Interpretation ID: aiam1105
Examiner
Casualty-Property Division
The Travelers
One Tower Square
Hartford
CT 06115;
Dear Mr. Wilson: This is in reply to your letter of March 30, 1973, concerning th applicability of the Federal odometer disclosure requirements (49 CFR Part 580) to transactions in which an insurance company takes possession of a vehicle after declaring it a total loss and paying the owner's claim, and subsequently transfers the vehicle to a salvage dealer.; You are correct in understanding that transactions of this sort are no exempt under section 580.5 of the regulation. When the owner transfers the vehicle to the insurer, he is required to make disclosure statement, and the insurer, in turn, is required to make disclosure upon sale to the salvage dealer. As a practical matter, however, if the vehicle is so badly damaged that it is unlikely ever to be returned to the road, it will have ceased to be a motor vehicle, for purposes of this regulation. Disclosure would therefore not be required.; In cases where the vehicle is repairable or undamaged, as is often th situation in the recovery of stolen vehicles, a disclosure statement should be given as in any other motor vehicle transaction.; Yours truly, Richard B. Dyson, Assistant Chief Counsel