News in 2014

HB 7005, a bill that reinstates a notice to surrender and surrender stop process in Florida has passed the House and is awaiting Governor Scott’s signature. The new requirements include a process for a customer to dispute the stop being placed by the lienholder.

Florida dealers and lenders may recall that lienholders in Florida once had the ability to place a stop on the Florida Real-Time Vehicle Information System (FRVIS) record of a customer who had not made loan payments and was concealing or refusing to return a vehicle with a recorded lien. This stop prevented the customer from renewing the vehicle registration until it was returned to the lienholder.

In 2012 a lawsuit was filed against the DMV claiming that the stop placement process in FS 320.1316 did not contain a procedure for a registered owner to appeal or dispute the registration stops. Florida Statute stated that if a registration applicant’s name appeared on this list, DMV may withhold the renewal, registration or replacement registration of any motor vehicle owned by the applicant. Since the statute stated “ _ **may withhold_** ” instead of “ _ **must withhold_** ,” DMV’s position was that they were not required to enforce the registration stops.

The Florida Independent Auto Dealers Association (FIADA) worked very hard and was ultimately successful in finding a resolution that satisfied the interested parties, and created language that would reinstate a surrender stop process again. The bill is still awaiting the Governor’s signature.

After passage and the official rule rewrite from DMV, ADD plans to offer the surrender stop letters to its lienholders as a part of its DirectPost-Office (DPO) services, either through the ELT manifest or under the DPO tab.

When the Surrender Stop process was first introduced in 2009, ADD’s lienholder customers successfully sent thousands of electronic certified or certificate of mailing letters through its DPO system, tracking and archiving letter submissions and avoiding trips to the post office.

The new requirements include a process for a customer to dispute the stop being placed by the lienholder, making ADD’s DPO letter process, with its trackable letters and proof of delivery even more important for lienholders. With DPO, a lienholder can prove the required Notice to Surrender letter was sent to the customer before placing the registration stop.

ADD will keep its customers updated on the progress of the HB 7005 rule rewrite from DMV as well as the implementation of its Surrender Stop letter DPO process.

Stay Tuned!

Please contact ADD customer support with any questions at (850) 877-8804 or email them at info@add123.com