Oregon Creditor Claims | Settled Estate

An Oregon creditor has four months from the date the notice to interested persons is published to present a claim to the personal representative. A creditor the personal representative was required to notify individually gets the later of that date and 45 days after the notice went out. Claims go to the personal representative, never to the court file.

Oregon calls its published notice a notice to interested persons rather than a notice to creditors, and that wording hides the deadline from people searching for it. The four months live in ORS 115.005(2)(a), and the publication that starts them lives in ORS 113.155. This page covers both clocks, how a creditor actually presents a claim, what the personal representative owes a creditor nobody published to, what happens when a claim is disallowed, and how the same four months behave on the affidavit route. Read it beside personal representative duties and Oregon probate deadlines, and take any live date to the court handling the file, listed in the Oregon probate court directory, or to a licensed Oregon attorney. It is general information about Oregon law rather than advice about one estate.

Two Dates, and the Later One Wins

ORS 115.005(2) bars a claim from payment unless the creditor presents it inside its own statute of limitations and before the later of two dates. Both halves have to hold. A debt that expired while the decedent was alive stays expired, and nothing in ORS chapter 115 revives it.

The creditor's situation	Deadline to present the claim	Statute
Notice to interested persons was published and the creditor received no individual notice	Four months after the date of publication	ORS 115.005(2)(a)
The personal representative was required to send that creditor an individual notice	The later of four months after publication and 45 days after that notice was delivered or mailed	ORS 115.005(2)(a) and (b)
The claim was already outside its own statute of limitations	Barred on that ground whichever date falls later	ORS 115.005(2)
The estate is being settled by simple estate affidavit	Four months after the affidavit was filed	ORS 114.540(1)(a)

The 45 days sets a floor under the bar and never shortens it. A creditor who gets an individual notice on day 10 of the administration still has the full four months from publication, because ORS 115.005(2) reaches for whichever date is later. Read the other way, the arithmetic can push one creditor well past everyone else. ORS 115.003(1) gives the personal representative three months after appointment to search, ORS 115.003(2) allows another 30 days to mail, and the 45 days then runs from that mailing. A personal representative who uses every day of that allowance leaves a known creditor with a bar roughly six weeks after the published four months have already closed for everyone else. Mailing the individual notices during the search period, rather than after it, keeps the whole estate on one calendar.

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Publication Starts the Clock

ORS 113.155(1) tells the personal representative to publish the notice to interested persons once upon appointment, in a newspaper published in the county where the estate proceeding is pending. If no newspaper is published in that county, the court designates one. A statewide paper is not automatically good enough, and the county the estate is pending in decides the question.

ORS 113.155(2) fixes what the notice says. It carries the title of the court, the name of the decedent, the name of the personal representative and the address where claims are to be presented, the date of publication, and a statement requiring all persons with claims to present them within four months after that date or they may be barred. ORS 113.155(4) then requires the personal representative to file proof of publication, including a copy of the published notice, in the estate proceeding.

Two things follow from that design. The date of publication is printed inside the notice itself, so a creditor never has to guess when the four months began. And because publication happens on appointment, every week between the death and the appointment is a week added to the far end of the estate rather than shaved off the creditor window. The Oregon probate timeline works through what that does to the closing date.

ORS 113.155(5) carves out the one estate that does not publish on appointment: a petition stating that no assets are known to the petitioner and none have reached the personal representative. If assets surface later, the personal representative starts publication within 30 days after filing the inventory or supplemental inventory that first shows them.

Oregon prints no substitute deadline for an estate that simply never publishes. ORS 113.155(3) treats the failure as a breach of duty to the persons concerned while leaving the appointment, duties and powers intact. ORS 115.215 keeps a claim that was still alive on the date of death from being barred by its own statute of limitations until at least one year after that date.

The Diligent Search and the 45-Day Notice

ORS 115.003(1) sets the personal representative a real job, not a formality. During the three months following appointment, unless the court allows longer, the personal representative investigates the financial records and affairs of the decedent and takes any further action reasonably necessary to find the identity and address of each person who has or asserts a claim. The statute also tells the court to grant more time when the personal representative asks and cannot finish the search inside the window.

Not later than 30 days after that period ends, ORS 115.003(2) requires an individual notice to every claimant found during it. Two people drop out of that list: anyone whose claim has already been presented, accepted or paid in full, and anyone whose claim is merely conjectural. The personal representative may also send the same notice to a claimant discovered after the search period, which is how a late-surfacing creditor gets pulled onto a definite 45-day clock.

ORS 115.003(3) sets the contents. The notice carries the title of the court, the name of the decedent, the name of the personal representative and the address for presenting claims, a statement that a claim not presented within 45 days of the date of the notice may be barred, and the date of the notice, which is the date it was delivered or mailed.

