HB 222

Relating to designated agents of the Department of Revenue; to amend Sections 32-8-2, 32-8-3, and 32-8-34, Code of Alabama 1975, to update the definition of designated agent to include title service providers; to authorize the department to revoke the authority of a title service provider to act on its behalf; and to provide the bonding requirements of title service providers.

Section 1

Sections 32-8-2, 32-8-3, and 32-8-34, Code of Alabama 1975, are amended to read as follows:

§32-8-2.

For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) CURRENT ADDRESS. A new address different from the address shown on the application or on the certificate of title. The owner, within 30 days after the address is changed from that shown on the application or on the certificate of title, shall notify the department of the change of address in the manner prescribed by the department.

(2) DEALER. A person licensed as an automobile or motor vehicle dealer, or travel trailer dealer and engaged regularly in the business of buying, selling, or exchanging motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, trucks, tractors or other character of commercial or industrial motor vehicles, or travel trailers in this state, and having in this state an established place of business.

(3) DEPARTMENT. The Department of Revenue of this state.

(4) DESIGNATED AGENT. Each judge of probate, commissioner of licenses, director of revenue, or other county official in this state authorized and required by law to issue motor vehicle license tags, who may perform his or her duties under this chapter personally or through his or her deputies, or such other persons located in this state, as the department may designate; the term shall also mean those dealers as herein defined who are appointed by the department as provided in Section 32-8-34 and such persons who are appointed by the department as provided in subsection (c) of Section 32-8-34 to perform the duties of designated agent for the purposes of this chapter; the. Such dealers or other designated persons may perform their duties under this chapter either personally, or through any of their officers or employees, or through a title service provider.

(5) IMPLEMENT OF HUSBANDRY. Every vehicle designed and adapted exclusively for agricultural, horticultural, or livestock raising operations or for lifting or carrying an implement of husbandry and in either case not subject to licensing or registration if used upon the highways.

(6) LIEN. Every kind of written lease which is substantially equivalent to an installment sale or which provides for a right of purchase, conditional sale, reservation of title, deed of trust, chattel mortgage, trust receipt, and every written agreement or instrument of whatever kind or character whereby an interest other than absolute title is sought to be held or given on a motor vehicle.

(7) LIENHOLDER. Any person, firm, copartnership, association, or corporation holding a lien as herein defined on a motor vehicle.

(8) MANUFACTURER. Any person regularly engaged in the business of manufacturing, constructing, assembling, importing, or distributing new motor vehicles, either within or without this state.

(9) MOTOR VEHICLE. The term shall include all of the following:

a. Every automobile, motorcycle, mobile trailer, semitrailer, truck, truck tractor, trailer, and other device that is self-propelled or drawn, in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public highway except such as is moved by animal power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.

b. Every trailer coach and travel trailer manufactured upon a chassis or undercarriage as an integral part thereof drawn by a self-propelled vehicle.

(10) NEW VEHICLE. A motor vehicle that has never been the subject of a first sale for use by a new motor vehicle dealer as defined in Section 40-12-390 or an equivalently licensed dealer in another state and includes, among others, vehicles maintained in a dealer's inventory, vehicles provided by the manufacturer or dealer for use by participants in charity, sporting, or other special events, vehicles used for drivers' education, and vehicles delivered to customers that were subsequently returned to the dealer without a registration being issued on the vehicle.

(11) NONRESIDENT. Every person who is not a resident of this state.

(12) OWNER. A person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a vehicle. The term includes a person entitled to the use and possession of a vehicle subject to a security interest in another person, but excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as security. Under any lease-purchase or installment sales agreement where a governmental agency, either city, county or state, is the lessee or purchaser with a security interest or right to purchase, the lessee or purchaser shall be the owner for purposes of this chapter.

(13) PERSON. The term shall include every natural person, firm, copartnership, association, or corporation.

(14) PICKUP TRUCK. A truck with not more than two axles and a gross weight not exceeding 12,000 pounds.

(15) POLE TRAILER. Every vehicle without motive power designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads such as logs, poles, pipes, boats, or structural members capable generally of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.

(16) SCRAP METAL PROCESSOR. Any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of buying scrap vehicles, automotive parts, or other metallic waste by weight to process the material into scrap metal for remelting purposes, who utilizes machinery and equipment for processing and manufacturing ferrous and nonferrous metallic scrap into prepared grades, and whose principal product is metallic scrap.

(17) SCRAP VEHICLE. Any vehicle that has been crushed or flattened by mechanical means or which has been otherwise damaged to the extent that it cannot economically be repaired or made roadworthy.

(18) SECURITY AGREEMENT. A written agreement that reserves or creates a security interest.

(19) SECURITY INTEREST. An interest in a vehicle reserved or created by agreement and which secures payment or performance of an obligation. The term includes the interest of a lessor under a lease intended as security. A security interest is perfected when it is valid against third parties generally, subject only to specific statutory exceptions.

