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Salvage title requirements (new law)

Published (5/25/2012)
By Mike Cook
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Greater clarity and simplification in the administration of salvage title and damage disclosure is the goal of a new law.

The law, effective Aug. 1, 2012, changes the time an insurance company has before being required to notify the Driver and Vehicle Services Division of the Department of Public Safety of acquiring a vehicle through paying a damage claim, so that the notification must occur within 10 days of obtaining a vehicle’s title instead of within 48 hours of taking possession of the vehicle.

It also provides a new monetary threshold for requiring a salvage title by raising the cutoff of self-insured vehicle owners in the amount of vehicle damage from 70 percent to 80 percent of actual cash value, while eliminating an exclusion of airbag replacement costs from the calculation of vehicle damage.

The definition of “high-value vehicle” is amended to raise the minimum value on a vehicle before being damaged from $5,000 to $9,000; the definition of a “late-model vehicle” is amended to make a vehicle essentially those with a model year matching the current or five preceding calendar years; and the definition of an “older model vehicle” is amended to mean all vehicles older than late model vehicles.

Rep. Tim Sanders (R-Blaine), who sponsors the law with Sen. Paul Gazelka (R-Brainerd), said the legislation is the result of collaboration between the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers, the Insurance Federation of Minnesota, the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association and the Department of Public Safety.

HF2136*/ SF1734/CH267

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