Bill 462.

Summary.

The bill establishes rules throughout the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá) for vehicles held following violations of the Traffic Regulations that remain unattended in towing company yards for more than six months. It would allow those companies to acquire rights over the vehicles through a procedure before the municipality where each vehicle is registered. The companies covered are private providers authorized by the Transit and Land Transportation Authority (Autoridad del Tránsito y Transporte Terrestre) to transport, tow and hold vehicles. The proposed rules address the costs of those services and of keeping vehicles in company yards.

A vehicle is deemed abandoned when it has remained stationary and unattended by its owner for more than six months after entering a yard because of a traffic violation. A vehicle with mechanical or body damage, no mobility and the same period of neglect is deemed scrap. A vehicle is excluded from the abandoned category if its owner is making payments toward, or has made a payment toward, the debt owed to the company. The bill also defines drivers, owners, towing operators and companies, together with the services, charges, handling operations, custody periods and records associated with towing. Its definitions of a tow truck and a vehicle refer to Executive Decree No. 640 of December 27, 2006 (DECRETO EJECUTIVO No. 640 de 27 de diciembre de 2006).

On organization, the bill assigns municipalities responsibility for registering companies or businesses and collecting taxes corresponding to their activities. Each municipality would keep records of vehicles registered within its jurisdiction so that owners can obtain license plates, and would seek to ensure that plate payments are current. Municipalities would also process transfers between owners and forward documentation to the Vehicle Ownership Register (Registro Único de Propiedad Vehicular) of the same municipality for issuance of a vehicle registration document. Individuals and legal entities must meet the applicable municipal and registration requirements.

The bill links the transfer of unattended vehicles to payment for towing company services, custody expenses and the presence of vermin in yards. It states that towing companies are registered with the relevant municipality and authorized by resolutions of the Transit and Land Transportation Authority. It provides for the competent authority to work with those companies so that unattended vehicles may pass into their ownership to cover service costs left unpaid by their owners.

To begin the transfer procedure, a company must request a visual inspection of its yard in writing from the municipality. With qualified experts, the municipality determines the vehicles’ condition and publishes, for ten consecutive days in a newspaper of national circulation, a list of those left unattended for more than six months. Owners then have 20 consecutive days to discharge the obligations arising from the matter. If they do not, the municipality may declare the vehicle abandoned through a reasoned resolution and proceed to assign rights over it to the company holding it.

Vehicles rendered severely deteriorated or unusable by water, sunlight or other weather conditions after collisions or accidents would be transferred as scrap, subject to an opinion from a qualified expert and the same publication procedure. The municipality where a vehicle is registered authorizes the company to dispose of or acquire it once the prescribed steps have been completed. The bill authorizes the Executive Branch to issue implementing regulations and sets commencement for the day after promulgation.

The public bodies connected with these provisions are municipalities, the Transit and Land Transportation Authority, the Vehicle Ownership Register and the Executive Branch. The provisions could concern or affect towing companies, vehicle owners and drivers, individuals and legal entities applying for registration documents and plates, and the land transportation sector.