Hi, Firstly , I am very thankful for this community. I get some pieces of education every day and really enjoy the topics and projects going on here. Many-many thanks to all of you for that! I have a newbie shipping question. Would you bother to educate me what exactly the following terms mean ? : *Open title *Clear title *Clean title *Bill of sale I have imagination for all of them, but just want to be 100% sure that I understand all of them correctly Another, Title related question (for the future, since I am just starting to grow the budget) is, that which status of the car´s documentation i.e. Title is minimum to get it legally to my ownership, get it shipped from States and declared in customs of EU, and get it here properly titled as an ´old Ford car such and such model´... ? thanks in advance for any educational comments telbert
1st 3 all mean the same thing. Theres no liens against the vehicle hence the title is clear. A bill of sale just states the buying info like price,date, seller & buyer. You may need one along with the title to registar the car. There are some states that are non title states in which case you need the registration & a bill of sale. A title,bill of sale & registration should do you for customs I believe.
So, the Title itself is not the single official document for the vehicle registration (DMV in States?), proving the ownership, having all the technical information about the vehicle, the registration/licence plate information, the status of MOT inspection, etc? Must there be something else added, (like an extra certificate of registration or something)? Damn, I got a bit even more confused now
Open title- The title is sign be the seller only. Clear - clean title - The title is in the owners name and there are no leans or issues with it. Bill of Sale - It a receipt for the sale of the vehicle sign by both the seller and buyer. Needs to include the Vin number. Here in Pa. if the vehicle is from out of state you need both the title and bill of sale to transfer the ownership. You can only use a bill of sale if the vehicle fall into the years and state that does not issue titles or from a business dealing with vehicle. Also you will need a tracing or picture of the Vin number. Salvage title are a hole different game. In state vehicles, both the owner and seller most go to the notery and sign the title over in front of them. Check with your own state for how they do it.
One thing Europeans seldom realize is that in the USA title and registration laws and practices are state matters, different in each of the 50 states. Your main interest is in seeing that whatever paper you get is acceptable where you live to prove ownership and get the car registered, and this will probably require the car to have a visible factory stamped serial number that matches the title. Thid will not always be the case with cars from many states...many will never have had the serial verified.
Title shows the VIN and who the legal owner is Registration has the license plate number and owners info, this comes when you pay for your plates. You can have a title and not a registration but not the other way around You generall only carry the registration in the car. The title is kept in a safe place at home.
You will need the clear title to the car and a bill of sale to import a vehicle into Europe from the US. US exporters will not accept one for shipment without those documents. I've sold cars to Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Australia and that was the case each time.
Multiple states issue registrations only for cars older than a certain age and do not use titles. VT, AL, NY, GA, possibly NH, and I'm sure there are others. So you can most definately have a registration but no title. A title is just a fancy certificate indicating ownership of a vehicle. Registration is a small card indicating you've paid the fees to legally drive it on public roads. A clear title means no liens; an open title is usually one that's signed by the owner on the title but may not be in the name of the current owner. A bill of sale is a reciept. Getting one out of the US and into your country varies from state to state and country to country, I've sold a few with zero paperwork at all and the last one the guy sent me a picture of it in it's new home in I think Norway -
An "open title" is a title that has been signed by the seller, but not yet transferred in the buyer's name by the buyer. A "clean" title means that it is NOT an insurance salvage car, a car that has been totalled, a recovered stolen car, or other title-problem vehicle. A "clear" title is one that has no liens on it from a bank or other lender. A "bill of sale" is NOT a title, but simply a piece of paper with the VIN, selling price, date, names of the parties involved, and a notary (notary not required in all states) that says I sold this car to you. Yes, I know I've sorta-repeated info above. Sometimes, that helps. The above three terms are NOT the same, as post #2 states.
Not to muddy the water anymore but one more is a "branded title" which is , as patrick66 stated, when the title has been branded as salvage, or odometer discrepency, or junk vehicle. Different states have different laws regarding the branding of titles, but in most cases, once it's branded it's a done deal, in other words, very very hard to get it changed back to a " clean title ".
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