continue without claim presentation; outside the named exceptions, ORS § 115.325 bars a new action against the representative until the claim has been presented and disallowed.

What trips people up

The four-month clock does not replace an entitled claimant's individual-notice clock. ORS § 115.005 uses the later deadline, but it also preserves the underlying statute of limitations. A probate notice therefore does not revive a claim already barred on another clock.

Court filing is not a substitute for presentation. The claim must reach the personal representative through a method and destination that ORS § 115.005 recognizes.

The no-known-assets branch postpones, rather than permanently eliminates, the publication and search duties. Once assets appear, publication must start within 30 days after the first inventory showing them, and the three-month search period starts on that inventory's filing date.

Common questions

Is every late claim barred from estate payment?

No. ORS § 115.005 requires payment of a qualifying unnotified claim presented before the applicable limitation expires and before the final account, but only after priority expenses and all previously presented claims.

Can a secured creditor preserve both the lien and a deficiency claim?

ORS § 115.065 permits a secured debt to be presented as an unsecured claim without waiving the security. The recoverable deficiency then depends on whether the creditor exhausts the security and its realized or determined value.

Must a creditor use paper?

The claim itself must be in writing. ORS § 115.005 permits email or fax only when the personal representative affirmatively authorizes that method and designates the address or number.

Statutes and sources

• ORS §§ 113.155 and 113.225 — publication, contents, proof, no-asset timing, and successor republication. Verbatim text and official source URL are in the frontmatter above; accessed August 12, 2026.
• ORS §§ 115.003, 115.005, 115.025, and 115.035 — search, direct notice, presentation, deadlines, late claims, exceptions, and form. Verbatim text and official source URL are in the frontmatter above; accessed August 12, 2026.
• ORS §§ 115.008, 115.065, 115.205, 115.215, 115.315, and 115.325 — public bodies, secured claims, limitation rules, pending actions, and action gate. Verbatim text and official source URL are in the frontmatter above; accessed August 12, 2026.