Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Oregon, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 4 months to file a claim; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 45 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Oregon?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 4 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | No independent death-based bar; see note below |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 45 days |
“a claim is barred from payment from the estate if not presented within the statute of limitations applicable to the claim and before the later of: (a) Four months after the date of publication of notice to interested persons; or (b) If the claim was one with respect to which the personal representative was required to deliver or mail a notice…, 45 days after a notice…is delivered or mailed to the last-known address of the person asserting the claim.”
What makes Oregon different
Oregon has no independent death-based bar at all; both the 4-month general deadline and the 45-day known-creditor deadline run only from notice events, within the claim’s own underlying statute of limitations.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Oregon’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | ORS 115.005 (see also ORS 115.003) |
| Oregon courts (general reference) | Oregon judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.