ACAA’s lien on your licence and plate

It is the mechanism of Article 7 of Act 111-2020, "Rights of the Administration to Indemnification". It defines in which cases ACAA may charge someone for what it spent on an accident, and in its paragraph C it creates the administrative lien on the driver’s licence and plate of whoever owes it, annotated at the Department of Transportation and Public Works.

It reaches the person responsible for the accident and the registered titleholder of the vehicle that person drove, jointly and severally, in the cases the Act lists; the person not responsible where an Article 6 exclusion applies; the insurer that issued the public-liability policy; and anyone who supplies false information on the Administration’s forms or in statements before it. The registered titleholder per DTOP and the driver are jointly and severally liable for the expenses, save where they show the vehicle was stolen.

• Appearing before the Administration within no more than thirty (30) calendar days of being notified of the lien, to clear any related matter.Verified against the official source
• Filing the administrative review request within thirty (30) calendar days of being notified of the annotation, if you believe ACAA has no right to recover or that the amount is wrong.Verified against the official source

• Evidence that the vehicle was stolen, if that is your case: the Act exempts the registered titleholder and the driver when they show it.
• The transfer formalised on the back of the vehicle licence or the reliable document, if you sold the vehicle before the lien was imposed.
• A certified cheque or postal money order payable to the "Administración de Compensaciones por Accidentes de Automóviles" or "ACAA", if you are paying to have the lien lifted.

1. 1

   Step 1: When ACAA has the right to charge you

   Article 7(A)(1) lists five situations in which the Administration is entitled to be indemnified jointly and severally by the person responsible for the accident or by the registered titleholder of the vehicle that person drove, for all the expenses it incurs: if the damage was caused intentionally; by a person who without being driver or injured causes an accident; by a driver who does not stop immediately and leaves the scene; by objects coming loose from attachments or accessories installed on the vehicle, or by the coming loose of non-factory attachments or accessories — the Act mentions, without limitation, cargo baskets, bike racks, luggage carriers and kayak carriers; and in every case covered by Article 6 on coverage exclusions. Paragraph 5 adds that the registered titleholder per DTOP and the driver are jointly and severally liable, save where they show the vehicle was stolen.

2. 2

   Step 2: Fifteen years to collect

   Paragraph 6 gives the Administration fifteen (15) years from the accident date to bring the corresponding action. Filing suit, a reliable extrajudicial claim or any acknowledgement of debt by the debtor interrupts that limitation period. Once the term has passed and reasonable collection efforts made, the Administration removes the account from its books, recording the efforts made. The same paragraph clarifies something that surprises many: the Administration may immediately begin recovery efforts against injured persons and persons under an exclusion, whether or not any claim over the accident is filed.

3. 3

   Step 3: The lien: what it blocks

   Here is the part felt in daily life. In every case where there is a right of recovery, a lien is created on the driver’s licence of the person liable to indemnify the Administration and on any motor-vehicle plate that person holds. The Administration files a lien at DTOP for the amount owed. That annotation constitutes a real lien on the plate and a prohibition on transferring that vehicle or on issuing or renewing any kind of licence for the vehicle identified by that plate, or the driver’s licence, until the debt is satisfied, annulled, or a payment agreement is reached with the Administration. The Act authorises the Administration to set the procedure for those agreements by regulation; we did not read that regulation and do not describe here how they are negotiated.

4. 4

   Step 4: The thirty days before it bites

   It is not entirely automatic. As soon as the Administration files the lien, it notifies the affected person to appear before the Administration within no more than thirty (30) calendar days and clear any matter relating to the lien. Only on failing to appear or to pay what is owed does the provision get applied. That is the moment to act.

5. 5

   Step 5: The way out if you had already sold the car

   The Act writes it expressly: notwithstanding the above, title to a motor vehicle carrying an annotated lien may be transferred if the lien was imposed after the date the vehicle changed owner; that is, the date of the transfer formalised on the back of the motor-vehicle or trailer licence, or by a reliable document. Keeping that transfer with its date is, in practice, the difference between being able to sell and not.

6. 6

   Step 6: How the lien is fought

   If the affected person considers that the Administration has no right to recover or that the amount imposed is not correct, they may request an administrative review at the Administration’s Regional Office for their domicile, filing it within thirty (30) calendar days of being notified of the lien annotation. If you also want the lien cancelled immediately while it is litigated, you must pay what is owed — or the agreed payment-plan amount — by certified cheque or postal money order payable to the Administración de Compensaciones por Accidentes de Automóviles or ACAA, or any other form the regulation provides; on receiving payment, the Administration authorises lifting the lien subject to the outcome of the review.

7. 7

   Step 7: After the review

   The administrative review decision is final unless the affected person or the Executive Director seeks judicial review by filing a petition in the Court of Appeals within thirty (30) calendar days of the decision being notified. The affected person may also seek reconsideration within twenty (20) calendar days from the date the notification of the resolution was filed in the record, processed under Act 38-2017. And the article’s closing warning: all the terms set for the lien are jurisdictional, and failing to meet them deprives the Administration or the Court of Appeals of authority to hear the request filed. The filing date is the date of receipt at the Administration if you go in person, or the postmark if sent by ordinary mail, whichever is later.

The administrative review request is filed at the ACAA Regional Office for your domicile. Payment is made at the regional offices, at the Administration’s Central Office or anywhere else the Administration provides. The lien is annotated at the Department of Transportation and Public Works, which is where you will find it when you try to renew. The Act publishes no addresses or phone numbers for the regional offices and we do not invent them here.

• Ignoring the lien notification: you have thirty calendar days to appear before it is applied.
• Finding out at CESCO: the lien blocks renewing the registration and the driver’s licence, as well as transferring the vehicle.
• Believing that if nobody filed a claim they cannot charge you: the Act allows recovery to begin whether or not a claim is filed.
• Thinking the debt prescribes soon: the Administration has fifteen years from the accident date, and the term is interruptible.
• Being the registered titleholder of a car you lend out without knowing you are jointly and severally liable for the expenses.
• Not keeping the transfer on the back of the licence: it is what allows title to be transferred when the lien was imposed after the sale.
• Letting the thirty days for administrative review pass: the lien terms are jurisdictional.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración de Compensaciones por Accidentes de Automóviles (ACAA)

  ACAA

  docs.pr.gov

• Automobile Accident Compensation Administration

  acaa

  www.acaa.pr.gov