Request By:
Mr. Bremer Ehrler
Jefferson County Clerk
Courthouse
Louisville, Kentucky 40232-3033
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request our opinion concerning the junking of motor vehicle license plates.
UNDERLYING FACTS AND ISSUES
The key statutory provision is KRS 186.190(5), which reads:
"(5) If the owner junks or otherwise renders a motor vehicle unfit for future use, he shall deliver the registration plate and registration receipt to the county clerk of the county in which the motor vehicle is junked. The county clerk shall immediately return the plate and receipt to the transportation cabinet. The owner shall pay to the county clerk fifty cents (50 ) for his services."
Your letter reads in part:
"Effective January 1984 the Department of Revenue (using Department of Transportation AVIS computer files) sent tax notices informing vehicle owners of personal property tax due and also reminding vehicle owners of plate/ decal renewal. Upon receipt of the notices, customers began informing our office that they no longer had the vehicle or plate in their possession and in some instances they no longer had the registration or title. Many of these customers had junked vehicles as they were not operable on the highways, many, many had sent these vehicles to junkyards for demolition and some had turned over to their insurance companies for disposal. We do understand that when a customer has been paid by their insurance company for a vehicle that has been totaled that they cannot junk out the plate but that the insurance company must handle on salvaged title.
"Our office has been accepting affidavits (such as the one attached) from vehicle owners and not requiring the owner to apply for a plate replacement. We have been informed by the Department of Transportation that these affidavits are not acceptable and the customer must apply for a plate replacement. Attached are just two examples of the possible cost to a customer who only wishes to junk a plate for a vehicle he no longer has in his possession.
"We are also concerned that if vehicle owners are required to pay these fees to junk a plate that perhaps no action will be taken and thus, the AVIS computer file reflects licensed vehicles that no longer exist. Also, the Department of Revenue will be preparing and mailing tax notices (the county clerks pay for postage and preparation of these notices) on vehicles that no longer exist.
"In as much as we feel that vehicle owners could be imposed with an undue financial hardship, we respectfully request your opinion concerning this matter."
Apparently the Transportation Cabinet is requiring vehicle owners to apply for a plate replacement or renewal (decal) , regardless of the fact that the vehicle has been junked.
Your office has been accepting affidavits from vehicle owners, and you do not require plate replacement or renewal (decal) where the affidavit indicates that the vehicle has been junked. The affidavit contains the representation that neither the title nor the plate to the vehicle, identified as being formerly owned and used by the affiant, is in the possesion of the affiant.
You attached a chart indicating that under the policy of the Transportation Cabinet in various factual situations, where either the owner had no registration and title and plate or decal, or a variation of those items, a substantial clerk's fee, ranging from $6.50 to $24.00, would be involved.
However, as we said, your office has been accepting affidavits from owners, as a result of which you do not require plate or decal replacement for junked motor vehicles. The affidavits state that the affiant has neither the title nor plate in affiant's possession.
ANALYSIS
It is true that where the motor vehicle is still operable, and not junked, the county clerk must collect the property tax due on the vehicle as well as issue a plate or decal to renew the license. As to registration or titling and taxation of motor vehicles, see KRS 186A.035, 186A.060, and 186A.175. KRS 186A.295 requires an owner of a destroyed vehicle to surrender his title to the county clerk.
Although a county clerk is prohibited from issuing a registration for renewal or transfer for any motor vehicle on which various ad valorem taxes have not been paid, pursuant to KRS 186.021, and considering that KRS 134.800 requires county clerks to collect ad valorem taxes on motor vehicles, such combined function of collecting the ad valorem taxes and renewing or transferring of registration must not be viewed as the authority for requiring renewal of registration in the face of the fact of a junked vehicle, as stated by affidavit.
Where an affidavit is filed with the county clerk stating that the affiant no longer has in his possession the title or plate to a motor vehicle, identified by license plate number, year, make, model number, vehicle identification number, and indicating the date of disposition of vehicle and title, and that the vehicle is junked or unfit for future use, the clerk may consider the described vehicle junked, under KRS 186.190(5). We think this is true, even though the owner is unable to deliver the registration-title document to the clerk. We do not believe that the legislature intended to require the owner of a junked or inoperable vehicle to renew his registration and plate or decal. "The law will not force anyone to do a vain and useless thing." Kentucky Title Co. v. Hail, 219 Ky. 256, 292 S.W. 817 (1927) 821. To buttress that view, note KRS 186A.070, which provides in part that the state resident owner of a motor vehicle is not required to obtain a certificate of registration until such time as the motor vehicle is to be operated upon the highways of this state. Where a car is junked, and will never be operated on the highways of Kentucky, we see no valid reason why such owner should be required to procure a plate replacement. Such a plate, if obtained, would be a symbol of a destroyed, junked or inoperable vehicle.
Where the motor vehicle has been junked after January 1, 1984, for example, the county clerk, of the appropriate county, would, as relates to 1984 taxes, be responsible for collecting the ad valorem taxes on the junked motor vehicle. The tax collection responsibility of the county clerk, pursuant to KRS 134.800, still attaches where the vehicle is junked after January 1 of any year, as relates to ad valorem taxes for that year. See KRS 132.220, as amended in 1984. In this situation the assessment date is January 1 of each year.
We are aware of the statutory provisions for a centralized ad valorem tax system for all motor vehicles, pursuant to KRS 132.487. That system is designed to allow collection of state, county, school and special taxing district ad valorem taxes due on each motor vehicle at the time of registration by the county clerk. However, where the vehicle has been junked, the clerk must still collect the taxes, where the vehicle was junked after January 1 of a particular year, for that particular year, regardless of the fact that registration or plate renewal is not applicable.
CONCLUSION
(1) It is our opinion that where an affidavit, as you described, is filed stating that the affiant no longer has in his possession the title or plate to a motor vehicle, the county clerk should consider the described vehicle junked, under KRS 186.190(5), and should not require plate or decal renewal.
(2) The clerk, even where a vehicle has been junked, destroyed, or is rendered inoperable on the highways, is still responsible for collecting the ad valorem taxes on the vehicle where the motor vehicle did not become junked, etc., until after January 1 of the tax year in question. The taxes apply on operable property assessable as of January 1 of any tax year.