The Expert Podcast

have you ever tried to export a vehicle and wondered why the customs and border protection C. B. P. needs all of those documents and forms that just seem like a very complex and bureaucratic process well in the moment of trying to export of 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 in seeing this the reason for having these document 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 let us know what experience you've had with exporting a vehicle and what questions you have about the process well here's one of the forms the H. seven form is 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 clearly by C. B. P. you know what all the definitions are exporting a motor vehicle the nineteen CFR is the section that's jurisdiction over all this base requirements are a person and attempting to export to use self propelled vehicle shall present a 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 it must be presented seventy two hours prior to export because they're gonna do a background check on the vehicle and that's gonna be important here in a minute you'll see why that's an important part of it and as you can see in the second section the owner must provide to customs the original certificate of title or certified copy and to complete copies of the original so you need the original title and two photocopies if there are any third party ownership claims like a lean 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 to you need the H. just seven form and a couple other documents the reason why is and a lot of times exporters are clients will say well look at this vehicle has no title is never been titled has been titled in a long time
well that's the trick here's the reason why this is important a stolen nineteen sixty eight Chevrolet Corvette was found for thirty seven years later right before being shipped to Sweden so this nineteen sixty eight C. three these call the sting ray at the little for louvers in the front quarter are the front fender says here nearly everyone wants to get their hands on one of these was great car six it was one of the probably the pinnacle of the corvette model line
in nineteen sixty nine the owner had their worst nightmare he lived in New York the car was stolen he had just gone through a divorce and paid six thousand keep the car in his name he went years without knowing what happened to the car after years of unknown to luck finally turned up the corvette had been stolen in 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 out the nineteen sixty eight Chevrolet Corvette had never been it retitled this is important a lot of times if you say well this car's been off the road has been title it's a barn find in a field doesn't mean that it's a legitimate vehicle that's the reason you want to get a title
this owner he was trying to export it who knows what their knowledge is they may have just bought off of Craigslist or eBay or Facebook maybe they didn't know the car was stolen it doesn't matter that it was stolen thirty seven 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 export vehicle or to get a title then your vehicle wouldn't be protected think about this guy who had his car stolen in nineteen sixty nine it was only a year old vehicle barely and now he has to come back think much more that cars worth he may paid six thousand for it in nineteen sixty eight those cars are worth tens of thousand 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 their certificate you are 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 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 governments involved if he knew was stolen he probably would be presenting it to the government to check out seventy two hours in advance the thirty seven years it was messing who knows where it was maybe it was in a garage for maybe the person who stole a figure well if I hide it for ten fifteen years it'll be forgotten about maybe a month or two 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 for the the exporter is from the thief they live near New York when that happened to be exported from California but if they can do a background check on that person to find out well they lived in New York near where it was stolen that guys probably got some problems but there's a lot of owners in between and kind of a murky history that it may not come to that think about your story as a vehicle buyer well I bought it from a guy he'd never title he got it from a guy who was in a barn think about all the stories that you hear from sellers the old man had any died and his kids in one 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 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 C. U. S. C. P. is gonna do all this they did it for this guy's car they we got it back so consider this due diligence performed by the guy whether it's a VIN inspection by your police whether it's say customs background check protecting your interest on the 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 your lien holder and you lent money on the vehicle you also don't have somebody who's selling it or shipping it because says right here if there are third parties they have to sign off so if you let somebody money out of vehicle we have a case a couple years ago where an owner sold the motorcycle to somebody and they let him pay half of it up front and then a hundred Bucks a month if you pay off the rest and they wrote it for a couple months and stop paying well that evidence that the ownership was reflected on the title and they were able to retrieve it before it was sold or dismantled or taken apart so this title documents are very important to protect ownership of the vehicle make sure that you get originals not photocopy you verify the originals we've had cases of of forgeries of these documents if you're can export the vehicle you probably want to check the check it out before you bring it to C. B. P. have your state patrol state police whoever it is in your jurisdiction double check the documents to make sure your vin numbers clear just because the seller told you it's clear or you ran a car facts which is a worthless consumer grade background check you're not going to know if there's liens claims back taxes past two registrations prior owners even stolen for that matter sometimes these vehicles are registered as parts only or junk can't do anything with them 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 in eligible 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 get all these documents for free to download and let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on exporting vehicle in these document requirements