Why Are Vehicle Title Export Documents So Difficult?

Have you ever tried to export a vehicle and wondered why the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needs all of those documents and forms? Did it seem like a very complex and bureaucratic process? Well, in the moment of trying to export a vehicle, you may not have thought that that process was beneficial to you, thought it was just a pain in the neck or something that really didn’t have any purpose. However, after seeing this article and seeing this reason for having these documents, you’ll probably see that it’s a good thing to have this customs process be as complicated as it is. Leave your comments below and let us know what experience you’ve had with exporting a vehicle and what questions you have about the process.

The HS7 Form
Well, here’s one of the forms: the HS7 form. It’s the infamous document that all exporters hate to see, hate to have to face. It’s one of many that are needed to export a motor vehicle, and motor vehicles are defined very clearly by CBP. You know what all the definitions are. Exporting a motor vehicle: the 19 CFR is the section that’s jurisdiction over all of this. Basic requirements of pursing and attempting to export a used self-propelled vehicle shall present to customs at the port of exportation both the vehicle and required documentation describing the vehicle to include the VIN. The required documentation normally is going to be the title, and it must be presented 72 hours prior to export because they’re going to do a background check on the vehicle, and that’s going to be important here in a minute. You’ll see why that’s an important part of it.

Documentation Requirements
And as you can see in the second section, the owner must provide to customs the original certificate of title or certified copy and two complete copies of the original. So, you need the original title and two photocopies. If there are any third-party ownership claims, like a lien or another second owner, you have to have it in writing the description of the vehicle and a release of that lien holder or leased vehicle. So, it’s pretty clear what you need. You need the HS7 form and a couple of other documents.

Importance of Proper Documentation
The reason why is, and a lot of times exporters or clients will say, “Well, look, this vehicle has no title. It’s never been titled, hasn’t been titled in a long time.” Well, that’s the trick. Here’s the reason why this is important: a stolen 1968 Chevrolet Corvette was found 37 years later, right before being shipped to Sweden. So this 1968 C3, they used to call it a Stingray, had the little four louvers in the front quarter or the front fender. It says here nearly everyone wants to get their hands on one of these. It was a great car. 1968 was one of the probably the pinnacle of the Corvette model line.

Case Study: 1968 Chevrolet Corvette
So, here’s the car. In 1969, the owner had their worst nightmare. He lived in New York. The car was stolen. He had just gone through a divorce and paid $6,000 to keep the car in his name. He went years without knowing what happened to the car. After years of unknowns, luck finally turned up. The Corvette had been stolen, and the owner tried to ship the vehicle from California to Sweden. U.S. Customs had to complete a routine car check for the car to be shipped to Sweden. As it turns out, the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette had never been retitled. This is important. A lot of times, if you say, “Well, this car has been off the road, it hasn’t been titled, it’s a barn find, it’s in a field,” it doesn’t mean that it’s a legitimate vehicle. That’s the reason you want to get a title.

Importance of a Title
This owner who’s trying to export it, who knows what their knowledge is. They may have just bought it off of Craigslist or eBay or Facebook. Maybe they didn’t know the car was stolen. It doesn’t matter that it was stolen 37 years ago. These records persist for these vehicles. So the fact that this is a very difficult process is actually to your benefit because if it was easy just to ship or next board a vehicle or to get a title, then your vehicle wouldn’t be protected. Think about this guy who had his car stolen in 1969. It was only a year-old vehicle, barely, and now he has the car back. Think how much more that car’s worth. He may have paid $6,000 for it in 1968. Those cars are worth tens of thousands, sometimes six figures, and this paperwork protects you. So, if you’re purchasing a vehicle without a title, just remember that until you have a legal title document printed by the government with your name imprinted on the certificate, you’re at risk because you don’t know what other claims are going to pop up out of the woodwork. So, you want to make sure that you perform your proper due diligence on any vehicle before you take any action.

Due Diligence and Legal Protection
Look, this exporter may have been an innocent bystander. Who knows if he had any awareness that the vehicle was stolen? Probably didn’t. If he’s trying to export it, he knows the government’s involved. If he knew it was stolen, he probably wouldn’t be presenting it to the government to check out 72 hours in advance. The 37 years it was missing, who knows where it was? Maybe it was in a garage. Maybe the person who stole it figured, well, if I hide it for 10, 15 years, it’ll be forgotten about. Maybe it went through two or three owners. Maybe it was never put on the road. I’m sure they’ll be doing an investigation now to see how far removed the current owner is or the exporter is from the thief. Did they live near New York when that happened? It’s being exported from California. But if they can do a background check on that person and find out, well, they lived in New York near where it was stolen, that guy’s probably got some problems. But if there’s a lot of owners in between and kind of a murky history, then it may not come to that.

The Importance of Stories and Procedures
Think about your story as a vehicle buyer. Well, I bought it from a guy. He didn’t have a title. He got it from a guy. It was in a barn. Think about all the stories that you hear from sellers. The old man had it, and he died, and his kids didn’t want it. He sold it to me. That’s the reason for having all these forms and having to follow all these procedures from Customs and Border Protection. So, vehicles issued an original certificate of title, you have to have the title. If there is no title, you have to have a full background check, authentication of documentation. And as you can see, the USCBP is going to do all this. They did it for this guy’s car, and he got it back.

Conclusion
So, consider this due diligence performed by the government, whether it’s a VIN inspection by your police, whether it’s a customs background check, protecting your interest on a vehicle so you don’t end up with something that’s stolen. Or if you do have something stolen, it gets returned to you, the rightful owner. And if you’re a lien holder and you lent money on a vehicle, you also don’t have somebody who’s selling it or shipping it, because as it says right here, if there are third parties, they have to sign off. So, if you lent somebody money on a vehicle, we had a case a couple of years ago where an owner sold a motorcycle to somebody, and they let him pay half of it up front and then $100 a month to pay off the rest. And they rode it for a couple of months and stopped paying. Well, that evidence, that ownership was reflected on the title, and they were able to retrieve it before it was sold or dismantled or taken apart. So these title documents are very important to protect your ownership on a vehicle. Make sure that you get originals, not photocopies, and you verify the originals. We’ve had cases of forgeries of these documents. If you’re going to export the vehicle, you probably want to check it out before you bring it to CBP. Have your state patrol, state police, whoever it is in your jurisdiction double-check the documents to make sure your VIN number is clear. Just because the seller told you it’s clear or you ran a Carfax, which is a worthless consumer-grade background check, you’re not going to know if there’s liens, claims, back taxes, past due registrations, prior owners, or even stolen, for that matter. Sometimes these vehicles are registered as parts only or junk. Can’t do anything with them. So, you want to do a full background check on your own before you start submitting it to DMVs or even selling it to a third party, because if you do, now you’re passing along an ineligible vehicle. In some states, it’s actually a crime to sell a vehicle without a clean legal title. Check out our website for more. You can get all these documents for free to download. And let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on exporting a vehicle and these document requirements.

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