Dateline: September 4, 2003

Vehicle title, registration changes now effective

AUSTIN – The 78th Legislature passed new laws that began affecting Texas vehicle owners this month.

An additional $1 fee collected with vehicle registrations, new license plates, and changes to the state’s salvage laws took effect September 1. Increased title fees and additional surcharges on certain on-road diesel vehicles have already gone into effect.  These new fees are collected by the local county tax assessor-collector’s office.

As of September 1, vehicle registration renewals and new registrations will carry an additional $1 insurance verification fee. 

The same legislation also amended the state’s vehicle salvage laws.  The bill raised the fee to obtain a salvage or nonrepairable title to $8.  Under this new legislation, vehicles titled with Nonrepairable Vehicle Titles on or after September 1 cannot be rebuilt, retitled, or operated on public roadways and can only be sold for scrap or parts.  Vehicles titled with Salvage Vehicle Titles can be retitled as “rebuilt salvage” but rebuilders will be required to pay a $65 fee, in addition to the title application fee, and must submit detailed information about the type of damage the vehicle sustained and about the parts that were used to rebuild it.  The vehicle must pass a state safety inspection before a new title is issued. The new title will carry a “rebuilt salvage” remark for the life of the vehicle.

The legislature approved 38 new specialty plates and standardized fees for the popular organizational and collegiate plates.  As of September 1, the fee for these plates will be $30, with $22 being earmarked for the organization, college, or university. 

The legislature also raised vehicle title fees and established new surcharges for certain diesel vehicles titled in Texas.  The new fees became effective immediately upon the Governor’s signature on June 23, 2003. The money raised by the increase in fees will fund the Texas Emissions Reduction plan (TERP).  The TERP plan administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is aimed at bringing Texas’s air quality into compliance with established federal guidelines.  More TERP information is available at www.tceq.state.tx.us.

Texas residents needing more information should check with their county tax assessor-collector, call the Vehicle Titles and Registration help line at (512) 465-7611, or check the Texas Department of Transportation website at www.dot.state.tx.us/vtr/vtrreginfor.htm.