With the adjournment of the Illinois Legislature, the SEMA Action Network (SAN) defeated legislation (H.B. 4256 and H.B. 25) that would have further restricted the ability of vehicle hobbyists to maintain inoperable vehicles on private property. H.B. 4256 threatened to redefine “inoperable motor vehicles” to include vehicles incapable of being driven under their own power for a period of 7 days. Under current law, these vehicles must be undriveable for a period of at least 6 months to be deemed inoperable and thus subject to disposal and fines by a county. H.B. 25 would have effectively required that all inoperable historic vehicles over 25-years of age be stored in a garage or risk a nuisance citation and possible disposal. It would have also removed historic vehicles over 25-years of age from a list of vehicles exempt from county inoperable vehicle ordinances if not kept within a building.
