Bill Text: NJ S1668 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Limits motor vehicle rental companies vehicle license cost recovery fee to good-faith estimate of actual costs; requires company to annually adjust fee to reflect actual costs.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-03-17 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Transportation Committee [S1668 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-S1668-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JAMES BEACH
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
SYNOPSIS
Limits motor vehicle rental companies vehicle license cost recovery fee to good-faith estimate of actual costs; requires company to annually adjust fee to reflect actual costs.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning motor vehicle rental companies and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. For the purposes of this act:
"Motor vehicle" means any vehicle propelled otherwise than by muscular power, excepting any vehicle running only upon rails or tracks and any motorized bicycle.
"Motor vehicle rental company" means any business entity or person engaged in renting motor vehicles to retail customers under rental agreements for periods of 90 days or less.
"Vehicle license cost recovery fee" means a charge that is separately stated and charged on the rental contract or agreement in a vehicle rental transaction originating in this State to recover costs incurred by a motor vehicle rental company to license, title, register, plate, and inspect rental vehicles.
b. In the case of any motor vehicle rental transaction originating in this State, a motor vehicle rental company may provide in the rental contract or agreement for the recovery, through a separate "vehicle license cost recovery fee" specifically identified as such, of costs paid or incurred by the company in the form of motor vehicle titling fees and charges, registration and inspection fees, and motor vehicle licensing fees, including any fees paid by the company to obtain license plates for the company's motor vehicle fleet. The amount of any such vehicle license cost recovery fee shall:
(1) Be stated as a separate, itemized charge in the rental contract or agreement and in any bill rendered to the customer under the agreement, and
(2) Represent the motor vehicle rental company's good-faith estimate of the company's daily charge as calculated by the company to recover its actual total annual motor vehicle licensing, titling, registration, plating, and inspection costs.
Any vehicle license cost recovery fee imposed under a motor vehicle rental contract or agreement pursuant to this subsection shall be collected in accordance with the terms of the rental contract or agreement.
The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed to prohibit a motor vehicle rental company from imposing separately stated surcharges, fees, or charges in a rental contract or agreement, which may include but not be limited to, a surcharge to recover the cost of business licensing fees, New Jersey Domestic Security Account fees, airport access fees, airport concession fees, and all applicable taxes; provided, however, that any such surcharge to recover those other costs shall not be included as part of any vehicle license cost recovery fee.
c. A motor vehicle rental company imposing a vehicle license cost recovery fee under subsection b. of this section shall disclose the existence of the surcharge in any advertisement published in the State that contains a rental rate.
2. If the total amount of the vehicle license cost recovery fees collected by a motor vehicle rental company pursuant to P.L. , c. (C ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) in any calendar year exceeds the motor vehicle rental company's actual costs to license, title, register, and plate motor vehicles and have those vehicles inspected for that calendar year, the company shall do both of the following:
a. Retain the excess amount, and
b. Adjust the vehicle license cost recovery fee for the following calendar year by a corresponding amount.
Nothing herein shall prevent a motor vehicle rental company from making adjustments to the vehicle license cost recovery fee during the calendar year.
3. This act shall take effect immediately, but sections 1 and 2 shall be inoperative until the first day of the third month after enactment. The Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety may take such anticipatory action in advance of that date as may be necessary for the timely implementation of this act upon the date on which it becomes operative.
STATEMENT
This bill clarifies that it is a lawful practice under the "Consumer Protection Leasing Act" for a motor vehicle rental company to collect, from customers renting a vehicle, a vehicle license cost recovery fee to recover the costs paid or incurred by the company for the licensing, titling, registration, inspection, and plating of its motor vehicles. The bill requires that the amount of the vehicle license cost recovery fee be separately stated in the rental contract or agreement, and be imposed at a rate reflecting the proportional part of all licensing, titling, registration, inspection, and plating fees, paid or payable by the company during the calendar year in which the rental contract or agreement was executed, that are attributable to the rental covered by the contract or agreement. A motor vehicle rental company imposing a vehicle license cost recovery fee is required to disclose the existence of the surcharge in any advertisement published in the State that contains a rental rate.
If, in a calendar year, the total amount of vehicle license cost recovery fee revenue collected by the company exceeds its actual expenditure in that year for the pertinent fees and charges, the company is required under the bill to adjust the rate of the recovery fee for the following calendar year in proportion to the amount of the excess.
The bill: clarifies that the motor vehicle rental company is to adjust the vehicle license cost recovery fee for the following year if it collected more from the fee in the preceding year than it actually expended on the allowable expenses; make consistent reference throughout the bill to a rental contract or agreement; and make corrections to the format of the bill and the synopsis.
