Selling a catalytic converter in Utah

Who may sell a detached converter

Utah puts no license on either side under these statutes, but it does define who is caught by them. A catalytic converter purchase means a purchase from an individual of a used converter no longer affixed to a vehicle, and it does not include a purchase from a business regularly engaged in automobile repair, crushing, dismantling, recycling, or salvage, from a licensed new or used vehicle dealer, from another catalytic converter purchaser, or of a converter that has never been affixed to a vehicle (§ 13-32a-102(7)(a), (b)). A catalytic converter purchaser is a person who purchases a used converter in such a purchase (§ 13-32a-102(8)).

The seller has to clear three thresholds. A dealer may not purchase regulated metal from a person younger than eighteen, and if the person cannot comply with all the identification requirements of § 76-6-1403(2) the dealer may not conduct the transaction at all (§ 76-6-1405(1), (2)). Identification means a form of positive identification issued by a state or the federal government that carries a numerical identifier, a photograph, and the date of birth, and it includes a state identification card, a state driver license, a United States military identification card, or a United States passport (§ 76-6-1402(4)).

The two chapters expressly cross-reference each other. Where a dealer is a catalytic converter purchaser as defined in § 13-32a-102, the dealer has to comply with Title 13, Chapter 32a (§ 76-6-1406(5)), and a dealer as defined in § 76-6-1402 making a converter purchase has to comply with Title 76, Chapter 6, Part 14 (§ 13-32a-104.7(7)). Regulated metal means any item composed primarily of nonferrous metal, including aluminum, brass, copper, lead, chromium, tin, nickel, and their alloys (§ 76-6-1402(9)(a), (b)(i)). Every dealer also posts a clearly legible notice in letters not less than two inches high saying that a person attempting to sell any regulated metal must provide identification as required by state law (§ 76-6-1404(1)). The third threshold is the owner's own paperwork, because a converter is a suspect metal item. A dealer may not purchase suspect metal without obtaining information identifying the owner, and the owner supplies in writing a telephone number, a business or residential address that may not be a post box, a copy of the owner's driver license, and a signed statement that the person is the lawful owner and authorizes the seller, identified by name, to sell it; the dealer keeps that information on file for not less than one year (§ 76-6-1406(3)(a) to (c)). Suspect metal items are defined to include catalytic converters (§ 76-6-1402(12)(k)). A business with an established account with the dealer is lifted out of both § 76-6-1406(2) and § 76-6-1406(3) where the dealer holds a statement naming the employees authorized to sell, or reasonable documentation that a verified employee may sell, or pays by check to the business employing the seller (§ 76-6-1406(4)).

What the buyer must record

The metal dealer log is nine items. A complete description of the regulated metal including weight and metallic description in accordance with scrap metal recycling industry standards; the full name and residence of each seller; the vehicle type and license plate number where applicable; the price per pound and the amount paid for each type; the date, time, and place; the type and identifying number of the identification; the identification itself, being a valid federal or state photo identification; the seller's signature on a certificate stating the seller has the legal right to sell; and a digital photograph or still video of the seller taken at the time of the sale, or a clearly legible photocopy of the identification (§ 76-6-1403(2)(a) to (i)).

Converters draw a second, longer record that goes to the state. A catalytic converter purchaser documents the date and time; the seller's full name and date of birth as they appear on the identification, residence address, telephone number, and signature on a certificate stating the legal right to sell; the type of identification and its unique number; a color digital photograph or still video of the seller taken at the time of sale, or a clearly legible photocopy of the identification; and, unless the seller has sold a converter to that purchaser before, an electronic or tangible legible fingerprint of the right index finger, or of another finger with a notation explaining why (§ 13-32a-104.7(2)(a), (b), (3)). It also documents the amount paid, the name or employee number of the person conducting the purchase, an accurate description of the converter with available identifying marks including name, brand, numbers, manufacturer information, size, indicia of ownership, and weight where payment is by weight, and a color digital photograph of the converter itself (§ 13-32a-104.7(2)(c) to (f)). All of it is uploaded to the central database under § 13-32a-106 (§ 13-32a-104.7(1)).

Retention and inspection are three years and open. No entry in the metal dealer log may be erased, deleted, mutilated, or changed, the log is open to inspection by the county sheriff or deputies, any law enforcement agency, a contracting constable, and any state, municipal, or county official in the county, during regular business hours, and entries are maintained for not less than three years from the date of entry (§ 76-6-1403(3), (4), (6)). Under the pawn chapter a ticket or copy is retained for no less than three years after the transaction, and a law enforcement agency or the division may conduct random reasonable inspections of catalytic converter purchasers during regular business hours (§ 13-32a-108(1), (2)). A purchaser may not accept a converter where, on inspection, it is apparent that the serial number or identifying characteristics have been intentionally defaced (§ 13-32a-104.7(4)).

