H*2500 Session 106 (1985-1986)
H*2500(Rat #0483, Act #0436 of 1986) General Bill, By J.C. Hearn
A Bill to regulate travel trailer sales and provide penalties for
violations.-amended title
02/28/85 House Introduced and read first time HJ-1047
02/28/85 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and
Industry HJ-1047
01/14/86 House Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor,
Commerce and Industry HJ-34
01/16/86 House Amended HJ-158
01/16/86 House Read second time HJ-159
01/16/86 House Unanimous consent for third reading on next
legislative day HJ-159
01/17/86 House Read third time and sent to Senate HJ-185
01/21/86 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-174
01/21/86 Senate Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and
Industry SJ-1744
04/22/86 Senate Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor,
Commerce and Industry SJ-2224
05/06/86 Senate Read second time SJ-2441
05/06/86 Senate Ordered to third reading with notice of
amendments SJ-2441
05/08/86 Senate Amended SJ-2540
05/08/86 Senate Read third time SJ-2548
05/08/86 Senate Returned SJ-2548
05/13/86 House Concurred in Senate amendment and enrolled HJ-3002
05/21/86 Ratified R 483
05/27/86 Signed By Governor
05/27/86 Effective date 05/27/86
05/27/86 Act No. 436
06/09/86 Copies available
(A436, R483, H2500)
AN ACT REGULATE TRAVEL TRAILER SALES AND PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
Definitions
SECTION 1. Definitions.
(a) "Travel Trailer" means every vehicle designed without motor
power to be towed by a motor vehicle and of such size and weight as not to
require a special highway moving permit, designed to provide temporary living
quarters for recreational, camping, and travel use and designed not to require
permanent on-site utilities, including, but not limited to, tent campers, park
models, park trailers, motor homes, and fifth wheels. This term may include any
vehicle whose body width is not more than eight feet, and whose length is not
more than thirty-five feet in the travel mode, and so designed that part of its
weight rests on the towing vehicle.
For purposes of titling, the term travel trailer may include motor vehicles
where a structure is designed and placed on a frame to be used as temporary
living quarters for recreational, camping, or travel use.
(b) "Dealership facilities" means the real estate, buildings,
fixtures, and improvements devoted to the conduct of business by the new travel
trailer dealer.
(c) "Sale" means the issuance, transfer, agreement for transfer,
exchange, pledge, hypothecation, mortgage in any form, whether by transfer in
trust or otherwise, of any travel trailer or interest therein related thereto and
any option, subscription, or other contract, or solicitation, looking to a sale,
or offer or attempt to sell in any form, whether spoken or written. A gift or
delivery of any travel trailer with respect thereto, with or as a bonus on
account of the sale of anything, is a sale of such travel trailer.
(d) "Fraud" means, in addition to its normal legal connotation: a
misrepresentation in any manner, whether intentionally false or due to gross
negligence, of a material fact; a promise or representation not made honestly and
in good faith; and an intentional failure to disclose a material fact.
(e) "Person" means a natural person, corporation, partnership,
trust, or other entity, and, in case of an entity, it includes any other entity
in which it has a majority interest or effectively controls as well as the
individual officers, directors, and other persons in active control of the
activities of each such entity.
(f) "Dealer" or "travel trailer dealer" means any person
who sells or attempts to effect the sale of any travel trailer. These terms do
not include:
(1) manufacturers or distributors.
(2) receivers, trustees, administrators, executors, guardians, or other
persons appointed by or acting under the judgment, or order of any court.
(3) public officers while performing their official duties.
(4) persons disposing of travel trailers titled in their own name and
acquired for their own use and so used in good faith and not for the purpose of
avoiding the provisions of law. Any person who effects or attempts to effect the
sale of more than three travel trailers, new or used, or one travel trailer never
having been titled, in any one calender year, is considered a dealer, as
appropriate, for purposes of this chapter.
