Buy bike from USA in Chile, papers to cross borders
 

Hi everybody,

i want to buy a moto from USA to a french owner, wich papers do i need for the sale? And to cross borders?

Thanks for the help

Your nationality.
State of registration of the vehicle.
Does that state allow absentee transfer of registration.
Does the current "owner" actually own it and have title and registration in their name.
Are the Papers genuine or photoshopped.
Is it currently registered in the home state or has the registration been rescinded or expired.
Where is the vehicle now.
Will you and the current owner be with the vehicle at the same time for hand-over.

Problem is that there is no set procedure for undertaking what is essentially an illegal procedure unless it takes place in the country of current registration, so the above information is, or may be relevant

Hi Tony, thanks for answer me back

Your nationality. I`m from France
State of registration of the vehicle. The vehicle is registrated in USA but i don´t know the state.
Does that state allow absentee transfer of registration. I dont know
Does the current "owner" actually own it and have title and registration in their name. The current "owner" dont have the paper to his name, he created some and plastificated it . And he told me he cross borders(Perou,bolivia,chile,colombia,ecuador) with that paper without any issue
Is it currently registered in the home state or has the registration been rescinded or expired.I dont know
Where is the vehicle now. The vehicle is in Santiago, he didn`t work and i want to repair it in Mendoza (Argentina) so i will cross the border with the bike in a car.
Will you and the current owner be with the vehicle at the same time for hand-over. Yes I think i will be with the owner for hand-over.

Thanks for your help

I guess it depends on how risk adverse you are.

Basically you can never legally own the vehicle because the current owner doesn't have legal title to it so of course he can't legally transfer title to you.
So if you have no legal title, is any liability insurance you get (which is compulsory in most countries) going to be valid?
If you don't have legal title, will you want to sell the bike later, and will you be able to find someone who doesn't care.

Do you want to take the vehicle into the USA? I know the US border officials don't even look at the vehicle as you drive up so maybe you will get in, but then of course any police stop will surely show the vehicle as lapsed or unregistered and uninsured.

Some US states do not allow foreigners to own vehicles and some do not allow non-residents to own vehicles.

It is not unknown for S American aduana or police to contact the insurer to make sure the insurance policy is genuine

A couple of times I have had laminated copies of title, registration and drivers license refused at borders and at police check points and have had to go out to the car to get the originals so laminated might not always work.

If the current TIP has expired, then it must be up to the current owner to sort it out at the border, not you.

etc etc etc.

Given the bike is not working, I imagine you aren't paying very much for it so I guess if you get it confiscated at a border, it mightn't be a big deal.

Given the problems, I doubt whether anyone is going to be able to come up with a sure-fire way of staying out of trouble so I'd say unless the current owner ha a method he has been using successfully and unless you are happy to keep doing things that way, you might give it a miss.

HOWEVER, even if the current owner was the genuine owner and it was still registered back home in a state that does allow ownership and transfer etc etc, the purchase of a vehicle from a foreigner by a foreigner in a foreign land is still illegal in most places so you need to make sure you do things the right way. Lots of us do it and most never have any problems - other than the problem of deciding which advice is good and which is BS. XFiltrate, a long time HUBB member and resident expert on many things Argentinian was always adamant that in Argentina at least, it just wasn't possible to buy a foreign vehicle legally and further, that it just wasn't possible to pull it off successfully. Obviously he is wrong about pulling it off, but absolutely correct about the illegality.

Happy Photoshopping.

Thanks for all this informations.
I will study it, but looks a bit dificult and lot of Argentin friends are telling me do not buy it, its a bug risk at the border because i will put all my money in this moto.

Buying this bike is a big, big risk. You have so many un-answered questions and you understand so little about the way things work that you will almost certainly make some mistakes. That could result in some minor problems--you need to pay a bribe here or there, or it takes a long time to pass a border--or it could as easily result in big expenses and/or having the bike confiscated.

For example: the "owner" doesn't even own the bike, so no matter what happens you'll never be able to legally own it yourself. It needs repair. You won't be able to legally insure it. Etc. etc. etc.

If you spend some time figuring out the "how things work" part, if you get a really cheap price for buying the bike, AND if you like to take chances, this might be just the deal for you. Otherwise....please find another bike.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Hi, at the end i didnt buy this bike. But now i have a other oportunity, and it looks better, its a bike from washington and the person who sell it is the owner. What is the way to have the good papers (in chile)? Thanks for your help