Senate Bill No. 594
(By Senators Miller, Love, Dittmar, Oliverio, Schoonover,
Whitlow, Buckalew and Dugan)
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[Originating in the Committee on Transportation;
reported February 29, 1996.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article six-c, chapter
seventeen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to automobile
auctions; and clarifying that automobile auctions shall only
sell to licensed motor vehicle dealers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article six-c, chapter seventeen-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6C. AUTOMOBILE AUCTION BUSINESSES.
§17A-6C-1. License certificate required; application form;
prohibited acts; reassignment of title; and
exemption from privilege tax.
(a) A person, partnership or corporation may not engage in,
represent or advertise that he, she or it is in the business of conducting automobile auctions without first obtaining a license
certificate from the office of the commissioner. The commissioner
shall provide an application form for applicants seeking a license
certificate. The applicant shall provide full information required
by the commissioner on the application form. The applicant, if a
person, shall verify the information on the form by oath or
affirmation. If the applicant is a partnership or corporation, the
oath or affirmation shall be made by a partner or an officer of the
corporation.
(b) For the purposes of this article, the term "automobile
auction" means an auction or other sale where twenty or more used
motor vehicles are offered for sale by auction within a license
year, but does not include a sale or auction of surplus vehicles by
an agency of this state, a municipality of this state or of the
federal government or a sale or auction of repossessed vehicles by
a financial institution or a sale or auction by a licensed motor
vehicle dealer of vehicles owned by said dealer. For purposes of
this definition, a used motor vehicle does not mean a vehicle for
which a salvage certificate has been issued.
(c) The automobile auction may auction or sell vehicles owned
by the auction or may auction vehicles which are owned by others,
but only to dealers licensed by the division of motor vehicles under article six of this chapter. The automobile auction may not
sell or auction a vehicle for which a salvage certificate has been
issued.
(d) When the transferee of a vehicle is an automobile auction
which holds the same for resale and lawfully operates the same
under Class AA plates, such automobile auction shall not be
required to obtain a new registration of said vehicle or be
required to forward the certificate of title to the division, but
upon transfer of title or interest to another person the automobile
auction shall execute and acknowledge an assignment and warranty of
title upon the certificate of title and deliver the same not later
than sixty days from date of sale to the person to whom such
transfer is made.
(e) The tax imposed by section four, article three of this
chapter does not apply to the titling of vehicles purchased for
resale by an automobile auction.