(20) SPECIAL MOBILE EQUIPMENT. Every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over the highway, including but not limited to: ditch-digging apparatus; well-boring apparatus; road construction and maintenance machinery such as asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, tractors other than truck tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earth-moving carryalls and scrapers, power shovels and draglines, and self-propelled cranes; and earth-moving equipment. The term does not include manufactured homes, dump trucks, truck-mounted transit mixers, cranes, or shovels or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.

(21) STATE. A state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a province of the Dominion of Canada.

(22) TITLE SERVICE PROVIDER. A person who is bonded under subsection (d) of Section 32-8-4 and authorized by the department to act as an agent for a fee or other consideration on behalf of the following persons in the performance of their duties under this chapter:

a. A dealer or other designated person appointed pursuant to subsection (b) or (c) of Section 32-8-34 as a designated agent.

b. A lienholder who appears on a certificate of title.

c. Other persons as prescribed by the department.

(22)(23) TRAVEL TRAILER. A vehicle without motive power, designed and constructed as a camping vehicle or a temporary dwelling, living, or sleeping place and designed to be drawn or pulled on the highway, but not including folding or collapsible camping trailers as defined in this section.

(23)(24) USED VEHICLE. A motor vehicle that has been the subject of a first sale for use, whether within this state or elsewhere or is being sold by a used motor vehicle dealer as defined in Section 40-12-390.

(24)(25) UTILITY TRAILER. A vehicle without motive power designed to be drawn by a passenger car or pickup truck, including folding or collapsible camping trailers.

(25)(26) VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER. The numbers and letters on a motor vehicle designated by the manufacturer or assigned by the department for the purpose of identifying the motor vehicle."

§32-8-3.

(a) The department shall prescribe and provide suitable forms of applications, certificates of title, notices of security interests, and all other notices and forms necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter.

(b) The department may do any of the following:

(1) Make necessary investigations to procure information required to carry out the provisions of this chapter.

(2) Adopt and enforce reasonable rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this chapter.

(3) Assign a new identification number to a vehicle if it has none, or its identification number is destroyed or obliterated, or its motor is changed, and shall issue a new certificate of title showing the new identification number.

(4) Revoke the authority of a dealer or other person appointed by the department to act as a designated agent under this chapter and rules adopted thereunder when it finds that the dealer or other person has failed to faithfully perform his or her duties under this chapter or has been convicted of violating any felony provisions of this chapter or of Title 40.

(5) Revoke the authority of a title service provider to act as an agent on behalf of persons described in subdivision (22) of Section 32-8-2 when it find that the title service provider has failed to faithfully perform his or her duties under this chapter and rules adopted thereunder or has been convicted of violating any felony provisions of this chapter or of Title 40.

(c) The department, in accordance with applicable privacy and confidentiality statutes, rules, and regulations, may make available information concerning the status of a title on any vehicle as reflected by the records in a manner prescribed by the department. The department shall charge the fees set forth in Section 32-8-6; provided, that no fee shall be charged Alabama law enforcement agencies or law enforcement agencies of any other state when that state furnishes like or similar information without charge to the department or to Alabama law enforcement agencies.

(d) Whenever this chapter provides that a written certificate or other document is to be filed with the department, the commissioner may establish procedures for and accept in lieu of such paper document a filing made by electronic means. The department may also establish procedures for the electronic transfer of title and the recording and release of security interests. Such filing or transfer by electronic means shall be accepted only if the content of the filing satisfies all of the requirements of this chapter.

§32-8-34.

(a) Each judge of probate, commissioner of licenses, director of revenue, or other county official in this state authorized and required by law to issue motor vehicle license plates shall by virtue of his or her office be a designated agent of the department. Judges of probate, commissioners of licenses, directors of revenue, or other licensing officials may perform their duties under this chapter either personally or through any of their deputies.

(b) Every dealer, as defined in this chapter or Chapter 20 of this title, shall be a designated agent of the department. The dealers may shall perform their duties under this chapter either personally, or through any of their officers or employees, or through a title service provider; provided, that the dealer or persons shall enter into a bond with a corporate surety authorized to do business in this state as surety thereon, payable to the State of Alabama in a sum as provided in Section 40-12-398, conditioned on the faithful performance of their duties under this chapter. No dealer appointed under this subsection as a designated agent shall process title applications on behalf of another dealer unless both dealerships are owned by the same entity.

(c) The department may appoint other persons in this state as its designated agents. Such agents shall perform their duties under this chapter either personally, through any of their officers or employees, or through a title service provider. An appointee shall enter into a bond as provided in subsection (b). Full-time bonded employees of the Department of Revenue may serve as designated agents without additional bond. A qualified designated agent of the department located outside of this state may continue as a designated agent of the department as long as he or she complies with the requirements of this chapter.

(d) Each title service provider shall enter into a bond with a corporate surety authorized to do business in this state as a surety, thereon payable to the state in a sum provided in Section 40-12-398, conditioned on the faithful performance of their duties under this chapter."

Section 2

This act shall become effective October 1, 2019, following its passage and approval by the Governor, or upon its otherwise becoming law.