Florida registration problem

[cadet917]

I bought a 15' aluminum boat, motor and trailer for $450 about 6 weeks ago. The owner signed the title over to me and it had no liens. I went to get it registered and the tax collector told me i HAD to have a bill of sale to get it registered. I have bought and sold a lot of jetskis and never needed a bill of sale to get them registered. I have no way of getting a hold of the guy i bought it from. Any suggestions?

 

[VeroWing]

Re: Florida registration problem

Are you sure they were not referring to the trailer. You'll need a "bill of sale" for it. Boat only needs signed title, unless something has recently changed. Trailers in Florida have no titles, only written and signed "bill of sale". I imagine anyone could create one of those.

 

[cadet917]

Re: Florida registration problem

i have gotten trailers with all my jetskis and still never even been asked for a bill of sale.

 

[FBPirate95]

Re: Florida registration problem

You could always make the bill of sale "appear"...**COUGH*make your own*COUGH*

 

[Numlaar]

Re: Florida registration problem

I see you probably have two options...

Since Florida did away with requiring titles to be notarized for the signature at the time of sale, they have gotten "funny" about bill's of sale....

I have boat/sold a number of vehicles, vessels, travel trailers (which are titled) and utility trailers (which are not) and needing a bill of sale has been "hit or miss"

What I mean by that is, it really depends on the clerk you get... some will be "picky" and want a bill of sale along with the title, others won't... (mostly this is for the sales tax they want to collect, because people will put a lower amount on the title then give the person what they ask for, so they dont have to pay the full tax amount)...

So that being said, your first option would be to go to a different office, wait in line again and hope for a clerk that isnt so picky... I have done this before and been lucky a few times... but it's a gamble.

your second option would be just to just make up the bill of sale, and fake it... I hate saying that, but if you have the signed title in hand, and the boat is yours, why mess with all the BS the state hands down? They did the same thing to me on my last boat... I bought it and waited 4 years to transfer the title, and the PO had died, so there was no way for me to get a bill of sale, but the clerk wouldn't budge on it, so I filled one out, copied the lady's signature from the title the best I could, and handed it all in, and it was just fine...

I know thats technically not legal, so I can't tell you what you should or shouldn't do, but it did work for me. I was just frustrated by then because I had the signed title which was supposed to be all I needed... yah right.

here's a link to the FL form (same one I used).

Bill of sale

Good luck with it!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Florida registration problem

they are now wanting a bill of sale, so they can collect the taxes. actually the title has a place on it for the purchase price. try getting a supervisor at the tag agency.

 

[BWR1953]

Re: Florida registration problem

...What I mean by that is, it really depends on the clerk you get...

That's it in a nutshell. Try a different clerk or a different office.

 

[relstabw]

Re: Florida registration problem

That's it in a nutshell. Try a different clerk or a different office.

Had this same problem with my last boat,but got lucky with the clerk. Seems the boat's owner had an old trailer that was still in the records and hadn't been registered for years. I stamped the numbers on the trailer that came with the boat(Which previously had not been titled and had no numbers) and had a new registration in my name for both the boat and trailer. I paid the sales tax and he was happy.

 

[nguoi_viet41]

Re: Florida registration problem

I bought a 15' aluminum boat, motor and trailer for $450 about 6 weeks ago. The owner signed the title over to me and it had no liens. I went to get it registered and the tax collector told me i HAD to have a bill of sale to get it registered. I have bought and sold a lot of jetskis and never needed a bill of sale to get them registered. I have no way of getting a hold of the guy i bought it from. Any suggestions?

if california DMV will ask you to fill out bill of sale then you need certified mail to seller name and address. if the seller nolonger there the certified mail will come back to you then bring it to DMV they open and they tranfer without problem.

 

[cadet917]

Re: Florida registration problem

The guy i bought it from lives 45 min away from me and i mailed him a bill of sale to fill out along with a stamped envelope for return. that was over a week ago and i havn't gotten anything back. I can only assume he is not gonna help me out.

 

[Numlaar]

Re: Florida registration problem

Then the two choices still apply

Try your luck with a different clerk, or fill out your own B.o.S.

Good luck with it.

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Florida registration problem

The clerk is dropping you subliminal hints. A bill of sale means go outside, sign a piece of paper, and come back in. The clerk cannot suggest that, well, they have one time when they were outside on smoke break. You can say the previous owner was outside. It may not be legal, but then again, good luck tracking down the owner and getting one. The clerk could care less where the bill of sale came from, as long as you have one. It could be on the back of a gas station receipt for all they care.