A certificate of title, when issued by the Department showing a security interest, shall be adequate notice to the Commonwealth, creditors, and purchasers that a security interest in the motor vehicle exists and the recording or filing of such creation or reservation of a security interest in the county or city wherein the purchaser or debtor resides or elsewhere is not necessary and shall not be required. Motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailers, other than those which are inventory held for sale, registered or for which a certificate of title shall have been issued under this title shall not be subjected to, but shall be exempt from the provisions of §§ 8.9A-301 through 8.9A-527 and § 55.1-407, nor shall recordation or filing of such security interest, except a security interest in inventory held for sale, in any other place for any other purpose, be required or have any effect.
Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-638
Certificate as notice of security interest
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Bank of New York v. Leake (In Re Wuerzberger) (2002)
Most recently applied in Terry v. American General Financial Services of America, Inc. (January 2006)
Code 1950, § 46-71; 1958, c. 541, § 46.1-71; 1966, c. 558; 1989, c. 727; 2006, c. 896; 2010, c. 135.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.