How you are paid

Utah does not restrict the method of payment for a converter. Neither Part 14 nor chapter 32a names a cash ceiling, a required check, a payee, or a mailing address. Checks appear only as alternatives in two narrow places: where a dealer pays a government entity by check for certain public-property metal, and where a dealer satisfies the established-account exemption by issuing a check to the business employing the seller (§ 76-6-1406(2), (4)(c)).

What Utah does regulate is when the converter may move on, and the period is long. A catalytic converter purchaser may sell a purchased converter only after holding it for fifteen calendar days after the day on which the purchaser submits the information to the central database, and after complying with §§ 13-32a-104, 13-32a-104.6, 13-32a-104.7, and 13-32a-106 (§ 13-32a-109(1)(b)). Because the clock starts on the upload rather than on the purchase, the reporting step sets when the fifteen days begin.

Two other limits shape the visit. A dealer may conduct purchase transactions involving regulated metal only between the hours of six a.m. and seven p.m. (§ 76-6-1406(1)). And on top of the standing fifteen day hold, a law enforcement agency may require a converter purchaser to hold property for an investigation, with an initial hold of ninety days, one extension of up to ninety more on notice before the first period expires, and no hold beyond one hundred eighty days without a court order (§ 13-32a-109(1)(c), (4)(a), (5)). A separate hold notice procedure in the criminal code freezes identified regulated metal for sixty days, after which the hold is automatically released and the dealer may dispose of the metal unless a court directs otherwise (§ 76-6-1409(1) to (3)).

Penalties

Dealer-side offenses carry mandatory minimum fines. A dealer commits unlawful conduct with respect to record of sale or purchase by violating § 76-6-1403, which is a class C misdemeanor with a mandatory fine of no less than seven hundred fifty dollars, rising to a class A misdemeanor with a mandatory fine of no less than two thousand five hundred dollars where the dealer has previously been convicted under that section or under §§ 76-6-1404.1, 76-6-1405.1, 76-6-1406.1, or 76-6-1409.1 (§ 76-6-1403.1(2), (3)). The same structure applies to breaking the purchase restrictions (§ 76-6-1406.1(2), (3)).

Seller-side falsification is graded higher at the outset. An actor commits falsification of seller's statement to dealer by selling, offering, or attempting to sell regulated metal and willfully making a false statement or providing untrue information in the material §§ 76-6-1403, 76-6-1405, or 76-6-1406 require, which is a class B misdemeanor with a mandatory fine of no less than one thousand dollars, and a class A misdemeanor with a mandatory fine of no less than two thousand five hundred dollars on a prior conviction (§ 76-6-1408(2), (3)). A violation of the converter database section is itself a class B misdemeanor and also draws civil penalties (§ 13-32a-104.7(6)), and violations of the database, retention, and holding period sections carry an administrative or civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars each (§ 13-32a-110(1)(d), (f), (g)).

Stealing a converter is a felony in Utah regardless of value. An actor commits metal or catalytic converter theft by obtaining or exercising unauthorized control over another person's metal or catalytic converter with a purpose to deprive that person of it (§ 76-6-415(2)), and the offense is a third degree felony where the property is a catalytic converter, without any dollar threshold, or a second degree felony where the value is or exceeds five thousand dollars or the metal is stolen from the person of another (§ 76-6-415(3)(a), (b)(ii)(A)). Local governments keep their authority to license, tax, and regulate metal dealers, provided local rules are not less stringent than the state's (§ 76-6-1403.1(4)(a)).

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a valid state or federal photo ID showing your date of birth, because Utah forbids us to complete the transaction if you cannot meet every identification requirement, and you have to be eighteen (§ 76-6-1403(2)(g), § 76-6-1405). Because a converter is a suspect metal item, the owner also supplies in writing a telephone number, a business or residential address that is not a post box, a copy of the owner's license, and a signed statement naming you as the person authorized to sell it, which we keep on file for a year; a business with an established account with us is outside that step (§ 76-6-1402(12)(k), § 76-6-1406(3), (4)). You sign a certificate that you have the legal right to sell, and we photograph you and each converter in color (§ 76-6-1403(2)(h), (i), § 13-32a-104.7(2)(b), (f)). First-time sellers also give a right index fingerprint, which Utah waives once you have sold a converter to us before (§ 13-32a-104.7(2)(b)(iv), (3)). The whole record goes into a state central database, and each unit then stays with us for fifteen days after that upload (§ 13-32a-104.7(1), § 13-32a-109(1)(b)). Utah sets no payment rule, so nothing in state law restricts how we settle with you. We can only buy between six a.m. and seven p.m. (§ 76-6-1406(1)).