TOPIC: New York - no paperwork

Hello,

I've been looking for a classic boat and find a lot of owners do not have any paperwork. Most say they will give me a bill of sale/receipt, will that help me in getting a registration? I don't want to buy a boat/trailer and not be able to register it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

contact your DNR or whom ever you use to register the boat.
I am just did the forbidden as you are talking about.

Good news was that they didn't think it was stolen,...waiting on a a few signed pieces from seller...to get ball rolling !

look into it bit a deeper and see what you come up with...knowing how to register it first might help you land the best deal of a life time!

I am taking tomorrow off to get my bill of sales notarized and then its off to the department of nasty and rude (at least when it comes to boat titling here in SC) Hopefully non of them show up as stolen. At worst they will make me jump through hoops and possibly do an affidavit of possession. At least here they do give you a way to get a title if there is not much or no paper trail and you do all that is humanly possible to contact original titled owners.

sovgtuser, there is a number of different ways to Register a boat in NY.

I have never had any luck registering a boat in NY without a transferable registration. Houston says there are a number of ways, so maybe he will provide a more detailed report.

Trailers are a different animal. If they weigh less than a 1,000#s, you can get them weighed, come in with a weigh slip, fill out a few forms and get it registered as home made. I've done that with a number of trailers over the years. I wish it was that easy with boats.

Frank

In CT, it is a hassle, but not all that difficult. We have an "Affidavit of Ownership" which is a notarized document stating that you can legally sell the item. I have that for the Glastron and plan to at least start that process this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

MA is another story. I had to go register and get inspected a trailer that I sold to someone in MA before he could get it registered there. And we had all the documentation back to the builder.

..S.: Every state & situation is a crap shoot. Prior TROY NY here & know dept paperwork is strict.. Easy history is if family did register boat at one time. Thus it is just a LOST Tital & can re-apply. You / buyer may have to pay for their fee / trouble , BUT it is in your best interest....... 2) other states are easier, get another member to regiser a quicker tag #, say like in South Dakoda,,, here in TENN , is a Bill OF Sale state, not even plates on trailers, (Good perk to retire here). For our classics not much review for the sales tas issue , as state is close to 10 %.

3) Again we get this topic every month, & here a service down south , Maybe LA will do a paperwork for $ 250.!

In Pa the boat is easy but the trailer without a title is hard. Ohio don't need trailer titles and we are only an hour from Ohio. Craigslist is full of boats with trailer, no title. You can apply for an abandoned boat through the Pa Fish Commission and get title. People buy and sell trailer vin plates here and trade them from one trailer to another. It's illegal as hell. You have to have the title to the vin number. But I never heard of anyone getting caught.

Every state is different and then every BMV in the state treats you different. My county in OHIO is terrible. If the boat requires a title because it is long to require one and you don't have it, you are in serious trouble! My county says if you even part it out, you could be construed as "chop shop" and serve jail time. I told them that the seller would give me a bill of sale. They said that proves NOTHING! They said they could give me a bill of sale for the Brooklyn Bridge, but that doesn't give them the right to sell it. It makes sense to me, but........Some states and even some BMV agents in my state though will work with you to help you get it legal. My county even told me not to show up with a recently made title from ALA. as they are on to their illegal ways of making a title(their words, not mine). Good luck and the right thing is to check into your BMV where you are required to register it first. So you know what you are up against.

Hey Robert,

I'm glad you've had more cooperation from the Fish and Boat Gestapo than I have. In another thread I explained the wonderful treatment I received from a woman in Harrisburg who has made it her life's quest to save old boats from boaters. Of course, there is more than one way to remain honest and get around these saviors of our sport. Its called moving to another state as soon as I can.

I've also run into the VIN tag and title for sale folks. They don't care if there is a brand marked on the trailer and the title has a different name on it as long as they can run it through a crooked notary.

Got the Glastron registered this morning. Took all of 15 minutes at DMV. In CT, you need the application (which the previous owner needs to sign) and a bill of sale. In addition, you need a proof of ownership by the previous owner. This can be either a registration in the previous owner's name, or a notarized Affidavit of Ownership, which says he owns the boat and can legally sell it. Sometimes a copy of the bill of sale back to the last registered owner is helpful. In this case, the boat was last registered in CA in 1969 and it didn't resurface until 2 years ago.

(A lot of my work (real job) is done one computer, so I can flex time to do things like this)