South Carolina General Assembly
106th Session, 1985-1986

Bill 2500


                    Current Status

Bill Number:               2500
Ratification Number:       483
Act Number:                436
Introducing Body:          House
Subject:                   Regulate travel trailer sales
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(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.