BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1884
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1884 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: April 21, 2014
Policy Committee:
TransportationVote:14-0
Judiciary 10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill modifies the requirements for vehicle lien sales.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a vehicle lienholder of a vehicle valued at over
$4,000 to obtain a federal National Motor Vehicle Title
Information System (NMVTIS) vehicle history report and to
include the report in the application to the DMV for
authorization to conduct a lien sale.
2)Requires the DMV to notify the vehicle registration agency of
another state of the pending lien sale if the NMVTIS report
indicates the vehicle was last titled in that state.
3)Requires a vehicle lienholder of a vehicle valued at $4,000 or
less to also obtain a NMVTIS report, and if the report
indicates the vehicle was last titled in another state, to
seek identifying information regarding the titleholder, as
specified.
4)Permits any fee required to obtain a NMVTIS report to be
recovered from proceeds of the lien sale.
FISCAL EFFECT
Any additional costs to DMV for lien sale applications will be
minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS
AB 1884
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1)Background . Under existing California law, if a person has
repaired, furnished supplies, towed, or stored a vehicle and
has not been paid for those services, that person has a lien
against the vehicle. The vehicle lien may be satisfied by
selling the vehicle through a prescribed lien sale process. If
the vehicle's value is $4,000 or less, the lienholder, once in
possession of the vehicle, may initiate a lien sale by
obtaining certain vehicle information from the DMV and
notifying the registered owner. If the vehicle's value exceeds
$4,000 the lienholder must apply to, and receive authorization
from, the DMV to conduct the sale, and the DMV notifies the
registered owner.
2)Purpose . According to the author, this bill is needed to
address a growing problem of vehicle fraud, most notably
efforts to reintroduce stolen or damaged vehicles into the
stream of commerce with "clean" titles. The bill requires a
lienholder to also obtain a vehicle history report from the
NMVTIS, which was created by federal law in 1992. NMVTIS
maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date database that
includes information on a vehicle's title history, including
historical theft data, the most recent odometer reading, and
whether any "brands" have been reported against the title
showing that the vehicle had been previously damaged or
salvaged.
3)Opposition . CARFAX seeks an amendment to allow lienholders to
obtain the required vehicle history report from commercial
providers like CARFAX, instead of being restricted to the
NMVTIS report.
The value of the NMVTIS report, most stakeholders agree, is
that it provides a single, uniform, and up-to-date source of
information. Allowing multiple commercial providers to sell
their own product would arguably be counterproductive to the
goal of have a single, uniform source of information.
4)Prior Legislation . AB 1215 (Blumenfield)/Statutes of 2011
required new car dealers to participate in a program to
electronically title and register vehicles that they sell, and
in particular required dealers to obtain a NMVTIS report
before selling a used vehicle and to post on the vehicle any
adverse information contained in the report.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
AB 1884
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