Nevada Motor Vehicle Dealer & Related License Bonds

Get Your Nevada Motor Vehicle Dealer Bond

Who Is Required To Purchase a Nevada Auto Dealer Bond?

Nearly every dealer classification is required to purchase a surety bond as part of the licensing process.

Here are these classifications:

• New and used dealers
• Used only dealers
• Vehicle brokers
• Rebuilders
• Manufacturers
• Distributors
• Motorcycle dealers
• Off-highway vehicle dealers
• Dealers of horse trailers without living quarters
• Dealers of utility trailers weighing over 3,500 pounds
• Utility and boat trailers weighing 3,500 pounds or less
• Vehicle wrecker and salvage pool licenses
• Vehicle transporters
• Peer to peer vehicle sharing programs
• Body shop and garage licenses

There are a number of different bond amounts for each of these licenses and classifications.

Why is a Nevada Motor Vehicle Dealer Bond Required?

The Department of Motor Vehicles has a pretty length licensing process including steps such as:

• Personal history questionnaire
• Criminal background check
• Proof of business license and business structure
• A list of dealership requirements

All of these are used to only allow the most capable businesses through to full licensure. But the Department of Motor Vehicles still has to hold licensed dealers accountable year over year. This is the role of the auto dealer surety bond.

The surety bond holds you accountable for each transaction and year in business. If you fail to uphold your promises the customer or state can receive compensation.

What Does a Nevada Auto Dealer Bond Protect Against?

Even though hundreds of businesses qualify and obtain their license each year, there are always a small number of dealers who purposefully harm their customers financially so they can make more money.

Examples of fraudulent acts can include:

• Improperly transferring on title on sold vehicles
• Selling vehicles with no title or worse, fake titles
• Lying about vehicle condition, accident history, or milage
• Stealing from customer deposits
• Switching out vehicles when delivering on sold vehicles
• Failing to pay the correct amount of sales tax on sold vehicles

If a customer or the Department of Taxation is harmed by a dealer, they can make a claim against the dealer bond for financial compensation. However, these claims are limited to the bond amount.

What Are The Nevada Auto Dealer Bond Amounts?

The following bond amounts are the maximum financial compensation available to your customers and to the Nevada Department of Taxation in the event of a bond claim. We'll talk more about this in the next section.

Here are the bond amounts that correspond to your license:

• New vehicle dealer - $100,000
• Used vehicle dealer - $100,000
• Vehicle broker license - $100,000
• Vehicle rebuilder - $100,000
• Manufacturers - $100,000
• Distributors - $100,000
• Vehicle transporters - $100,000
• Motorcycle dealers - $10,000
• Off highway vehicle dealer - $50,000
• Horse trailers without a living quarter - $50,000
• Utility trailers over 3,500 pounds - $50,000
• Utility or boat trailers at or below 3,500 pounds - $10,000
• Wrecker and salvage pool licenses - $50,000
• Body shop and garage licenses - $10,000

There are other licenses that fall into the umbrella of the Department of Motor Vehicles including:

• Peer to peer vehicle sharing license - $5,000 minimum
• Emission station license - $10,000
• Vehicle damage appraiser - $2,500

Each license type and classification is independent so if you're obtaining multiple licenses, the surety bond requirement for that license only covers that licensee's responsibilities.

And again, these bond amounts are the maximum amount of financial compensation available to customers and the Department of Taxation.

How Much Does an Nevada Auto Dealer Bond Cost?

At a high level, all vehicle dealer surety bonds are priced by a surety using these three primary factors:

• The personal credit of the owner and/or owners
• Industry experience and history
• Bond history if any owner has been licensed in the past

A surety is an insurance company that chooses to underwrite vehicle dealer bonds. And similar to traditional insurance, every surety uses their own assessment of an applicant to determine a rate and price.

This is where we come in and help you save potentially hundreds, even thousands of dollars purchasing your bond.

We are a specialized surety agency. We work with the highest A-rated sureties to find you the lowest possible price and make purchasing a surety bond easy.

And for some Nevada auto dealer bonds, we have secured fixed pricing with no credit check.

Nevada Vehicle Dealer Bonds With No Credit Check

Here are the license classifications and pricing.

If you're looking for one of these bonds, you can purchase your bond today and have it issued within one business day. See the below section.

Body Shop License

Garage License

Vehicle Emission Station

Vehicle Damage Appraiser

Nevada Vehicle Dealer Bonds That Are Credit Driven

The remaining classifications are all credit driven.

Let's look at example pricing so you can see how significantly the price changes when the rate quoted by a surety is one to two percentage points different.

Let's use the $100,000 bond for the example as it's the most common dealer bond.

The price you pay is one payment for the entire bond term. In Idaho the bond term is 12 months.

Getting a one percent savings is enough to save you about one thousand dollars.

So let's find you the lowest price at no cost to you. Plus when you receive pricing you're under no obligation or pressure to purchase with us.

Click here and start the online quote process. It takes 90 seconds to submit your request.

If you prefer to speak with a bond specialist, you can call 1-800-608-9950.

What Happens After You Purchase Your Auto Dealer Bond?

When you're ready to purchase your bond, all you have to do is complete an online checkout form. It couldn't be any easier.

After you purchase your bond, our issuance team will begin preparing your bond with the correct:

• Bond form (there's a different bond form based on your license type)
• Signatures
• Legal seals
• And the required power of attorney

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles requires the physical bond with raised seals and your physical signature on it.

This means you will receive your bond though the mail which will add an additional 2 to 5 days to the process.

Make sure you account for this mail period and get your bonding process done well before you submit your application. You can future date your surety bond's activation date to match when you expect to be fully licensed.

Renewing Your Auto Dealer Bond

The Nevada dealer bonds have a bond term or 12 months.

As we mentioned in the pricing section, this means you have one payment for a 12 month period at which time you'll need to renew your bond for the following year.

This is another great reason to work with us. You get assigned your own bond specialist to manage your account.

As your bond expiration date approaches, your bond specialist will begin reaching out to you 30 to 45 days in advance to remind you about the expiration date and to help get your bond renewed.

Your bond specialist will have low pricing already available making the renewal process seamless.

Once you pay the renewal premium, your bond remains active. There's no additional paperwork needed and you don't have to resubmit your bond with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Motor Vehicle Dealer Bonds And Getting Your Nevada Business License/Registration

Getting your vehicle dealer license in Nevada is fairly involved. Keep in mind the steps are a little different depending on the specific license you're getting.

Here are the high level steps:

1. Complete the official application for a business license
2. Complete a personal history questionnaire
3. Have fingerprints and criminal background check completed
4. Purchase the correct auto dealer bond
5. Purchase the required minimum amounts of liability and property insurance
6. Prepare your dealership location and pass the dealership location requirements
7. Schedule and have your dealership site inspection completed
8. Provide all company registration details
9. Pay all the applicable fees for your dealership and business setup