How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

[PiratePast40]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I bought a boat with the title but the PO didn't have a title for the trailer. In Oregon, trailers with boat and trailer weight over 1800 lbs needs to be titled with the DMV while the boat goes through the Marine Board. The PO had no idea that the trailer needed to be titled and never received on anyway. It's been through several owners in the last 2 years but the problem is that the registration is still valid through this year. I've allready spent money on searches to fine the person who has current plates for the trailer but none of the phone numbers work. I'm left with either sending a certified letter to the last known address to see if they'll sign over the title or forging a lein release and bill of sale and then paying for a lost title and the registration fee. All of that for a 30 year old trailer!

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I have a neighbor that bought 2 Bayliners in a "2 for cheap" deal. Six months later the Sheriffs department was knocking on his door, searching his garage, and he was charged with receiving stolen property! Not a good practice if you ask me.

 

[Dusty279]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I bought an old flatbottom boat at a garage sale. No title, but got a bill of sale. Went to get reg. and was told I needed a title. The bill of sale stated that there was neer a title on this boat and was never registered. Now this boat had a HEAVY coat of green paint on it and the GW told me to find the serial numbers and they would issue a title. I spent several weeks trying to scrape, sand and burn this paint off. I did use the boat without a motor a couple of times.
I never found the numbers (never got all the paint off either) so I sold it to another guy. I gave him a bill of sale. He couldn't get it titled unless I signed a paper stating that I bought the boat new and never got a title...NOPE, NOT ME!! He finally forged my name and got the title. took about a year... Texas requires you to have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed before you can get titles changed... Real pain, but worth it in the long run.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

In Canada boats are handled on a federal level, and as expected, very poorly. Even if you have the boat registered with the federal government, the document is still not proof of ownership. In fact, the only way you can prove in court that you own a boat is with a bill of sale....however I believe it is law now that all boats must display a valid registration number.

Note to a 22E6441, MTO has no business charging you tax on the boat, there is no transfer of ownership. Although try getting your money back from a government office. You should have only had to pay taxes on the trailer itself when you went to change the ownership and get your plate. Crooks.

Ian

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I have a neighbor that bought 2 Bayliners in a "2 for cheap" deal. Six months later the Sheriffs department was knocking on his door, searching his garage, and he was charged with receiving stolen property! Not a good practice if you ask me.

While the following comment is slightly off topic, I think its still relevant ...

I just saw a nice, new in the box marine VHF for sale on Craigslist. The price was about half what it would sell for in a store. The same person had a hand held for sale at a similarly discounted price.

I sent him an email that said I would buy the radio if he could show me a receipt for the original purchase.

No response.

Gee, you think maybe this radio was "hot?"

 

[SeaVue]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

Hello everyone,

I?m going to try to explain this best I can. It?s a difficult situation so any help would be greatly appreciated.

About 6 months ago a friend of mine told me that one of his military buddies was selling a boat (1976 Sea Ray) and that I should take a look at it. So I bought the thing and right away started fixing it up slowly. The guy that I bought it from, JP, bought it from Chris whose father is the original owner.


So, after about a month I went to register the boat and the DMV lady told me that a title never existed for this boat and that I needed a bill of sale, and a signature on a little card (which is a ownership card) from the original owner. Basically JP is a ghost in this situation since he didn?t register the boat or anything. So after finding out who Chris was, I called him and he told me that he didn?t have time to meet and that I should sign everything in his name. He left me a voicemail saying this and I still have it saved on my phone, just in case.


My question is, do I sign this thing for Chris like he told me to do, or what do I do? If you need additional information please ask. Any suggestions would help.

 

[capri1600]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

No way do you sign anything for him. Thats forgery of course and will no doubt come back to bite you.

 

[11rufus11]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I live in South Carolina and it is a title state for both boat and motor. I bought a boat years ago from a man in Georgia which is not a title state. I had to mail in to the SCDNR titling office the Georgia registration card, a notorized bill of sale for both boat and motor, other SC required application paperwork, a picture or pencil trace of the boat and motor seriel numbers, taxes, and fees. Then I had to strip off the Georgia registration number and renewal decals from the boat and put on new SC ones. I can live with that but you better remember to send in every required item or, by the time the SCDNR gets back to you on what you forgot and the time it takes to send it back to them, it could be several weeks before you get the ok to run your boat in SC waters. You only get 60 days on a bill of sale alone. Instead of mailing the paperwork in you can take it to a SCDNR office personally but there are only two offices in SC. One in Columbia and one in Charleston. A long drive for some. It would really be troublesome if there was a mishap on the bill of sale and you had to run down the previous owner in Georgia, or another untitled state, and you could not find him. It is best to dot your i's and cross your t's on the paperwork or it could be the beginning of a nightmare.

 

[Ram58]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

In Indiana. if the boat has been titled it must remain titled. With a bill of sale you can apply for a lost title at a BMV. You must also fill a form out and have a police officer come over to verify the hull and motor numbers are correct and they run a search on them to make sure it's not stolen.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I have purchased several boats without a title. Here in Michigan, the title is only required if there is a lein on the boat. Trailers, I believe, never have titles. The only time it was any kind of issue, the previous owner did not think it had a title on it. Turned out that the secretary of state's office had dropped thye ball and not sent him the title when he bought the boat. If there is no lein, you have the option of having the boat "de-titled". I now do that as a matter of course if it has a title in the first place. (My boats are usually low dollar boats, with no loan.) That saves me and future buyers a lot of hassle.

