Requires that the distinctive license plate numbers issued to the owner of a registered motor vehicle be changed and the registration record for such motor vehicle be updated to reflect such change within a week after such plates being stolen.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
788
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BERGER -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to requiring
that the distinctive license plate numbers issued to an owner of a
registered motor vehicle be updated within seven days of such plate or
plates being stolen
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph a of subdivision 3 of section 401 of the vehicle
2 and traffic law, as amended by section 1 of part H of chapter 59 of the
3 laws of 2009, is amended to read as follows:
4 a. (i) Upon filing of such application and the payment of the fee
5 hereinafter provided, the commissioner shall assign to such motor vehi-
6 cle a distinctive number and, without expense to the applicant, issue
7 and deliver in such manner as the commissioner may select to the owner a
8 certificate of registration, in such form as the commissioner shall
9 prescribe, and two number plates at a place within the state of New York
10 named by the applicant in [his or her] such applicant's application. A
11 number plate, within the meaning of this chapter, may, in the discretion
12 of the commissioner, be a plate of a permanent nature, treated with
13 reflectorized material according to specifications prescribed by the
14 commissioner, and with a date tag attached to such plate or to the vehi-
15 cle as prescribed by regulations of the commissioner indicating the
16 validity of the plate during a certain period and the issuance of such a
17 number plate with such date tag to a person possessing such a number
18 plate shall be deemed the issuance of a number plate. An additional fee,
19 not to exceed twenty-five dollars, shall be paid to the commissioner
20 whenever a set of reflectorized number plates is issued for any vehicle
21 for which a registration fee is normally charged except that, with
22 respect to any number plate which is specifically requested by the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00982-01-5
A. 788 2
1 applicant, such fee shall be paid to the commissioner upon approval of
2 such request. In the event of the loss, mutilation or destruction of any
3 certificate of registration, any number plate or set of number plates
4 whether with or without a date tag or tags, or any date tag or set of
5 date tags provided for in this article, the owner of a registered motor
6 vehicle may file such statement and proof of the facts as the commis-
7 sioner shall require, with a fee of three dollars, in the office of the
8 commissioner, or, unless and until the commissioner shall otherwise
9 direct, in the office of the agent who issued the certificate, plate,
10 plates, tag or tags and the commissioner or [his or her] the commission-
11 er's agent, as the case may be, shall issue a duplicate or substitute.
12 (ii) (A) In the event that any number plate or set of number plates
13 issued by the commissioner for a registered motor vehicle pursuant to
14 subparagraph (i) of this paragraph has been stolen, the owner of such
15 registered motor vehicle may file such statement and proof of the facts
16 as the commissioner shall require, with a fee of three dollars, in the
17 office of the commissioner, or, unless and until the commissioner shall
18 otherwise direct, in the office of the agent who issued the certificate,
19 plate, plates, tag or tags for such motor vehicle.
20 (B) No later than seven days after receipt of such statement and proof
21 of the facts pursuant to subdivision one of this section, the commis-
22 sioner, or the commissioner's agent, shall:
23 (1) change the distinctive number assigned to such registered motor
24 vehicle, issue a new set of number plates and disassociate the previous
25 distinctive number assigned to such registered motor vehicle; and
26 (2) update the registration record required by subdivision two of this
27 section for such motor vehicle to reflect the change required by item
28 one of this clause.
29 (iii) It shall be the duty of every owner holding a certificate of
30 registration to notify the commissioner in writing of any change of
31 residence of such person within ten days after such change occurs, and
32 to inscribe on such certificate, in the place provided by the commis-
33 sioner, a record of such change of residence.
34 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
35 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
36 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
37 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
38 on or before such effective date.
