News in 2013

The 2013 Florida legislative session resulted in important procedural changes for Florida towing companies, specifically to good faith searches, derelict vehicles, and certificate of destruction procedures. HB 7125 was approved by Governor Rick Scott on June 12, 2013. With the enactment of the bill, beginning on July 1, 2013 , all towing and recovery businesses can anticipate the following changes to the good faith letter process:

• The good faith procedure for locating out-of-state owners or lienholders must now include a record check through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) to determine the current state of title.
• If NMVTIS indicates the current state of title, then the tow operator should contact the identified state to obtain owner and lienholder information for the required notification letters.
• A good faith letter to law enforcement will be required only if a Florida DMV search, a NMVTIS search and all other good faith search procedures prove unsuccessful in locating the current state of title for the vehicle.

This new legislation also requires businesses that handle derelict, total loss and salvage vehicles to report information about the vehicles to NMVTIS, under certain circumstances:

• When a derelict motor vehicle is sold, transported, or delivered to a salvage motor vehicle dealer, the salvage motor vehicle must be reported to NMVTIS within 30 days of purchase.
• Before applying for a salvage title, derelict certificate, or certificate of destruction, the derelict or salvage vehicle must be reported to NMVTIS. All applications for a certificate of destruction or salvage certificate to title must include proof of reporting to NMVTIS, along with the previously required affidavit.

For more information on HB 7125, or to read the bill text in full, visit www.add123.com/legislation.

Auto Data Direct, Inc. (ADD) is an approved NMVTIS provider, and offers both NMVTIS search tools as well as NMVTIS reporting tools to help affected businesses comply with all new requirements. For more information, contact ADD at 855-300-3455 or via email at iinfo@add123.com.