The paperwork closes at 60 days. ORS 115.003(4) requires the personal representative to file proof of compliance with both the search and the mailing, including a copy of the notice form, the date each notice went out, and the name and address of each recipient.

Skipping the search has a price the estate cannot shrug off. ORS 115.003(5) calls the failure a breach of duty without disturbing the appointment, and ORS 115.004 then hands the unpaid creditor a cause of action against the personal representative and the surety, plus a separate cause of action against every interested person who received a distribution, in the amount that distribution would have been reduced. ORS 115.004(5) gives the creditor two years after the death, or the claim's own statute of limitations, whichever runs out first.

How a Creditor Presents a Claim

ORS 115.005(1)(a) is blunt about the mechanics: filing a claim with the court does not constitute presentation. A claim is presented when it is mailed or personally delivered to the personal representative at one of three addresses. Those are the address for the personal representative in the petition for appointment under ORS 113.035, the address given for presenting claims under ORS 115.003, and the address printed in the published notice under ORS 113.155 or 113.225.

ORS 115.005(1)(b) adds an optional fourth route. The personal representative may authorize creditors to present claims by email or fax at a designated address or number, and a claim sent there counts as presented unless the sender gets a bounce or a failed transmission. If the personal representative denies receiving it, the creditor carries the burden of showing the message was properly addressed and sent or successfully delivered.

The claim itself is short. ORS 115.025 asks for a writing that describes the nature and the amount of the claim, if the amount can be worked out, and states the names and addresses of the claimant and any attorney for the claimant. ORS 115.035 lets the personal representative or the court waive a defect of form in a claim that arrived on time, so a timely claim in the wrong shape is fixable and a perfect claim that arrives late is not. ORS 115.045 lets the personal representative demand any written evidence behind the claim, and the claimant must produce it or account for its absence.

Some claims have their own handling. ORS 115.065 lets a secured creditor present a claim as though the debt were unsecured without giving up the security, and sets out how a deficiency is measured depending on whether the creditor exhausts the security first. ORS 115.070 covers a judgment entered before the death, ORS 115.075 covers a debt not yet due, and ORS 115.085 covers a contingent or unliquidated debt, including a court order holding back funds that may not be kept open more than two years after the rest of the estate is distributed. ORS 115.105 sends the personal representative's own claim to the clerk of the court instead, filed within the same period.

The Late Claim That Can Still Be Paid

ORS 115.005(3) is a narrow escape hatch, and it is four conditions rather than a second window. A claim presented after the bar is still paid when it arrives before its own statute of limitations runs and before the personal representative files the final account, when the claimant did not receive an ORS 115.003 notice mailed or delivered more than 30 days before the claim was presented and is not the assignee of somebody who did, and when the claim would be allowable but for its timing.

The payment order that follows is what makes this a poor plan for a creditor. ORS 115.005(4) pays a subsection (3) claim only after every expense with priority over claims under ORS 115.125 and every previously presented claim. ORS 115.115 then puts subsection (3) claims in the order received, to the extent anything is left. A creditor who waits is standing at the back of a line that may end before it reaches them.

What the Four Months Never Touch

ORS 115.005(5) keeps two things outside the bar. The first is any proceeding to enforce a mortgage, pledge or other lien on estate property, or to quiet title or reform an instrument about title. The second is a proceeding to establish the liability of the decedent or the personal representative where liability insurance covers it, and only to the limits of that insurance protection.

Litigation already running when the person died also survives. ORS 115.305 carries causes of action over to and against the personal representative, and ORS 115.315 lets an action commenced before and pending on the date of death continue under ORCP 34 B(2) without any claim being presented. Going the other way, ORS 115.325 bars a creditor from suing the personal representative on a claim until the claim has been presented and disallowed, with exceptions for ORS 115.004, ORS 115.005(5) and ORS 115.065.

Public bodies get no separate calendar. ORS 115.008 applies the chapter's statutes of limitation and other time limits to actions brought in the name of the state, a county or a public corporation, except where chapter 115 says otherwise, and it overrides ORS 12.250 to do it.

Allowance, Disallowance and the 30-Day Answer

Silence allows a claim in Oregon. ORS 115.135(1) treats a presented claim as allowed as presented unless the personal representative mails or delivers a notice of disallowance within 60 days after the date of presentation, and requires the claim and a copy of the notice to be filed in the estate proceeding. ORS 115.135(2) makes the notice state the reason and warn the claimant that the disallowed part will be barred unless the claimant proceeds under ORS 115.145. Stating a reason is not an admission and does not give up other defenses.

