SB1464

Section 501.052 ordinarily lets an interested person challenge the motor vehicle department’s refusal, rescission, cancellation, suspension or revocation of a title under Section 501.051 through a hearing in the person’s county of residence. The amended section bars an application when that decision concerns a title for a vehicle that is the subject of any pending litigation or court proceedings, for which a court has awarded ownership or possession to another person, or that is held as evidence in a criminal investigation. The statute does not require a criminal conviction for the evidence category. Final law; Title-decision framework; Prior hearing procedure.

A county assessor-collector receiving a prohibited application must deny it and need not send the department the hearing-date notice or hold the hearing otherwise required by this section. The exclusion for salvage and nonrepairable vehicles remains, using the existing statutory definitions. This act limits this particular hearing route; it does not decide ownership itself, release evidence or state that every other possible judicial remedy is abolished. Final law; Existing vehicle definitions.

All five published operative versions are identical, and no floor amendments are listed. The act changes the hearing exclusions and adds the express denial instruction; it does not rewrite the remaining hearing and appeal provisions. Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index; Other hearing and appeal provisions.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

County tax offices have an express instruction not to conduct these excluded hearings. People affected lose access to that county hearing route while the stated conditions apply; the law does not promise an alternative procedure or a faster resolution. It also prevents this process from being used to revisit a vehicle already awarded to another person by a court. These are procedural effects, not measured findings about delay or litigation costs. Final law.

The March 24 fiscal note anticipates no state or local fiscal impact and assumes implementation costs can be absorbed within existing resources. It does not estimate private costs for people disputing vehicle titles. The act makes no appropriation. Fiscal note.