The purchase of motor vehicles from motor vehicle salvage pools, requiring the exercise of rule-making authority, and providing a penalty

Current law defines a "junk vehicle" as a vehicle that is incapable of highway operation and has no resale value except as a source of parts or scrap or that an insurance company has taken possession of or title to because the cost of repairing the vehicle exceeds its value.

This bill requires each BID card applicant to specify whether the applicant will purchase any junk vehicle from a motor vehicle salvage pool. If the answer is in the affirmative and the applicant is not a motor vehicle salvage dealer, the applicant must meet the same environmental requirements relating to storm water discharge and ozone-depleting refrigerant recovery that are applicable to motor vehicle salvage dealers. If the applicant fails to meet these requirements, DOT cannot issue or renew the BID card and, if the BID card has already been issued, DOT may suspend or revoke the BID card.

The bill also requires a person other than a motor vehicle salvage dealer who bids on a junk vehicle from a motor vehicle salvage pool to identify on at least one bid sheet submitted to the motor vehicle salvage pool the address where the junk vehicle will be stored. For each junk vehicle sold by a motor vehicle salvage pool to a purchaser other than a motor vehicle salvage dealer, the motor vehicle salvage pool must maintain a record of the purchaser's buyer identification number and the address where the junk vehicle will be stored, as stated on the purchaser's bid sheet.

The motor vehicle salvage pool must make these records readily accessible to DOT and they must be indexed or easily searchable. DOT may also require the records to be maintained in an automated or electronic format and DOT may share information from the records with the Department of Natural Resources.

Under the bill, DOT may issue BID cards to motor vehicle dealers, wholesalers, and salvage dealers licensed in another state, or to their employees, only if DOT determines that the licensing standards in the other state are comparable or equivalent to those in this state, including, for motor vehicle salvage dealers, environmental requirements relating to storm water discharge and ozone-depleting refrigerant recovery.

The bill specifies that the general penalty for violation of the laws relating to the purchase of vehicles at motor vehicle salvage pools, which is a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000 and imprisonment for not more than 90 days or both, also applies to a person who makes any materially false representation, or falsifies documents, on the portion of a BID card application relating to environmental requirements or who makes any materially false representation on a bid sheet relating to the location where a junk vehicle will be stored.

Because this bill creates a new crime or revises a penalty for an existing crime, the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties may be requested to prepare a report concerning the proposed penalty and the costs or savings that are likely to result if the bill is enacted.