Registering a boat in Florida that has no registration? Please help!
David Goldsmith
27'. Got a great price because she was pretty much abandoned. The boat
hasn't been registered since 1989 and that was in Connecticut.
Connecticut is a no-title-state (they don't issue titles on boats.)
The old registration is long, long gone. I've got a valid bill of
sale. Been to three DMVs now and they all tell me basically the same
thing. The bill of sale is pretty much worthless and the only way to
register the boat is to contact the previously reigstered owner and
get him to reregister the boat in Ct. and then transfer the
registration to me. I talked to Connecticut and they won't release to
me the contact info (from 1989) for the previous owner without a court
order. They are sending me the paper work to apply for said order but
that usually takes months they say. Even if I get the old address of
the owner he is probably long gone. The DMV has pretty much told me it
is impossible to register my boat! This seems insane! How can I boat
(which is fully restored and ready to go now) not be able to be
registered! Surely someone on this group has had a similar experience
and can offer some advice.
I've head tales of getting cars registered in Alabama or Georgia
because you can get a title there with just a bill of sale, can I
drive up to one of those states and get my boat titled with a titleing
company and then get it registered down here?
I'm willing to try anything at this point!
Thanks,
David
Joe Stafford
in DE but the bill of sale has to be notorized. Since there is no sales tax,
paid price is not an issue either.
"David Goldsmith" <dav...@freenet.tlh.fl.us> wrote in message
news:55df6b4b.02051...@posting.google.com...
Joe Kovacs
>Well, I've got a doozy of a problem. In January I bought a '77 Hunter
>27'. Got a great price because she was pretty much abandoned. The boat
>hasn't been registered since 1989 and that was in Connecticut.
>Connecticut is a no-title-state (they don't issue titles on boats.)
>The old registration is long, long gone. I've got a valid bill of
>sale. Been to three DMVs now and they all tell me basically the same
>thing. The bill of sale is pretty much worthless and the only way to
>register the boat is to contact the previously reigstered owner and
>get him to reregister the boat in Ct. and then transfer the
>registration to me.
You bought the boat from someone and didn't get free and clear
title? Hmmm.
The DNVs won't help you in such a situation. Of course. They're
well experienced with people who march in to them brightly
wanting to title a boat that they've found in a farmer's field.
They roll their eyes heavenwards and won't and that, my friend,
is what the titling system is all about.
It's my experience that the state the boat was previously
licenced in will give out owner information when you give them
the licence number. But if they won't, well... To find the
previous owner, take the hull number or licence number to a
friendly policeman and ask him who the previous owner was.
Marina owners regularly take over abandoned boats, boats at a
slip whose docking fees have been unpaid for a time. To do that
they use lawyers and courts. THEY get a boat with no title,
titled in their name. So it can be done. The rules for doing
that are very strict, though. Talk to an ol' marina owner and
get some advice. Talk to his lawyer.
I would NEVER touch a boat with cloudy title like that. I'm
looking to buy a 32' sailboat, and when I see a candidate the
first thing I do is check its licence or documentation. Pretty
much abandoned? Technically you have a stolen boat there.
--
Joe Kovacs
Port Colborne Ontario Canada
Tom Kranz
friendly DMV agent, and they simply had my sign a notarized affidavit about
the circumstances of my purchase. Sorry that i don't remember the form #,
but there IS - or at least was three years ago - a mechanism to do this in
Florida.
- tsk
David Goldsmith wrote in message
<55df6b4b.02051...@posting.google.com>...
Bernard W. Joseph
news:55df6b4b.02051...@posting.google.com:
> Well, I've got a doozy of a problem. In January I bought a '77 Hunter
> 27'. Got a great price because she was pretty much abandoned. The boat
> hasn't been registered since 1989 and that was in Connecticut.
SNIP
> (which is fully restored and ready to go now) not be able to be
> registered! Surely someone on this group has had a similar experience
> and can offer some advice.
