H. B. 3113


(By Delegates Caruth, Walters, H. White,
Frich, Long, Frederick and Trump)

[Introduced February 21, 2003; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]



A BILL to amend and reenact section twelve, article five, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; to amend and reenact section one, article one, chapter seventeen-a of said code; and to amend article three of said chapter by adding thereto a new section, designated section twelve-b, all relating to mobile homes generally; classifying of certain mobile homes for assessment purposes; excepting certain mobile homes permanently attached to real estate from the definition of motor vehicle; and, recording certain cancelled certificates of title for mobile homes permanently attached to real property.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twelve, article five, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; that section one, article one, chapter seventeen-a of said code be amended and reenacted; and that article three of said chapter be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section twelve-b, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 11. TAXATION.

 ARTICLE 5. ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.
§11-5-12. Mobile homes situate upon property owned by a person other than owner of mobile home.

Mobile homes situate upon property owned by a person other than the owner of the mobile home shall be classified as personal property whether or not said mobile home is permanently affixed to the real estate and unless subject to assessment as Class II property under section eleven of this article or section two, article four of this chapter, shall be assessed as Class III or Class IV personal property, as may be appropriate in the circumstances.
A mobile home permanently attached to the real estate of the owner may not be classified as personal property if the owner has filed a cancelled certificate of title with the clerk of the county commission and has recorded it in the same manner as deeds are recorded and indexed.
CHAPTER 17A. MOTOR VEHICLE ADMINISTRATION, REGISTRATION,

CERTIFICATE OF TITLE, AND ANTITHEFT PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED.

