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[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: She's gonna go Now
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: you can talk.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Start again.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: This is Senate Transportation, and we're taking back up the miscellaneous DMV bill and section eight. And Matthew.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Matt Russo, deputy commissioner for DMV. So I am planning to go over section eight. However, I believe the the committee had asked that we do a little give you guys some information on the difference between a bonded title and a salvage.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Yep. I think we need to better understand what the law is right now, what we're doing, and functionally what happens. Sure.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: So a salvage title is issued when a vehicle is considered a total loss, usually 75% of the vehicle loss for an insurance company, and the majority of those salvage titles come from insurance companies. So we receive the application and we issue the salvage title to the insurance company, and that salvage brand that's put on that title stays on there for the life of the vehicle, life of the title. The only way to get that vehicle registered again and titled is to have it rebuilt. So we have a a rebuilt process that it goes through, which includes car packs and a salvage inspection, a certified inspection station. Once that's done Yes. So you can you can remove the salvage off a salvage title if you rebuild it? If you rebuild it, the salvage will always be there, and then above that will be your rebuild of brand Okay. So that you always know that it had that salvage brand on no matter what.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: So if somebody's selling a vehicle, the individual should know?
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Individual should Only if they look at the title? Correct. You could your CARFAX should will report that. The title will have it
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: on there. CARFAX will report it, but if you go to a dealer Mhmm. And they're selling it, they're not required to?
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: They they're required to disclose that it's a salvage title by law. And
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: And what happens if they don't? When do they have to declare it?
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: Like, what's the time of
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: the sale? Time of sale.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: So you could, like, agree on a price and everything. You sit down and, like, oh, by the way.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: It has to be so on our form, it's actually marked when they sign off on it.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: And what happens if they don't
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Penalties. I'm not sure specifically what penalties are.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: And would that be DMV that ends up the penalties? Yes. And how many did they end up last year?
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: I can get that number for you if not the last.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Okay. That would be great. I've I've had a couple of constituents that have complained about this.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Yeah. Had a constituent that got didn't wanna pay the money for the CARFAX, but got to the whole process and then found out that it was established. We also so we're a member of Navitas, National Motor Vehicles Title Information System. All titles are reported to Navitas for all states. We do have on our website instructions, a video what Novitas is, what's the purpose of Novitas. Unfortunately, because of the Department of Justice, they're not AMBA is not able to create commercials or as much publicizing as CARFAX does, but we try to promote Invitas before you purchase a vehicle.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: So you could go to Invitas and look up a car?
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Yep, look it by a third party, run the approved third parties with Anva. We'll have that report and you can purchase it. Sort of looking for CARFAX.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: I was able to find that CARFAX, you don't pay. I was able to find the national insurance site that he had the VIN number,
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: but they wouldn't give you the
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: whole report. They just said, was it salvage or not? That's it. Took a while.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Our website has a list of all approved providers Forgetting the previous report. For a paid report. For a paid report. And it'll print out any brands that were on it, any insurance claims that were on it, junkyards, and then, of course, all titles that have been issued for that vehicle. So and I'll, like, answer more questions about that. I'll move on to bonded titles, which is completely separate. We require that you hand over the most recently issued title for the vehicle when you register it in your name. Obviously, there's scenarios, auction houses where you purchase the vehicle, the title's not available, but you've gotten a a great deal on it. There is a process for obtaining a title and getting it registered outside of that if you don't have that title, which is the bonding process. We require you to make every effort to try to obtain that that title from the last issued state, and you would know that by getting an Venus report that would list the last title that was issued. And if all documentation that's required can be provided, you would get a bond as a surety to in the event that down the road somebody said, hey, that's my vehicle, and you've titled it in your name, that's a protection on that vehicle. So that's the difference. And it can it can be in combination with salvage vehicle. Yeah. But they are separate.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: Thank you, mister chair. Well, I really appreciate this conversation. It was a debate in my own household mere weeks ago because my brother got a great deal on a car that Mhmm. Oh, wait. The title wasn't there. And after weeks of attempting to get a title from about six people back in the chain of who had had the vehicle, he gave up and decided to not pursue ownership of the vehicle. Got a great deal, but not a working vehicle. Because my understanding of the bonded title is you have to pay. So it's a percent how what is the typical cost of a bonded title?
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: It depends on where you get it. We require that you get a bond for one and a half times the value of your vehicle. As far as how much that bond costs, depends on where you go.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because it was like yeah. He paid like $500 for the car, so it wasn't going to be $500 for the It bonded was going to be like $6,000 or something for the bonded title.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: It's bond itself.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: Yes, because it's not the cost of the vehicle. It's the cost of what the vehicle could be essentially Right. Using JD Power, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Okay.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: Correct.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: And so if you had a so okay. Thank you.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: I can briefly go over section eight, which really is it's pretty straightforward. It's just through allowing electronic signatures on on a title when it's being transferred from an insurance company. And, we have a trusted insurance company. And so other than that, there's there's not a bunch of else in section eight to to keep this really assess.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: I would save time and money.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: You're gonna get the process. Yep.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Yep. And nine is just duplicates? Yes.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Duplicate titles. Correct. And that was that that is specifically for lienholders. So in statute right now, it says that the title must be mailed to the lienholder. And there are cases where the lienholder needs to get a copy of it on the spot. This is allowing them to come in and be hand delivered a title of resume mailed.
