A new enforcement authority aims to be rid of unlicensed vehicle sellers across the province by increasing penalties for “curbers,” and requiring more licensing requirements.
Changes to the Motor Dealer Amendment Act was approved in 2016, and many came into effect at the beginning of this year.
“There’s probably somebody in the community as a curber. That’s somebody who is unlicensed, pretending to be a private seller,” explained Doug Longhurst, director of learning and communications for the Vehicle Sales Authority of B.C. “It’s somebody who is unlicensed, pretending to be a private seller, when in fact they are in the business of being a car dealer. That’s what they do for a living.”
These sellers differ from private sellers because they are doing it often, and aren’t licensed because they are avoiding the initial costs and fulfilling licensing requirements. The find for an unlicensed seller used to be only a couple hundred dollars, but now the penalties can be up to $100,000, Longhurst explained.
“Unlike the car dealers in your town, they are avoiding getting licensed. They are breaking bylaw rules as well, typically,” he said, adding that sometimes the dealers will clutter up their property with derelict vehicles, or cause noise, and have buyers visiting the property as if it were a business. “They might be somebody everybody knows, and it’s gone on for years and everybody accepts it, but they are taking away from legitimate businesses who follow all the rules and donate to little league teams.”
Now, the Vehicle Sales Authority has the ability to assess the same penalties against an unlicensed seller as a licensed dealer.
“It should drive it underground and make it more fair for licensed dealers,” he said. “If you buy from a licensed dealer and you have a problem, we get involved. We can at least penalize them and put them out of business.”
These penalties do not apply to private sellers. A private seller is someone who is selling their own vehicle, or who has a small hobby of fixing up five cars or less each year to sell.
“We’re just going after the people that are actually running a business by avoiding the bylaw requirements and the license requirements,” Longhurst said.
The last piece of the changes comes into effect April 1 regarding the licensing categories. It breaks the categories down to three specific parts, wholesalers, broker agents, and broker agent representatives.
