The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) was formed in 1992 as part of the Anti-Car Theft Act. The law was created to prevent the introduction of stolen vehicles into interstate commerce; protect consumers, business, and states from fraud; reduce the use of stolen vehicles being used for illicit purposes including funding or criminal enterprises; and provide consumer protection from unsafe vehicles.
In 1996 oversite of NMVTIS was transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice when the Anti-Car Theft Improvement Act became law.
NMVTIS regulations required States to provide their titling information and establish a practice of performing a title verification check through NMVTIS before transferring a title or issuing a title to an individual or entity claiming to have purchased an automobile in another state. Currently there are 49 State DMVs and Washington DC linked into the NMVTIS system. In addition to States having to provide their title information, NMVTIS regulations required entities that handle more than five junk, salvage, or insurance total loss vehicles to report those vehicles to NMVTIS. This additional reported data is commonly referred to as “JSI” data.
NMVTIS crawled along for many years until 2009, the same year Auto Data Direct (ADD) became the first DOJ approved provider for the public to use to obtain NMVTIS vehicle history reports. ADD recognized early that NMVTIS vehicle history reports would be a valuable tool for our customers, helping them avoid fraud and becoming a victim. ADD also partnered with other entities to include additional data obtained from other sources and incorporated that data into the NMVTIS history report provided to our commercial customers.
Every NMVTIS report - also called ADD’s National Title Pointer in the DMV123 drop-down - is federally mandated to include certain data. This is information provided by State DMV’s and junk, salvage, and insurance (JSI) entities that are required to report salvage and total loss vehicles into the database. The Vehicle Information Section is the top section of the NMVTIS report and simply has the Vehicle Identification Number along with the description of the vehicle that includes the year, make, and model of the vehicle
The Vehicle Brand Section displays any title record brands recorded by any of the State motor vehicle departments. This would include any current or previous salvage, rebuilt, junk, or other similar brands that would identify the vehicle’s prior condition. The Title Information Section provides the State of title information, including the name of the State, title issue date, and mileage record for the current state of title and each prior State record in chronological order.
The Junk, Salvage, & Insurance section, commonly referred to as “JSI” records, contains all the salvage vehicle and total loss reports made into the NMVTIS system by those entities that are required under the Federal regulations to report. Regulations require that the JSI report must be made within 30 days. This data displayed in the section includes the name of the entity, date of reporting, and the disposition of the salvage vehicle they are reporting. They may choose crushed, salvage, scrap, sold, or to be determined as the disposition status for the vehicle.
While ADD’s reports obviously include all the mandated data, we’ve built in some additional value for our corporate customers including active vehicle lien data, NCIC theft response, and recall data.
Lien data is a check of active vehicle lien data that is maintained by a trusted national provider. It comes from the lien holders who have provided their active lien status for all their vehicles. This data does not come from State DMVs and should never be considered as a check of all the active vehicle liens.
Theft data is a check of the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC) theft data that is obtained from the National Vehicle Service and is allowed as long as it is made part of a NMVTIS history report. It is an actual and accurate check of NCIC. The responses provided on this check will be “Active” meaning the vehicle is currently showing as stolen in NCIC. “Closed”, which means the vehicle was previously reported stolen in NCIC and a recovery or removal of the theft record was done to close the theft. “Purged”, which means that the vehicle had been entered as an active stolen vehicle and then the record was purged for some administrative reason.
Recall data is information received from a partner of ADD’s that obtains the recall data reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by vehicle manufacturers. This is the only data section of a NMVTIS report that requires the ADD customer to opt in to receive the data on their reports. The purpose of opting in simply means that the customer’s information will be shared with NHTSA and the manufacturer so they can update their data and send recall notices if necessary.
ADD’s National Title Pointer (NMVTIS) is a powerful tool for every industry needing to check a vehicle’s background and title history to help prevent fraud. With ADD’s enhanced features, it is even more valuable to ensure that vehicle you are dealing with doesn’t have a little secret that will impact its value and your bottom line.