West Virginia Code 17A-4A-2a – Electronic transfer of liens
(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, pole 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 as a condition of participating in the electronic lien information exchange program.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 17A-4A-2a
- 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 §. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Division: means the Division of Motor Vehicles of this state acting directly or through its duly authorized officers and agents. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Factory-built home: includes mobile homes, house trailers, and manufactured homes. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
- 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. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- 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 considered the owner for the purpose of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Person: means every natural person, firm, copartnership, association, or corporation. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- 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. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Recreational vehicle: means a motorboat, motorboat trailer, all-terrain vehicle, travel trailer, fold-down camping trailer, motor home, or snowmobile. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- Semitrailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Trailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle but excluding recreational vehicles. See West Virginia Code 17A-1-1
(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 section ten-b, article six of this chapter.
(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 to be 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. A duly certified copy of the division's electronic record of the lien shall be admissible in any civil, criminal or administrative proceeding in this state as evidence of the existence of the lien.
(d) 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.