Interpretation ID: aiam1838
Route 2
Box 230
East Bend
NC 27018;
Dear Mr. Dixon: This is in response to your letter of February 12, 1975, requestin information concerning penalties available for failure to provide an odometer disclosure form upon sale of a vehicle.; As you know, the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Ac requires that a written disclosure of a vehicle's correct mileage be provided by the seller to the purchaser at the time ownership of a vehicle is transferred. If the correct mileage is unknown, however, the Act requires a statement to that effect to be furnished in written form to the buyer. Violation of any of these requirements may subject the violator to civil liability where his actions were intended to defraud the purchaser. The Act makes available to the buyer a remedy in the amount of $1,500 or treble damages, whichever is greater. To obtain this remedy, section 409 of the Act provides that a private civil action be instituted in State or Federal Court.; If you have reason to believe that the odometer mileage was altered b someone other than the person who actually sold you the vehicle, you are not precluded from suing him. The Act does limit your recovery for a violation to your immediate transferor.; Where a vehicle has been rebuilt, the odometer mileage that is relevan for purposes of the Cost Savings Act, is the number of miles the *chassis* has traveled.; I have enclosed the materials you requested. Yours truly, Richard B. Dyson, Assistant Chief Counsel