BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1722
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 1722 (Hagman) - As Introduced: February 3, 2010
SUBJECT : Collateral recovery.
SUMMARY : Makes updating, clarifying changes to the law
governing repossessors. Specifically, this bill :
1)Modifies the qualified manager examination and reexamination
schedule from once every other month to once every three
months.
2)Prohibits a repossession agency from publicly disclosing a
registrant's residential address, residential telephone
number, cell phone number, or driver's license.
3)Authorizes a person to work as a registrant pending the
receipt of the registration card if he or she has been
approved by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services
(Bureau) and carries on his or her person a printout of the
Bureau's approval from the Bureau's Internet Web site and
valid picture identification.
4)Requires the Bureau to issue a cardholder a certified
replacement card in the event of the loss or destruction of
the card, provided that the cardholder states the
circumstances surrounding the loss and pays a $10
certification fee.
5)Authorizes a repossession agency to keep assignment forms in
an e-mail, text message, or other electronic format.
6)Requires a repossessor to record the inventory, and the
adequate information as to how, when, and to whom the personal
effects were disposed of in their permanent records for a
minimum of four years.
7)Authorizes the repossessor to remove out-of-state license
plates from collateral and inventory them, as specified.
8)Requires that any associated fees related to the inventory of
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personal effects, to be confidential, as specified.
9)Specifies that repossession is complete, with regard to
collateral subject to registration, as specified, when the
repossessor moves, pushes, or gains control of the collateral.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for the licensure and regulation of repossession
agencies by the Bureau, under the Collateral Recovery Act.
2)Requires an applicant for a qualification certificate or for
an initial registration or reregistration to submit an
application to the Bureau and include certain personal
information in the application that is confidential and
prohibited from public disclosure.
3)Requires the Bureau to give examinations and reexaminations
for a qualification certificate every other month.
4)Prohibits a person from performing the duties of a registrant
for a licensed repossession agency unless he or she possesses
a valid repossessor registration card or evidence of a valid
temporary registration or registration renewal.
5)Requires a repossession agency to inventory the personal
effects removed from recovered collateral and authorizes those
personal effects to be disposed of after being held for at
least 60 days.
6)Requires the inventory to be filed in the permanent records of
the licensee and prohibits disclosure of inventory contents,
unless otherwise specified.
7)Provides a repossession of certain collateral that is subject
to vehicle registration is complete when the repossessor gains
entry to the collateral or when the collateral becomes
connected to a tow truck or the repossessors tow vehicle.
8)Authorizes the release of impounded vehicles to the legal
owner, or person in control of the vehicle, if certain
conditions have been satisfied, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office,
"Repossession law currently contains a lot of ambiguous language
that this bill is attempting to correct. AB 1722 also updates
law to allow repossessors to use modern technology when
receiving contracts. Lastly, this bill is intended to help
protect the privacy of qualified managers from public
disclosure."
Background . A repossession agency is a business that recovers
property sold under a contract or security agreement. Typically
the property (called "collateral") is a car, boat, motorcycle,
or recreational vehicle. Since 1981, employees of repossession
agencies have been required to register with the Bureau.
In most cases, a person must be registered with the Bureau and
have a Bureau identification card to legally recover collateral.
In some cases, a bank, auto dealership, financial lender, or
other legal owner will send employees to recover property.
Under California law, in-house employees who are on the regular
payroll of the legal owner are not considered repossession
employees and do not need to be licensed by the Bureau.
This bill makes clarifying changes to the law related to
repossessors.
Previous legislation . SB 659 (Calderon), Chapter 192, Statutes
of 2007, specifies that the legal owner of collateral registered
under the Vehicle Code includes the seller or lessee named on a
valid conditional sales contract or lease agreement and requires
a licensed repossessor who is subject to certain violent or
threatening acts during a repossession to provide details about
the incident to the person who made the assignment. That person
will then be required to notify a subsequent repossessor of that
information at the time of making another assignment to skip
trace, locate, or repossess that vehicle.
Double referred . This bill is double-referred to Assembly
Judiciary Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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California Association of Licensed Repossessors (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301