(5) finance companies or other financial institutions who sell repossessed
travel trailers and insurance companies who sell travel trailers they own as an
incident to payment made under policies of insurance.
(g) "Department" means the S.C. Department of Highways and Public
Transportation.
License; fees; penalties
SECTION 2. License for dealer; fees; penalties for noncompliance.
(1) Before engaging in business as a travel trailer dealer in this State,
every person must first make application to the Department for a license. Every
license issued expires on December thirty-first next following the date of
issuance and must be prominently displayed at the established place of business.
The fee for the license is fifty dollars. The license applies to only one place
of business of the applicant and is not transferable to any other person or place
of business.
(2) Any person failing to secure a license as required in this chapter is
guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction must be punished:
(a) by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days for the first offense.
(b) by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one
thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both, for the
second offense.
(c) by a fine of not less than one thousand dollars nor more than ten
thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, for the
third or any subsequent offense.
For purposes of this section, the sale of each travel trailer constitutes a
separate offense.
(3) The Department will use the same application form and procedures as
utilized for a "motor vehicle dealer" licensed as defined by Sections
56-15-310 et seq.
Application for license
SECTION 3. Application for dealer's license; bond; duty to notify department
where information given by applicant changes or licensee ceases operations.
(1) Before any license as a "dealer" is issued to an applicant, he
must file an application with the Department and furnish the information the
Department may require, including, but not limited to, information adequately
identifying by name and address any individual who owns or controls ten percent
or more of the interest in the business. The policy of this section is full
disclosure.
(2) Each applicant for licensure as a travel trailer dealer must furnish a
surety bond in the penal amount of fifteen thousand dollars on a form to be
prescribed by the director of the Motor Vehicle Division of the Department. The
bond must be given to the Department and executed by the applicant, as principal,
and by a corporate surety company authorized to do business in this State, as
surety. The bond must be conditioned upon the applicant or licensee complying
with the provisions of the statutes applicable to the license and as
indemnification for any loss or damage suffered by an owner of a travel trailer,
or his legal representative, by reason of any fraud practiced or fraudulent
representation made in connection with the sale or transfer of a travel trailer
by a licensed dealer or the dealer's agent acting for the dealer or within the
scope of employment of the agent or any loss or damage suffered by reason of the
violation by the dealer or his agent, of any of the provisions of this chapter.
An owner or his legal representative who suffers the loss or damage has a right
of action against the dealer and against the dealer's surety upon the bond and
may recover damages as provided in this chapter. A new bond or a proper
continuation certificate must be delivered to the Department annually before the
license is renewed. However, regardless of the number of years a bond remains in
effect, the aggregate liability of the surety for any and all claims is limited
to fifteen thousand dollars on each bond and to the amount of the actual loss
incurred. The surety has the right to terminate its liability under the bond by
giving the Department thirty days' written notice of its intent to cancel the
bond. The cancellation does not affect any liability incurred or accrued prior
to the cancellation.
(3) If, during any license year, there is any change in the information that
a dealer gave the Department in obtaining or retaining a license under this
section, the licensee shall report the change to the Department within thirty
days after the change occurs on the form the Department requires.
(4) In the event a licensee ceases being a dealer, he shall, within ten days
thereafter, notify the Department of this fact and return to the Department any
license issued pursuant to this chapter and all current dealer license plates
issued to the dealer.
Established place of business, size
SECTION 4. Requirement as to dealer's maintenance of bona fide established place
of business; size of business; permanent sign.
No dealer may be issued or allowed to maintain a travel trailer dealer's
license unless:
(1) The dealer maintains a bona fide established place of business for
conducting the business of selling or exchanging travel trailers which must be
the principal business conducted from the fixed location. A bona fide
established place of business for any travel trailer dealer includes a permanent,
enclosed building or structure, not excluding a permanently installed off-site
constructed building containing at least ninety-six square feet of floor space,
actually occupied by the applicant and easily accessible by the public, at which
a permanent business of bartering, trading, or selling of travel trailers or
displaying vehicles for bartering, trading, or selling is carried on, wherein the
public may contact the owner or operator at all reasonable times and in which
must be kept and maintained the books, records, and files required by this
chapter. A bona fide established place of business does not mean a residence,
tent, temporary stand, or other temporary quarters.