[Sen. Becca White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. So I don't have to allow it for you to
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: get a electronic signature, for example. And then we have Mark's. You can sit there. You can there's not any seats around here. Mark? Yes. Hi.
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: Assume you're talking to me. This is Mark Bender. I'm with Copart, and I just wanna say thanks for the time to allow us to talk about our support is for section eight of the senate bill draft. And you probably never heard of Copart, but what we are, we're a national auction service company. We actually have a location in the center of Rutland, which we opened in September '23. So we're fairly new to the state and we're proud members of the business community actually. We have serviced the whole state with our eight employees, and what we do is, you've heard of a total loss claim more than likely because we talked about it before on the titling. Well, the insurance companies basically buys a vehicle from a customer a vehicle owner in in Vermont, and they're stuck with a car. What do they do with it? Well, our company auctions it off for the insurance company. That's what we do. We're one of those companies you never hear of, but it's a vital vital service for the insurance industry. And what section eight will do, will allow the vehicle title be transferred to an insurance company from the original owner through a streamlined method, and remove the notary requirements. It allows it to be electronically sign signed. Now I wanna be very clear. It doesn't require it to be this way. So the process of a wet signature would still be an option. This just, this change to allow electronics will significantly reduce delays. As I as you mentioned, one of one of the centers mentioned earlier, during total loss, that will reduce the delays. Because if you think about it, you have to go get a you have to get documents shipped to you. You have to go sign them. And how do you go sign them when your car's a total loss, especially if you're a single car family? So, you you know, time could take to that to happen. Next thing you know, it's a week gone by, and you still haven't been paid for your your damages to your vehicle. Well, if this bill passes, that entire process could be reduced to one phone call. You could agree to the settlement on the value. You could sign the documents electronically, and then you can get paid. And that's the reality in many states. I don't know if you can see my map here. I've got a map. All the ones in green are allow what we're asking for in this section eight. The ones in blue, we're working on this year. Forget Louisiana. They're they've got a constitutional issue that we can't pursue it there. But 40 some states allow this, and we think it would be really good for the Vermont citizens. It is business friendly too. I I I don't wanna we're we're actually pursuing this for our customers, but we I wanna be transparent that it is business friendly too because it allows us to have a lot fewer touches on the files that we process. And and Amva, it was mentioned earlier, we're talking about Navitas. And AMVA has actually published guidelines in a recent white paper that that encourage this process. And MITSA, who monitors and is responsible for the regulations of odometer statements, actually came out of 2019 with this as an approved process as well. So and I'll I'll I'll I don't wanna take too much of your time, but I just wanna ask for your support on section eight of this draft. And I can answer any questions you have, and I'm willing to take any time that you need to get those answered. And thank you.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Go ahead, Pat.
[Rep. Patrick "Pat" Brennan (Member)]: Could you hold that map up again? I in in the gray area the gray areas currently allow it, the blue Yeah.
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: Yes. The that's probably a little better. Yes. The, the lighter color, it's actually green, but it looks probably gray on the TV. Those allow it, either by statute or rule. And and not all of them for all transactions, but however, this is a very targeted transaction we're talking about, only between an insurance company and a vehicle owner. So all of those in gray allow it. Oregon actually just approved it. They they haven't implemented it yet, sir. They are in the process of developing rules because they were able to get this moving without statute change, and they agreed in early December to have it implemented within six to nine months.
[Rep. Patrick "Pat" Brennan (Member)]: Okay. With
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: the blue states, we're all we're we're, meaning co part, is pursuing legislation this year. Except for Maine, they're they're have a really short session, and we're pursuing that at '27.
[Rep. Patrick "Pat" Brennan (Member)]: Okay. You can lower it so we can see Okay.
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: Great.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: Thank you.
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: And, Wendy, if you wanna copy this, I can share with you. A
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Okay. Yeah.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: What's going on in Louisiana? I know. I will
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: That's a great question. What just a little trivia for you. It's actually signatures are in their constitution and requiring a notary and all that is a constitutional situation. I'm not into amending constitutions. I can't even imagine what that would entail. So we're just kinda threw our hands in the air and said, we're not gonna pursue that one. So I think it has to do with no polionical I'm not an attorney, but there's no polionical code compared to the English, and it's one of those things. So let's just say they're a challenging state in more ways than one. So
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Any more questions? Beautiful statehouse, though. I'd spend some time there. Oh,
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: yeah. It's a beautiful state. I agree with you there. Their laws are a little different than everybody else, which, you know, it works for them. So we follow them.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: Well, I think at this point, thank you.
[Mark Bender (Copart)]: Okay. Alright. And let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.
[Matt Russo (Deputy Commissioner, DMV)]: Thank you.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Chair)]: I think we're that's all we've had this morning. You know? You've given me a few afternoons.