Selling a catalytic converter in Iowa

Who may sell a detached converter

No person may sell a converter in Iowa without providing the purchaser, at or before the time of sale, that person's name, address, and place of business if any, and presenting a valid driver license or non-operator identification card, military identification card, passport, or other government-issued photo identification (§ 714.27A(2)(a)). What comes next depends on whether the sale is a business transaction.

A business transaction means an exchange of consideration for a converter between a scrap metal dealer as § 714.27 defines it and another scrap metal dealer, an authorized vehicle recycler licensed under chapter 321H operating at a fixed location, a motor vehicle dealer licensed under chapter 322 at a fixed location, a towable recreational vehicle dealer licensed under chapter 322C at a fixed location, a mechanic or automotive repair facility at a fixed location, or a person operating a similar business at a fixed location in another state (§ 714.27A(1)(a)). In that case the seller provides a copy of a valid sales tax permit issued under chapter 423 or a copy of a valid business license or permit, and an out-of-state business authorized to transact in Iowa provides its sales tax permit if it has one or its business license or permit from that other state (§ 714.27A(2)(b)).

For everything else the seller produces one of three documents: an original receipt or invoice for a replacement converter bought fewer than thirty days before the replaced unit is sold, a signed affidavit attesting to the seller's valid ownership, or a junking certificate for a vehicle issued fewer than thirty days before the sale (§ 714.27A(2)(c)). Whichever it is, it has to be unmarked by a previous purchaser (§ 714.27A(2)(c)(1)), and a business that cannot produce its permit or license documentation falls back to this route (§ 714.27A(2)(b)). The paragraph does not apply where the seller instead presents unmarked proof that the sale is approved by the sheriff of the county in which the donor vehicle is registered (§ 714.27A(2)(c)(2)). The definition of a converter is simply one previously installed in a motor vehicle and later removed (§ 714.27A(1)(b)).

What the buyer must record

The purchaser's first duty is a refusal. A person may not purchase a converter from a seller without demanding and receiving the information § 714.27A(2) requires (§ 714.27A(3)(a)). Having received it, the purchaser marks the receipt, invoice, affidavit, junking certificate, or proof of sheriff approval to indicate the converter has been sold, and takes a photograph of the converter that clearly identifies the item as a converter (§ 714.27A(3)(b)). The marking is what stops one document being used twice, since the document a seller presents has to be unmarked (§ 714.27A(2)(c)(1)). A purchaser also has to have a residence or fixed business address within Iowa (§ 714.27A(3)(c)).

Records go into a confidential register. A person who purchases a converter keeps a confidential register or log of each transaction, including a copy of the information required by subsections 2, 3, and 5, so the identification, the ownership document, the marking, the photograph, and the payment record all sit together (§ 714.27A(4)). Everything kept under that subsection is retained for at least two years (§ 714.27A(4)).

Access is by request rather than routine filing. The records are provided to a law enforcement agency, or to another officer or employee a county or city designates to enforce the section, on request during normal business hours where that agency or officer has reasonable grounds to ask as part of an investigation (§ 714.27A(4)). The agency or designated officer has to preserve the confidentiality of what it receives and may not disclose it to a third party except as necessary to enforce the section or to prosecute a criminal violation (§ 714.27A(4)). For context on the general scrap rules a converter is not subject to: a scrap metal dealer's own register under § 714.27 covers the seller's name, address, and place of business and the identification presented, is retained at least two years, and is disclosed to law enforcement on the same confidential terms (§ 714.27(2), (3)). Scrap metal there means any metal suitable for reprocessing and expressly does not include a motor vehicle or a converter detached from a motor vehicle (§ 714.27(1)(a)), which is why a converter sale runs on § 714.27A instead.

How you are paid

Cash is out. A transaction under the converter section has to make use of a traceable payment method, including but not limited to payment by check, voucher, issuance of a prepaid bank, credit, or debit card, or electronic funds transfer (§ 714.27A(5)). The list is open-ended, so a purchaser may use any method that leaves a trace, but the payment record is one of the items that has to go into the confidential register (§ 714.27A(4)).

That is stricter than the general scrap rule, which keeps cash available below a threshold. For scrap metal other than converters, all transactions where the total sale price exceeds fifty dollars require payment by check or electronic funds transfer, and transactions of fifty dollars or less are exempt from the section altogether (§ 714.27(4), (5)(a)). Converters get no such floor.

Iowa imposes no waiting period. There is no requirement to hold a converter in its received condition for any number of days, no delay before the seller may be paid, and no statutory hold-notice procedure in either section. The thirty-day windows in the statute run the other way: a replacement receipt or invoice has to be fewer than thirty days old, and a junking certificate has to have been issued fewer than thirty days before the sale (§ 714.27A(2)(c)).

Penalties

The converter section is enforced by civil penalties that climb quickly. A person, including a person who conducts a business transaction on behalf of another person, who violates the section is subject to a civil penalty of one thousand dollars for an initial violation, five thousand dollars for a second violation within two years, and ten thousand dollars for a third or subsequent violation within two years (§ 714.27A(6)). Those are ten times the equivalent figures for general scrap metal violations, which run one hundred, five hundred, and one thousand dollars on the same two-year clock (§ 714.27(7)).

The section's sharper edge is evidentiary. Proof that a person, including someone who conducted a business transaction on behalf of another, violated the seller-documentation or purchaser-duty subsections is evidence from which a court or jury may infer that the person aided and abetted the underlying theft of the converter from a vehicle under § 703.1, or that the person knew a public offense had been committed and who committed it, for the purpose of proving that the person acted as an accessory after the fact under § 703.3 (§ 714.27A(7)). Skipping the paperwork is therefore not simply a fineable lapse; it is evidence toward a theft charge.

Scheduled fines apply on top. The section is referred to in § 805.8C, subsection 11, which sets the applicable scheduled fines for used catalytic converter transaction violations (§ 714.27A), and the general scrap metal section is referred to in § 805.8C, subsection 10 for the same purpose (§ 714.27). The local-ordinance rule belongs to the scrap metal section alone: § 714.27(6)(a) says the provisions of "this section" take precedence over and supersede any local ordinance regulating scrap metal transactions, with a grandfather in § 714.27(6)(b) for a city ordinance in effect before January 1, 2012 in a city over one hundred fifty thousand by the 2010 census. Section 714.27A contains no local-ordinance provision, so the converter section does not preempt local rules in that way (§ 714.27(6)).

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a government photo ID, and your name, address, and place of business (§ 714.27A(2)(a)). Businesses bring a copy of the Iowa sales tax permit or a valid business license or permit (§ 714.27A(2)(b)). Everyone else brings one of three documents for each unit: the receipt or invoice for the replacement converter dated within the last thirty days, a signed affidavit of ownership, or a junking certificate issued within the last thirty days, and it has to be unmarked (§ 714.27A(2)(c)). We mark it as sold, photograph each converter, log the transaction, and keep the register two years (§ 714.27A(3)(b), (4)). Payment has to be traceable, so no cash: check, voucher, card, or transfer (§ 714.27A(5)).