(2) The dealer's place of business must display a permanent sign with letters
at least six inches in height, clearly readable from the nearest major avenue of
traffic. The sign must clearly identify the licensed business.
(3) The dealer's place of business must have a reasonable area or lot to
properly display travel trailers.
Complete records required to be kept
SECTION 5. Records pertaining to transfer of travel trailers; penalties for
failure to keep records or make them available to department.
(1) Every dealer shall keep complete records of each transaction under which
a travel trailer is transferred for a period of not less than four years from the
date of the transaction. The records must show the true name and correct address
of the person or persons from whom the travel trailer was acquired and the date
of the transaction; a correct description of the travel trailer, when
transferred; the true name and correct address of the person to whom the travel
trailer was transferred; and the date of the transaction. The description of the
travel trailer must include the travel trailer identification number, make,
model, type of body, and the odometer readings (if applicable) at the time the
travel trailer was transferred to and from the dealer. These records must be
open at all reasonable times for inspection and copying by the Department or any
of its duly authorized agents.
(2) The records kept by the dealer must be maintained in a reasonably
organized and orderly fashion with all entries being legible to the ordinary
person upon inspection. Any records which are illegible or incapable of accurate
interpretation by either the recordkeeper or the Department's inspector or agent
are not in compliance with this section.
(3) If any dealer fails to keep the required records or fails to make them
available to the Department or its duly authorized agents immediately upon a
reasonable request, the dealer is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction
must be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars or
imprisoned for up to thirty days. The failure to keep or to make available to
the Department or its duly authorized agents complete records on each separate
travel trailer constitutes a separate offense.
Denial suspension or revocation of license
SECTION 6. Denial, suspension, or revocation of license.
Any license issued under this chapter may be denied, suspended, or revoked if
the applicant or licensee or an agency of the applicant or licensee acting for
the applicant or licensee is determined by the Department to have:
(a) made a material misstatement in the application for the license;
(b) violated any provision of this chapter;
(c) been found by a court of competent jurisdiction to have committed any
fraud connected with the sale or transfer of a travel trailer;
(d) employed fraudulent devices, methods, or practices in connection with
meeting the requirements placed on dealers by the laws of this State;
(e) been convicted of any violation of law involving the acquisition or
transfer of a title to a travel trailer or of any violation of law involving
tampering with, altering, or removing travel trailer identification numbers or
markings;
(f) refused or failed to comply with the Department's reasonable requests to
inspect or copy the records, books, and files of the dealer or failed to maintain
records of each travel trailer transaction as required by this chapter or by
state and federal law pertaining to odometer records (if applicable); or
(g) the Department shall notify the licensee or applicant in writing at the
mailing address provided in his application of its intention to deny, suspend,
or revoke his license at least twenty days in advance and shall provide the
licensee an opportunity for a hearing pursuant to the Administrative Procedures
Act of this State. A licensee desiring a hearing shall request it in writing
within ten days of receiving notice of the proposed denial, suspension, or
revocation of his dealer's license.
Upon the denial, suspension, or revocation of a license, the licensee shall
immediately return to the Department the license and all dealer license plates.
Exemptions
SECTION 7. Exemptions.
A person possessing a valid motor vehicle dealer's license under Chapter 15 of
Title 56 or a valid manufactured home dealer's license under Chapter 17 of Title
31 is hereby exempted from the requirements of this chapter.
Department may promulgate regulations
SECTION 8. Authority to promulgate regulations.
The Department is authorized to promulgate regulations necessary for the
enforcement of the provisions of this chapter. |