WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2025 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced
House Bill 3089
By Delegates Rohrbach and Funkhouser
[Introduced ; referredto the Committee on ]
A BILL to amend and reenact §17A-4A-1, §17A-4A-2, and §17A-4A-2a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to mandating the use of the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicle's electronic lien and title system for all lien recordation for any person or entity who records more than five liens in a calendar year and creating digital titles for motor vehicle transactions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
## ARTICLE 4A. LIENS AND ENCUMBRANCES ON VEHICLES TO BE SHOWN ON CERTIFICATE OF TITLE; NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND PURCHASERS.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall may not apply to: (1) Vehicles held as inventory for sale by a registered dealer holding title by assignment entered upon a certificate of title; or (2) vehicles for which certificates of title have been issued and are held as inventory for lease by a vehicle rental agency or similar person engaged solely in the business of leasing vehicles. Any lien or encumbrance placed on such the vehicles by the voluntary act of the owner shall be created and perfected in accordance with the provisions of §46-9-1 et seq. of this code.
(a) Notwithstanding any requirement in this chapter that a lien on a motor vehicle shall be noted on the face of the certificate of title, if there are one or more liens or encumbrance on a vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, sole trailer, factory built home or recreational vehicle, the division may electronically transmit the lien to the first lienholder and notify the first lienholder of any additional liens. Subsequent lien satisfactions may be electronically transmitted to the division and shall include the name and address of the person satisfying the lien and any other information required by the division a s a condition of participating in the electronic lien information exchange program All financial institutions, dealers, and anyone recording five or more liens in a calendar year shall use the division's electronic lien and title system.
(b) The division may enter into agreements with a service provider or providers to
administer the electronic exchange of lien information between dealers, financial institutions and the division. For the purposes of this section the term financial institutions shall have the same meaning as defined in §17A-6-10b(8) of this code.
(c) When electronic transmission of liens and lien satisfaction is used, a hard copy certificate of title need not be issued until the last lien is satisfied and a clear hard copy Certificate of title is issued to the owner of the vehicle. When a vehicle is subject to an electronic lien, the certificate of title for the vehicle shall be considered physically held by the lienholder for the purpose of compliance with state and federal odometer disclosure requirements and for any other requirement of this code No paper certificate of title will issue to a lienholder or owner of a vehicle after the division's digital title system is fully adopted. A duly certified copy of the division's electronic record of the certificate of title and lien shall be admissible in any civil, criminal or administrative proceeding in this state as evidence of the existence of the lien.
(d) If an insurance company, an occupational licensee of the department authorized by the insurance company, or a salvage pool authorized by the insurance company is unable to obtain the properly endorsed certificate of ownership or other evidence of ownership acceptable to the department within 15 days following oral or written acceptance by the owner of an offer of an amount in settlement of a total loss, that insurance company, licensee, or salvage pool, on a form provided by the department and signed under penalty of perjury, may request the department to issue a salvage certificate for the vehicle. The request shall attest that the requester has attempted to obtain the certificate of ownership or other acceptable evidence of title. The attempt to obtain the certificate of ownership or other acceptable evidence of title shall be provided concurrently with the payment of the claim or by first-class mail, certificate of mailing, certified mail, other commercially available delivery service showing proof of delivery, or electronic mail.
(d) (e) For the purposes of this chapter, whenever reference is made by this code to the physical production of a certificate of title as a paper document, or reference to the completion of information related to recording a lien as a paper document, the reference shall be understood to also include the transmission and recordation of the information in an electronic format.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate use of the Electronic Lien and Title System for lienholders and create a digital title.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.