TerryMSU

Seems a strange way of doing things ??

 

[bitterboater]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

I have bought 2 boats in Minnesota, who prior to approx. 1993 did not require titles for any boats. They did register the hull and license the trailer though. To save time and hassle, the last boat I sold in Minnesota I titled prior to sale and have never had a problem because of it. I have moved to Wisconsin since then and have begun to register my current boat and have found that because of age I don't need a title here even though anything over 16' in length requires a title. After 1981 (I believe) was supposed to have been issued a title. Boats under 16' and not having any means of external propulsion (motors; internal combustion or electric) are not required to be registered.

Minnesota does not (or rather did not) require registration on boats if not used for fishing. A watercraft used just for ricing, or hunting was not required to be registered. If you fished from it even with no motor, it must be registered.

So yes here is to the DMV for keeping us all on our toes regarding our past-time of boating and all the legal issues that go with it.

 

[aborgman]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

If I were to come to MI, with a boat with no title, what would it take for me to register it in my name?

It would depend on whether it was a boat that was required to be titled in Michigan or not.

"All watercraft 20 feet and longer and all watercraft with a permanently affixed engine, regardless of length, must be titled."

I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

For a boat that doesn't require a title, all you do is show up at the Secretary of State with a bill of sale and register it.

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1585_15242-34638--,00.html

--
aborgman

 

[BiggPops]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

My boss sold me his boat and he had never registered it. He always filled out a registration form that you pick up from a local boating supply store and it gave you thirty days to register. So he was ridding for 6 years unregistered. I just sent off for the registration this past sunday. No title, no bill of sale. I just went to the dnr website and filled out the information on the boat and am waiting to see what comes of it. Hope it works out.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

It would depend on whether it was a boat that was required to be titled in Michigan or not.

"All watercraft 20 feet and longer and all watercraft with a permanently affixed engine, regardless of length, must be titled."

I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

For a boat that doesn't require a title, all you do is show up at the Secretary of State with a bill of sale and register it.

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1585_15242-34638--,00.html

--
aborgman

It's 16', so a title wouldn't be needed.
Can an out of state resident register a boat there?

 

[aborgman]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

It's 16', so a title wouldn't be needed.
Can an out of state resident register a boat there?

That I couldn't tell you...

--
aborgman

 

[bassman284]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

What is interesting is that no two states have the same requirements for titling a boat.

Here in Iowa, boats under 17 feet, whether powered or not, are not required to be titled. Pretty much everything that floats requres registration (exceptions not worth mentioning). If you sell an untitled boat, you just sign the back of the registration certificate and all is well (obviously, as long as it stays in Iowa).

My Lund is 16'10", therefore does not require a title. When I bought it, the salesman at the dealership strongly recommended that I get it titled. His reasoning, based on long experience, was that if it was stolen it would make it more difficult to sell.

 

[Arabian180]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

Hi,

New to the board, wealth of information here!

Just wanted to say that you can apply for a title here in North Carolina, but it's optional.
Howard

Titles are no longer an option in NC. If you buy a used boat you will get a title.
If the boat you're buying doesn't have one as in Older registration. The registered owner has to sign and notarize a bill of sale with a copy of of the old registration showing him the current owner. Not really a big deal to do if everything is in order.

Just went through this April.

I once bought a never registered 12' FG rowboat and threw a 40 horse Johnson on it. registered it as home built. But that was many moons ago.

 

[sdreffs]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

Just bought a 15' bass boat, was told bill of sale was all that was needed?
I am in Alabama

 

[mars bar]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

Hey Scrobo, we must be neighbors? I'm in St.Catharines I look for abandoned boats out in the fields and copy down the numbers. No sales tax.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: How many of you have bought a used boat with no title ?

Something I seem to notice is that many states without titles register boats with the same department which they buy a fishing license, not the state div. of motor vehicles. Here in NJ, boats are registered and titled the same as a car or truck, yet in PA, a boat is registered with Fish & Game. The biggest problem arrises when there is no paperwork or when the boat hasn't been registered for a long time, or never registered at all. NJ does have an abandoned boat title process but its a long drawn out deal, you have to fill out a bunch of forms, run ads in the newspaper, and then it comes down to a court order and finally an application for a title in your name. If you have a notarized bill of sale from someone, at least then it's only a matter of getting a hull inspection done by the State Police, Marine Div. and a trip to a regional DMV.
The one I just did had no former record in any state, it was never registered, or just never registered using the HIN on the boat. What it boiled down to was that they wanted to see a notarized statement from the last owner saying they never registered it and that they sold it to me.

The Starcraft I bought is a different deal, that boat has no former history, anywhere and I only have a signed bill of sale for the boat. The last owner wasn't cooperative about getting it notarized, he wasn't happy about selling the boat due to his financial situation or that he let it go for 1/10th of what he probably had in it in new parts alone.

I went back to the house where I got the boat a few weeks later to try to get him to give me a notarized bill of sale but the place was empty, with a foreclosure notice on the sale sign. Being that he was from out of state, he may still be local or could have moved back to where he came from.

If I had a signed and notarized bill of sale from out of state saying the boat was never registered, a title could be had much easier with just a hull inspection.