Appendix B SUGGESTED STATE LEGISLATION ON ABANDONED MOTOR VEHICLES (Reprinted from Suggested State Legislation-Volume XXVI-1967) developed by Committee of State Officials on Suggested Legislation of the Council of State Governments, 1313 East Sixtieth Street, Chicago 37, Illinois.) 30-057 - 70 pt. 2 31 Suggested State Legislation ABANDONED MOTOR VEHICLES Increasing accumulations of unserviceable motor vehicles-abandoned on city streets and on country roads, discarded in farm yards and unused fields, and piling up as rusting eyesores in municipal dumps, junkyards, and auto dismantling yards across the United States--are a growing blight on the landscape. Moreover, the cost of their collection and disposal is a particularly heavy burden on all levels of government. Abandoned motor vehicles usually are in one or more of the following categories: generally deteriorated motor vehicles with little or no monetary value for resale, unserviceable vehicles with repair costs which exceed the value of the vehicle, and vehicles which have been wrecked, misappropriated or stolen. Attempts to impose penalties on individuals for abandonment of motor vehicles have been unsuccessful not only because of the high cost of location and prosecution of the offenders but also because such abandoners have generally been the people from whom collection of penalties is difficult, if not impossible. State legislation can help to solve these problems. It can expedite the flow of junked and abandoned vehicles back into the normal economic cycle by allowing public impounding of abandoned vehicles. It can also remove any unnecessary hurdles to abandoned and junked vehicle disposal by correcting the deficiencies in its own laws and regulations. Many of these low value abandoned and junked vehicles do not now move back into this economic cycle because of titling requirements or other provisions of state law which impose needed but nevertheless costly and time consuming requirements on all motor vehicle sales. The difficulty is that these laws treat all motor vehicles as though they possess sufficient value to warrant a holder or owner to incur these costs. Recent studies have shown, however, that almost all abandoned and junked autos have a very low value--the average amount paid by demolishers is substantially under $15.00 per vehicle. Since the basic titling requirements were designed to protect an owner's interest in a substantial property, and yet that property can and does lose its substantial character, there appears to be a real basis for excepting, under carefully prescribed conditions, low value abandoned motor vehicles from the normal resale titling requirements. Some states have already taken legislative action in recognition of this need by passing statutes which, while continuing to protect the security interest of motor vehicle holders and owners, also allow public impoundment and make a few exceptions to the basic titling law; thereby providing a means of movement for the increasing accumulation of junked and abandoned motor vehicles. The suggested legislation is modeled after the most successful of those state laws. Section Analysis Section 1 contains definitions applicable throughout the Act. Section 2, "Authority to Take Possession of Abandoned Motor Vehicles", is designed to permit law enforcement agencies to impound motor vehicles abandoned on private or public property. Many states or communities have no impounding authority, or have authority to pick up only those vehicles abandoned on public property and can do nothing with cars abandoned on private property. As a result, there is often no public procedure for the prompt removal of abandoned vehicles. This section grants to police departments the basic authority to impound motor vehicles abandoned on public property and also allows public removal when private property owners request this assistance. All impounding is then subject to the conditions of the other sections. Section 3, "Notification of Owner and Lien Holders", provides for protection of the property rights of motor vehicle owners and their lien holders by requiring two separate forms of notice to each of them of the public possession of abandoned motor vehicles. Owners and lien holders then have a subsequent period of three weeks in which to reclaim an abandoned motor vehicle if they so desire. If the vehicle is not reclaimed, this section provides for a waiver of the rights of these prior holders except for the rights of the owner of the vehicle to reclaim within ninety days the balance of the auction proceeds as provided for in Section 4. Section 4, "Auction of Abandoned Motor Vehicles", provides for an auction procedure that is designed to provide a means of disposal of abandoned vehicles which protects the interests of all the involved parties. This section recognizes that little real protection of property rights is achieved by requiring, as some laws now do, that motor vehicles whose only use is to be demolished must nevertheless go through an additional and subsequent titling procedure following a public auction. This section, therefore, entitles any purchaser of an abandoned motor vehicle from a public auction to dispose of it to a demolisher by furnishing the demolisher with the auction sales receipt. This is an improvement over many of the present roadblocks to vehicle disposal since it removes the retitling requirement for vehicles that are never to be treated, or used again, as motor vehicles. Section 5, "Garagekeepers and Abandoned Motor Vehicles", is designed to provide a means for garagekeepers in possession of abandoned motor vehicles to dispose of them more expeditiously than is often now possible. Many garagekeepers are presently being left with motor vehicles on which owners have not returned to pay the repair or storage charges. This section requires a garagekeeper, who has a vehicle which the owner or driver has failed or refused to pick up, to notify the appropriate police department. The notification and auction procedures of other sections of this Act are then followed to protect their interests. The effect of this section is, therefore, to encourage the prompt legal and equitable disposal of motor vehicles via public auction. Section 6, "Disposal to Demolishers", is designed to allow a more expeditious method of disposal of the large supply of motor vehicles which have no value except for scrap metal or parts. Many of these vehicles have not been driven for many years, have been stripped of their major parts, and are located in widely scattered places across the country. At the present time many of these discarded low value motor vehicles cannot readily be disposed of since most present laws require any sale to be accompanied by a valid title from the present owner, and usually the title certificate for these vehicles has long since been lost or has disappeared. In all cases to which this section applies, the vehicles are either incapable of being operated any longer or have outlived their practical usefulness as means of transportation. Subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d), accordingly, provide that public pickup and auction of abandoned vehicles will not be required when the motor vehicle is determined by the present holder to be of such little value that its only intended use involves disposal to a motor vehicle demolisher. Present holders of these very low value abandoned motor vehicles would be allowed to dispose of them directly to demolishers provided they follow the notification procedure of Section 3. Although recent surveys have shown that the average price paid for abandoned motor vehicles by demolishers is under $15.00, there may be some exceptions which are covered by the notification procedures required here. Subsection (e) provides a better disposal of those discarded and abandoned motor vehicles which have only the very minimum scrap value because of their advanced age and deteriorated condition. Many of these could be sold for a small amount for their metal hulks, but they are presently not moving into the scrap cycle largely because existing laws treat them like operable valuable cars by requiring any resale to be accompanied by a title certificate or an investigation of prior ownership. Subsection (e) presumes that vehicles that are both over eight years old and are clearly inoperable, bear such little resemblance to valuable motor vehicles that they may be sold to demolishers as though they were merely scrap metal. Concomitantly, subsection (e) presumes there is no substantial security interest of any prior owner which is served by requiring the present holder of such a vehicle to produce a title certificate or to notify lien holders and the last owner when a vehicle of this character is only to be sold to a demolisher. Subsection (e), therefore, exempts the present holder of such a vehicle from these requirements if he sells the vehicle to a demolisher. Section 7, "Duties of Demolishers", allows demolishers to acquire motor vehicles that are to be demolished by purchasing the prior holder's title or the auction sales receipt. When the motor vehicle has been so physically changed that it is no longer a motor vehicle, the title or auction receipt is to be turned over to the appropriate state agency for cancellation. Since this section frees demolishers from the delay and the burden of acquiring a new title for each motor vehicle to be demolished, it also requires demolishers to keep adequate records of these transactions for state inspection. Suggested Legislation [Title should conform to state requirements. The following is a suggestion: "An Act to provide for the disposal of abandoned motor vehicles, and for related purposes."] |