 §17A-1-1. De
finitions.
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter the following words and phrases when used in this chapter shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this article:
(a) "Vehicle" means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.
(b) "Motor vehicle" means every vehicle which is self-propelled and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires, but not operated upon rails.
(c) "Motorcycle" means every motor vehicle, including motor-driven cycles and mopeds as defined in sections five and five-a, article one, chapter seventeen-c of this code, having a saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground but excluding a tractor.
(d) "School bus" means every motor vehicle owned by a public governmental agency and operated for the transportation of children to or from school or privately owned and operated for compensation for the transportation of children to or from school.
(e) "Bus" means every motor vehicle designed to carry more than seven passengers and used to transport persons; and every motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used to transport persons for compensation.
(f) "Truck tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn.
(g) "Farm tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines and other implements of husbandry.
(h) "Road tractor" means every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon either independently or any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn.
(i) "Truck" means every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property.
(j) "Trailer" means every vehicle with or without motive power designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle but excluding recreational vehicles.
(k) "Semitrailer" means every vehicle with or without motive power designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle.
(l) "Pole trailer" means 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 poles, pipes or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.
(m) "Specially constructed vehicles" means every vehicle of a type required to be registered hereunder not originally constructed under a distinctive name, make, model or type by a generally recognized manufacturer of vehicles and not materially altered from its original construction.
(n) "Reconstructed vehicle" means every vehicle of a type required to be registered hereunder materially altered from its original construction by the removal, addition or substitution of essential parts, new or used.
(o) "Essential parts" means all integral and body parts of a vehicle of a type required to be registered hereunder, the removal, alteration or substitution of which would tend to conceal the identity of the vehicle or substantially alter its appearance, model, type or mode of operation.
(p) "Foreign vehicle" means every vehicle of a type required to be registered hereunder brought into this state from another state, territory or country other than in the ordinary course of business by or through a manufacturer or dealer and not registered in this state.
(q) "Implement of husbandry" means every vehicle which is designed for or adapted to agricultural purposes and used by the owner thereof primarily in the conduct of his agricultural operations, including, but not limited to, trucks used for spraying trees and plants: Provided, That the vehicle may not be let for hire at any time.
(r) "Special mobile equipment" means every self-propelled vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including, without limitation, road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, stone crushers, air compressors, power shovels, graders, rollers, well-drillers, wood-sawing equipment, asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earth-moving carryalls, scrapers, drag lines, rock-drilling equipment and earth-moving equipment. The foregoing enumeration shall be deemed partial and may not operate to exclude other such vehicles which are within the general terms of this subdivision.
(s) "Pneumatic tire" means every tire in which compressed air is designed to support the load.
(t) "Solid tire" means every tire of rubber or other resilient material which does not depend upon compressed air for the support of the load.
(u) "Metal tire" means every tire the surface of which in contact with the highway is wholly or partly of metal or other hard, nonresilient material.
(v) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of motor vehicles of this state.
(w) "Department" means the department of motor vehicles of this state acting directly or through its duly authorized officers and agents.
(x) "Person" means every natural person, firm, copartnership, association or corporation.
(y) "Owner" means a person who holds the legal title to a vehicle, or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter.
(z) "Nonresident" means every person who is not a resident of this state.
(aa) "Dealer" or "dealers" is a general term meaning, depending upon the context in which used, either a new motor vehicle dealer, used motor vehicle dealer, factory-built home dealer, recreational vehicle dealer, trailer dealer or motorcycle dealer, as defined in section one, article six of this chapter, or all of the dealers or a combination thereof, and in some instances a new motor vehicle dealer or dealers in another state.
(bb) "Registered dealer" or "registered dealers" is a general term meaning, depending upon the context in which used, either a new motor vehicle dealer, used motor vehicle dealer, house trailer dealer, trailer dealer, recreational vehicle dealer or motorcycle dealer, or all of the dealers or a combination thereof, licensed under the provisions of article six of this chapter.
(cc) "Licensed dealer" or "licensed dealers" is a general term meaning, depending upon the context in which used, either a new motor vehicle dealer, used motor vehicle dealer, house trailer dealer, trailer dealer, recreational vehicle dealer or motorcycle dealer, or all of the dealers or a combination thereof, licensed under the provisions of article six of this chapter.
(dd) "Transporter" means every person engaged in the business of delivering vehicles of a type required to be registered hereunder from a manufacturing, assembling or distributing plant to dealers or sales agents of a manufacturer.
(ee) "Manufacturer" means every person engaged in the business of constructing or assembling vehicles of a type required to be registered hereunder at a place of business in this state which is actually occupied either continuously or at regular periods by the manufacturer where his books and records are kept and a large share of his business is transacted.
(ff) "Street" or "highway" means the entire width between boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel.
(gg) "Motorboat" means any vessel propelled by an electrical, steam, gas, diesel or other fuel propelled or driven motor, whether or not the motor is the principal source of propulsion, but may not include a vessel which has a valid marine document issued by the bureau of customs of the United States government or any federal agency successor thereto.
(hh) "Motorboat trailer" means every vehicle designed for or ordinarily used for the transportation of a motorboat.
(ii) "All-terrain vehicle" (ATV) means any motor vehicle designed for off-highway use and designed for operator use only with no passengers, having a seat or saddle designed to be straddled by the operator, and handlebars for steering control.
(jj) "Travel trailer" means every vehicle, mounted on wheels, designed to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use of such size or weight as not to require special highway movement permits when towed by a motor vehicle and of gross trailer area less than four hundred square feet.
(kk) "Fold down camping trailer" means every vehicle consisting of a portable unit mounted on wheels and constructed with collapsible partial sidewalls which fold for towing by another vehicle and unfold at the camp site to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use.
(ll) "Motor home" means every vehicle, designed to provide temporary living quarters, built into an integral part of or permanently attached to a self-propelled motor vehicle, chassis or van including: (1) Type A motor home built on an incomplete truck chassis with the truck cab constructed by the second stage manufacturer; (2) Type B motor home consisting of a van-type vehicle which has been altered to provide temporary living quarters; and (3) Type C motor home built on an incomplete van or truck chassis with a cab constructed by the chassis manufacturer.
(mm) "Snowmobile" means a self-propelled vehicle intended for travel primarily on snow and driven by a track or tracks in contact with the snow and steered by a ski or skis in contact with the snow.
(nn) "Recreational vehicle" means a motorboat, motorboat trailer, all-terrain vehicle, travel trailer, fold down camping trailer, motor home or snowmobile.
(oo) "Mobile equipment" means every self-propelled vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property over the highway but which may infrequently or incidentally travel over the highways among job sites, equipment storage sites or repair sites, including farm equipment, implements of husbandry, well-drillers, cranes and wood-sawing equipment. (pp) "Factory-built home" includes mobile homes, house trailers and manufactured homes.
(qq) "Manufactured home" has the same meaning as the term is defined in section two, article nine, chapter twenty-one of this code which meets the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. §5401 et seq.), effective on the fifteenth day of June, one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, and the federal manufactured home construction and safety standards and regulations promulgated by the secretary of the United States department of housing and urban development.
(rr) "Mobile home" means a transportable structure that is wholly, or in substantial part, made, fabricated, formed or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation or assembly and installation on a building site and designed for long-term residential use and built prior to enactment of the federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. §5401 et seq.), effective on the fifteenth day of June, one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, and usually built to the voluntary industry standard of the American national standards institute (ANSI) -- A119.1 standards for mobile homes: Provided, That a mobile home permanently attached to real estate is not a motor vehicle for the purposes of this chapter if the owner thereof notifies the division of motor vehicles that the mobile home has been permanently attached to real estate and requests that the certificate of title be canceled as set forth in section twelve-b, article three of this chapter.
(ss) "House trailers" means all trailers designed and used for human occupancy on a continual nonrecreational basis, but may not include fold down camping and travel trailers, mobile homes or manufactured homes.
(tt) "Parking enforcement vehicle" means a motor vehicle which does not fit into any other classification of vehicle in this chapter, has three or four wheels and is designed for use in an incorporated municipality by a city, county, state or other governmental entity primarily for parking enforcement or other governmental purposes with an operator area with sides permanently enclosed with rigid construction and a top which may be convertible, sealed beam headlights, turn signals, brake lights, horn, at least one rear view mirror on each side and such other equipment that will enable it to pass a standard motorcycle vehicle inspection.
ARTICLE 3. ORIGINAL AND RENEWAL OF REGISTRATION; ISSUANCE OF CERTIFICATES OF TITLE.
§17A-3-12b. Canceled certificate of title for certain mobile homes.

If the owner provides the commissioner with a signed and notarized statement that a mobile home that he or she owns has been permanently attached to real estate of the owner , there are no liens or encumbrances on the mobile home and the owner requests that the certificate of title required by this chapter be canceled, the commissioner shall cancel the certificate of title and return it to the owner. Upon receipt of the canceled certificate of title, the owner may file the canceled certificate with the clerk of the county commission to be recorded and indexed in the same manner as deeds are recorded and indexed.




NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a procedure to permit owners of mobile homes to obtain cancellation of certificates of title when the mobile home is permanently attached to the owner's real estate. The bill also permits the filing of canceled certificates of title in the office of the clerk of the county commission. In addition, the bill provides that mobile homes permanently attached to real estate of the owner may not be considered as personal property.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
 §17A-3-12b is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.