Dismantler’s Handbook of Registration Procedures

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Section 1 of 11

Dismantler’s License

1.010 Dismantler Exclusions (VC §§220, 221)

The term “automobile dismantler” does not include any of the following:

  • The incidental dismantling of vehicles by dealers who have current dealer plates and whose principal business is buying and selling new or used vehicles.
  • Owners who desire to dismantle not more than three personal vehicles within any 12-month period.
  • The owner of any premises on which two or more unregistered and inoperable vehicles are held or stored, if the vehicles are used or intended to be used for restoration or as replacement parts in conjunction with:
    • Any business of a licensed dealer, manufacturer, or transporter.
    • The operation and maintenance of any fleet of motor vehicles used for the transport of persons or property.
    • Any agricultural, farming, mining, ranching business that does not sell parts of the vehicles, except when used in repairs by that business or to a licensed dismantler or scrap-metal processing facility.
    • Any properly licensed motor vehicle repair business that does not sell parts of the vehicles, except when used in repairs by that business or to a licensed dismantler or scrap-metal processing facility.
  • Any person engaged in the restoration of a vehicle of historic or classic significance.
  • The owner of a steel mill, scrap metal processing facility, or similar establishment purchasing vehicles, not for the purpose of selling them, in whole or in part, but exclusively for the purpose of reducing the vehicles to their component materials.
  • Any person who acquires used parts for resale from vehicles that have been approved by the department for dismantling.