SCRACVS Featured in Automotive News: Roy Kaufmann on Military Verification and the Limits of the DMDC
Recently, Automotive News published a report on why lenders, servicers, and towing companies continue to run into trouble complying with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). Typically when they repossess or auction vehicles that do not comply with SCRA they are met with steep penalties. To gain more insight, reporter Molly Boigon reached out to Roy L. Kaufmann, Director of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Centralized Verification Service (SCRACVS), for his perspective. Mr. Kaufmann is a well known industry expert on why a verification product like ours exists and explains where the government’s database falls short.
This article is very thorough and contains information that would assist lenders, service providers, and towing companies to comply with SCRA. We encourage those applicable to read it in full.
Read the full article at Automotive News: Home of the towed: Lenders and lienholders flout federal law, take service member vehicles and pay the price
Why this matters
At SCRACVS, we see the same pattern the article describes: most SCRA violations don’t come from malicious intent. Usually they come from a check that was never made, or one made against a database with real gaps. A DMDC search can miss reservists and National Guard members. It cannot distinguish between relatives who share a name and can return the wrong result from a single mistyped digit. The burden to verify sits with the lender or lienholder, not the service member, and the cost of getting it wrong keeps climbing.
Verifying military status accurately and keeping defensible proof that you did is the single most effective way to stay compliant and protect the service members the law was written for.
If your organization repossesses, tows, sells, or finances vehicles, learn how SCRACVS can help you verify military status and stay compliant.