I had a similar problem in 1989. I bought a boat in Ft Lauderdale, went to
a boat document service company, paid my money, and let them handle it.
They gave me back my money because there was a defect along the line. I
wanted a Michigan title because that's where the I and the boat would end
up, Following good (and fairly costly) legal help from a sailor lawyer
buddy, I applied in Michigan, After an official at a big Secretary of
State's office gave me a very bad time, I went to a small, remote office
and told the clerk that all I had was a bill of sales. She was a bit
quizzical, but since I was neatly dressed (perhaps) she gave me the title.
With title in hand, I then used the simplified procedure to obtain Federal
documentation.
I talked to the woman at the Ft Lauderdale service later. She said that I
could have done the same thing in Florida. Go to a boonies office,
preferably if you can speak Spanish, get a Florida title, then take the
boat to Michigan and get the Michigan title. It would probably have been
less expensive.
Best of luck.
--
Bernard W. Joseph http://www.appliedgrammar.com
"The world turns on the balance between the screwer and the screwed."
Craig B. Stanford, "The Cultured Ape?", The Sciences, May/June 2000
David Goldsmith
solved down here in Florida by filling out a form at the DMV. I've
been to three different DMVs now but haven't had any luck with finding
such a form. What are the magic words I need to use in my request to
the agent to get these forms? Can I look up this sort of thing on the
Internet? At the moment I've got a couple of titling companies in
Alabama sending me info packets, but I'd rather just be able to do it
here by myself.
Thanks for any and all help,
David
J A Llewellyn
places that are accustomed to boat reg, and those whose principal business
is motor vehicles. I think this reflects DG's experience
Bernard W. Joseph
news:ylXG8.20275$YI5.3...@twister.tampabay.rr.com:
I don't know if JAL is saying that boat-savvy places are harder or easier
than car places. I wrote earlier that I had gone through a similar
experience. My very savvy boat insurance friend who has acted as an agent
to register many boats, and my friendly (but expensive) sailor-lawyer both
told me to go to a remote office and claim ignorance in that the bill of
sale is all the paper I have. I succeeded in getting the registration and
then documented the boat.
That was in lieu of Michigan's total process that requires a bond for the
value of the boat for three years -- talk to a bond agent to find out how
expensive that is -- at which time they give you clear title, or going to
court to have them remove the cloud.
The lawyer told me that DMVs, or Sec of State as in Michigan, can require
that proper papers be furnished back to the certificate of origin, or
Master Carpenter's Certificate for boats. As with a house and many other
things, the title is under a cloud unless you can trace back to the origin.
That's why you buy house title insurance. So I just followed the
directions, sailed my cloudy boat for 10 years, then sold it with a Coast
Guard bill of sale to a guy who's now sailing around the world.
Good luck to you both.
--
Bernard W. Joseph http://www.appliedgrammar.com
WARNING: Exposure to the Son prevents burning.
-- sign on local Salvation Army office
Capt. Len
a notarized Bill of Sale and maybe a notarized statement saying why the
registration is not valid.
Go to the origin states Registration agency and have them do a
registration search for the Reg.# and print out a list of owners of
record.
In FL the DMV isn't the agency. You go thru the County Tax Office
You Need to contact the FWC which now does the inspection for checking
the vessel before a title will
be issued. They come out and check the HIN and issue a letter to the
County Tax Office.
It isn't that hard but you have to work thru the layers , do the paper
work and have lots of patience.
--
Capt. Len Susman
trikin...@trikini.com
WWW TRIKINI Project
http://www.trikini.com
What's New
http://www.trikini.com/whatn.htm
Capt. Len
boat registration/titles and a link there to the office in tallahassee for
an email.
Don't know why you keep saying DMV. You want the Tax Office <BG>
The Title is a State function and the Tax Office is the agent.
You need to get through the clerk to a supervisor. Be very friendly and
don't be aggressive.
Call the FWC office I think they are in Lakeland. Look in the govt.
pages, state agencies in the phone book. Explain the thing there.
David Goldsmith wrote:
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