IAR Recyclers Newspress January / February 2016

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Buying a Scrap Vehicle without
a Title in Iowa
January / February 2016 Iowa Auto Recyclers
Inside this issue:
Advocacy is the means by which a
group of like-minded folks go to their
legislative body to promote an idea
that should better their state pertain-
ing to the subject that unified the
folks in the first place. Such is the
case when the Iowa Auto Recycler
responded to an op-
portunity to develop a
process by which the
legal owner of a vehi-
cle could get rid of the
car from the “back for-
ty” without a title or
the need to embark
on a lengthy process with the local
police department.
The Iowa Affidavit Rule is a tool to
protect consumers from fraud when
dealing with black market scrapper.
The new tool is an affidavit sale of a
vehicle in Iowa to a licensed auto-
motive recycler by the rightful
owner of the car or truck without a
title. The Iowa Automotive Recyclers
worked with Auto Data Direct, an in-
dustry expert, the scrap metal recy-
clers and the Iowa Department of
Transportation to craft a bill that the
Governor signed in April 2015.
The new law has yet to be written in-
to rule but still became effective on
January 1, 2016.
In response, IAR developed a sample
form to help recyclers capture the re-
quired and recommended data to
make the acquisition
with maximum protec-
tion to the buyer. The
form can be download-
ed from the Iowa Au-
tomotive Recyclers
website at
The idea was to create a legal ave-
nue for these vehicle as a means to
protect consumers from fraud by the
black market operators who may nev-
er retire the VIN from the system as
is required by the rule. Recyclers that
buy a vehicle on an affidavit of own-
ership must report the vehicle to the
National Motor Vehicle Titling Infor-
mation System or NMVTIS as
CRUSHED within two business days.
The vehicle can never again be re-
built or sold as road worthy.
Continued on page 16…
af·fi·da·vit [ˌafəˈdāvit] noun
1. a written statement con-
firmed by oath or affirmation,
for use as evidence in court.
Iowa Automotive Recyclers
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