ORS 115.135(3) allows a personal representative to rescind an earlier allowance where it happened through error, misinformation or excusable neglect, with notice to the claimant not less than 30 days before the final account is filed.

The claimant's answer window is 30 days from the mailing or delivery of the disallowance. ORS 115.145(1) offers two doors: a request for summary determination filed in the estate proceeding, with proof of service on the personal representative, or a separate action in any court of competent jurisdiction. ORS 115.145(2) bars the disallowed part of the claim if the claimant takes neither.

Choosing summary determination does not settle where the fight happens. ORS 115.155 lets the personal representative, within 30 days after being served with the request, notify the claimant in writing that proving the claim now requires a separate action started within 60 days after that notice arrives, and the claim is barred if the claimant misses it. Where the summary determination does go ahead, ORS 115.165 has the personal representative move or plead as though the claim were a complaint, has the court hear the matter without a jury, and closes off any appeal from the resulting order. ORS 115.175 lets any interested person be heard, or intervene in the separate action.

Two evidence rules sit behind all of this. ORS 115.195(1) stops any court from allowing a disallowed claim except on competent, satisfactory evidence other than the claimant's own testimony. ORS 115.205 blocks allowance of a claim already barred by its statute of limitations unless the interested persons who would be hurt by it consent in writing.

A creditor holding an allowed claim has a lever if payment stalls. ORS 115.185 lets a creditor whose claim has been allowed or established, and who has not been paid within six months after the date of publication of notice to interested persons, apply for a court order directing payment to the extent estate funds are available.

Presenting Comes Before Paying

Presentment and payment are separate tasks with separate rules. ORS 115.115 holds the personal representative back until the day all known claims are barred under ORS 115.005(2), then requires payment of allowed claims in the order ORS 115.125 sets, after providing for court-ordered support of spouse and children, expenses of administration, and claims already presented that are not yet allowed or are under appeal.

ORS 115.125(1) runs 14 classes when the assets cannot cover everything. Support of spouse and children comes first, subject to the limits in ORS 114.065, then expenses of administration, then the expenses of a plain and decent funeral, then debts and taxes with preference under federal law, then reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness. Further down sit state taxes with preference, wages owed to employees for labor in the 90 days before the death, child support arrearages, the Department of Veterans' Affairs claim under ORS 406.100, the Department of Human Services and Oregon Health Authority claims, and the Department of Corrections claim for care and maintenance at a state institution. Ordinary creditors are the last class, class (n). ORS 115.125(2) pays each claim inside an underfunded class in proportion to its amount. The order debts get paid works through every class and what an insolvent Oregon estate does next.

One notice belongs in this section rather than the creditor sections, because it runs on a different clock and catches people out. ORS 113.145(6) requires the personal representative, within 30 days after appointment, to mail or deliver the ORS 113.145(1) information and a copy of the death record to the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority. That is an appointment deadline, not a claim deadline, and it is separate from the ORS 115.003 search.

Claims Against a Simple Estate Affidavit

The affidavit route keeps the four months and moves the starting gun. ORS 114.540(1)(a) lets a claim be presented to the affiant within four months after the simple estate affidavit was filed, and within four months after any amended affidavit filed under ORS 114.515(6). ORS 114.540(1)(b) bars anything later except as ORS 114.550 or ORS 130.350 provides. As in a full administration, ORS 114.540(1)(c) says filing with the court is not presentation, and ORS 114.540(1)(e) requires the same information ORS 115.025 asks for.

Disallowance works the same way with different exits. Under ORS 114.540(2)(a), a claim presented to the affiant that was not listed in the affidavit is allowed as presented unless the affiant sends a notice of disallowance within 60 days, and the disallowed part is barred unless the claimant petitions for summary determination under ORS 114.542 or a petition to appoint a personal representative is filed inside the ORS 114.555 window.

The tail is longer than the front. ORS 114.555(1)(a) lets the affiant transfer the decedent's interest once the four months close, once unsecured creditors have been paid to the extent of the estate's property, and before the two-year period in ORS 114.550 runs out. ORS 114.555(2) then keeps the conveyed property subject to liens and to the rights of the decedent's creditors until that two-year period expires. The simple estate affidavit covers the caps and the filing itself.

Trust Claims Are a Different Chapter

ORS 115.335 says the provisions of chapter 115 do not apply to claims against trusts subject to ORS 130.350 to 130.450. Those sections reach a claim only where all four of the ORS 130.350(2) conditions hold: the claim is against trust assets, the trust came into existence during the settlor's lifetime and was revocable at some point before the settlor's death, the claim rests on the settlor's debts or liabilities, and the claim is made after the settlor died. ORS 130.355 lets the trustee petition the probate court to determine the settlor's creditors, which is what starts the trust-side notice and claim sequence. A revocable living trust does not close creditors out; it moves them into a parallel process with its own calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do creditors have to file a claim against an Oregon estate?

