Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

6,000 motorists eligible for DMV refund

Up to 6,000 Nevada motorists may be eligible for a state-mandated $50 refund of "nonresponse" fees paid to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Drivers who paid $50 between Oct. 1, 1995, and July 5, 1997, for not responding to a notice from the department that questioned a possible lapse in their insurance can apply for a refund. Those who paid a $50 "non-operation" fine will not be eligible.

Under state law, drivers are required to keep liability insurance, which the DMV monitors through monthly reports from insurance companies. They grant drivers a 60-day window to pick up new insurance before sending out the first of two notices by mail, officials said.

But many Nevada drivers, who happen to move after registering their cars, do not update their addresses within the 10-day grace period allowed by state law, so they were not receiving the notices. Several people also reported the DMV losing documents they forwarded to the agency.

This situation was compounded by the numerous areas in which someone could make a mistake in recording the information. Late insurance payments, coupled with different married last names or lost forms are just a few of areas where mistakes could crop up.

"Those problems are still there, but they have been greatly reduced," DMV spokesman Gordon Absher said during a Wednesday news conference. "There's a lot of room for human error, not just on the DMV side."

Until March 1996, for example, one mistyped number in a 17-digit vehicle identification number could cause a driver to receive an interrogatory letter. The system has since been updated and now requires an eight-digit match.

What have changes like these meant for the program?

One in four of the more than 10,000 letters the agency sends out each month now reaches someone in violation of state law. That's up from one in 20 violations they were catching by mail in October 1996.

"The largest majority were taken care of in the normal course of business," Absher said.

This is how the refund effort will work: Eligible drivers will fill out an application, which they can either request by mail or pick up in person at any DMV office. They will be required to sign an affidavit that they either did not receive a notice or a response was not properly recorded by the DMV.

Completed applications can be dropped off at any local DMV office. They also can be put in the mail. This is the address: Insurance Verification Program, 555 Wright Way, Carson City, NV 89711-0800.

From there, the requests will be manually researched on microfiche, and applicants will receive either notification of their denial with supporting documentation or a check within 10 weeks. Checks will be cut by a separate state agency.

The rebate program follows the passage of Assembly Bill 36 in the 1997 Legislature, which created a $195,000 fund to refund nonresponse fees but no money for program administration. There is a possibility that there may be more eligible drivers than available funds, administrators said.

If that happens, "we'll go to the (Interim Finance Committee) and beg for more money," Absher said.

Residents with questions regarding the refund should call the program at (800) 344-0483 or the local DMV at 486-4DMV.

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