Can I ride on a poder in south america?
 

Hey!

Me and my friend will soon begin our trip through south america starting in Ushuaia, Argentina, where we have arrangede with two other travelers that we will buy their bikes. We are however a bit concerned about the paperworks.

One bike is a Canadian registered bike and the other is an American registered bike. The guys we are buying from are the registered owners of the bikes. After doing a bit of research it seems that we need to get a power of attorney made stating that we own the bikes. But from this some question arise which we hope you are able to answer for us! :)


1) Do we write the poder ourself or will the officials do that for us?
2) Will we be okay to cross borders in South America with the original papers for the bike and the poder?
3) Is it possible for us to sell the bikes again eventhough we are not the original owners of the bike?
4) Are we able to get insurance on a poder? We don't need the bike itself insured, just if we injure others.


Hope you guys can help, thanks in advance

Andreas & Rasmus

1) the notary writes the Poder for you but you can write it yourself to speed up the process and just get in notarised. Make sure you get it apostilled at the ministry of foreign affairs in the country you get the Poder made. It's easy, free, and takes five minutes. The notary will tell you where the ministry is. You go in with the Poder, take a ticket for Apostille and wait your turn, they'll then stamp it for you.

2) yes you can cross borders and ride in all the countries of south America with the Poder. You can even ride up to North America and Canada with it as long as you specify in the Poder which countries you want to ride it in. Many if not half or more of the travellers on sold foreign bikes are on poders. It's not unusual or frowned upon at all.

3) as long as your Poder is a "poder ilimitado" you can transfer the power of attorney to the next person. I met a guy on a KLR in perú who was riding on the 4th Poder on his bike.

4) the bike is insured, not you. So yes, you can get insurance in all countries. If they require an address I gave them the current hostels address.

Thanks for the answer! Sounds awesome, and pretty straight forward :)

1) I've also read somewhere that you also need to change the name of the person who brught the bike into the country or something? Some said you could do it in an office or just exit the country together on the bike. Is this true?

3) How do we make sure that the Poder is a "poder ilimitado"? Is it simply by making sure that in the Poder it says that we are allowed to do everything?

4) We will have ourself insured from our home travel insurance. We were more thinking about what happens if we crash into other people or things, can we be insured against this as well?

In Peru they call this type a PODE ADMINISTRATIVO inferrring that you have permission to do ANYTHING with the motorcycle, INCLUDING selling it.

Of course, as stated before, a PODER is theoretically only valid within the country that it was registered in......

As stated previously get the PODER apostilled by the ministry of foreign affairs and this makes it legit in all the countries that you've had named in the Poder. Otherwise why would they name those countries on there for you if not.

Hundreds if not thousands of people a year are buuing/riding/selling bikes this way. At the border crossing, the entry form for TVIP application has two check boxes (if the officials let you see it or ask you to fill it) one box is owner, the other is "with poder".

If you aren't sure though go and check the bikes for sale section. Every bike on there that isn't for sale in its own country will either need a poder for the first border or for the entire time in SA. And all the same bikes that have been sold over the years had them two. You can even track the progress of some bikes. My KLR for example I know the previous south American owner and the 2 after me. It's on Washington plates.

It's called the ministry of FOREIGN affairs because they legalise documents for recognition in FOREIGN countries. Otherwise it would be called the ministry of interior affairs.

Any info on confiscated bikes from riding them with poders? Would make for interesting reading.

Searched a fair few different key words and found nothing. Perhaps if you remember a specific detail of it you could find it and paste the link?