Four months from the date the notice to interested persons is published is the routine window under ORS 115.005(2)(a). A creditor the personal representative was required to notify individually under ORS 115.003(2) gets the later of that four months and 45 days after the individual notice was delivered or mailed. A claim that was already outside its own statute of limitations stays barred on that ground no matter which date falls later.

Does an Oregon creditor claim get filed with the court?

No. ORS 115.005(1)(a) says filing a claim with the court does not count as presenting it. The claim goes to the personal representative, at the address in the petition for appointment under ORS 113.035, the address given under ORS 115.003, or the address printed in the published notice. ORS 115.005(1)(b) lets the personal representative also accept claims by email or fax at a designated address or number.

Does an Oregon personal representative have to search for creditors?

Yes. ORS 115.003(1) gives the personal representative three months after appointment to investigate the financial records and affairs of the decedent and identify each person who has or asserts a claim. ORS 115.003(2) then requires an individual notice to each of those people within 30 days after the search period ends, and ORS 115.003(4) requires proof of that work to be filed in the estate proceeding within 60 days after the period ends.

Can a late claim still be paid from an Oregon estate?

Sometimes. ORS 115.005(3) lets a late claim be paid when three things hold at once: the claim arrives before its own statute of limitations runs and before the personal representative files the final account, the claimant did not receive an ORS 115.003 notice more than 30 days before presenting and is not an assignee of someone who did, and the claim would otherwise be allowable. ORS 115.005(4) pays it only after everything with priority over claims under ORS 115.125 and every claim presented on time.

What happens after an Oregon personal representative disallows a claim?

The claimant has 30 days. ORS 115.145(1) gives the claimant that window from the date the notice of disallowance was mailed or delivered to either file a request for summary determination in the estate proceeding or start a separate action against the personal representative. ORS 115.145(2) bars the disallowed part of the claim if the claimant does neither. Silence from the personal representative works the other way: ORS 115.135(1) treats a presented claim as allowed unless a notice of disallowance goes out within 60 days.

Do the four months apply on the Oregon simple estate affidavit route?

Yes, measured from a different event. ORS 114.540(1)(a) lets a creditor present a claim to the affiant within four months after the simple estate affidavit was filed, and within four months after any amended affidavit. There is no publication on that route, so the filing date sets the clock. ORS 114.555(2) then keeps the transferred property subject to the rights of creditors until the two-year period in ORS 114.550 expires.

Which debts does an Oregon estate pay first when the money runs out?

ORS 115.125(1) sets a 14-class order that applies when the assets cannot cover everything. Support of spouse and children comes first, then expenses of administration, then the expenses of a plain and decent funeral, then debts and taxes with preference under federal law, then the medical and hospital expenses of the last illness. Ordinary creditors sit in the final class. ORS 115.125(2) pays each claim inside an underfunded class in proportion to its amount.

Sources:

Title: ORS Chapter 115, Claims; Actions and Suits, 2025 Edition, including ORS 115.003, 115.004, 115.005, 115.008, 115.025, 115.035, 115.045, 115.065, 115.070, 115.075, 115.085, 115.105, 115.115, 115.125, 115.135, 115.145, 115.155, 115.165, 115.175, 115.185, 115.195, 115.205, 115.215, 115.305, 115.315, 115.325 and 115.335. Publisher: Oregon Legislative Assembly, Legislative Counsel Committee. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-25. URL: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors115.html
Title: ORS Chapter 113, Initiation of Estate Proceedings, 2025 Edition, including ORS 113.035 (petition for appointment), ORS 113.145 (information to devisees, heirs, interested persons, Department of Human Services and Oregon Health Authority) and ORS 113.155 (publication of notice to interested persons). Publisher: Oregon Legislative Assembly, Legislative Counsel Committee. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-25. URL: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors113.html
Title: ORS Chapter 114, Administration of Estates Generally, 2025 Edition, including ORS 114.065 (limitations on support), ORS 114.515, 114.540 (procedure for claims), 114.542, 114.550 and 114.555. Publisher: Oregon Legislative Assembly, Legislative Counsel Committee. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-25. URL: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors114.html
Title: ORS Chapter 130, Uniform Trust Code, 2025 Edition, including ORS 130.350 (statute of limitations) and ORS 130.355 (commencement of proceeding). Publisher: Oregon Legislative Assembly, Legislative Counsel Committee. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-25. URL: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors130.html

It is not legal advice.