How to get a title from bill of sale?

[Team Aqua]

i bought a 1969 222 striped down to the bare hull. It just had a full transome added and there are no #s or any id anywhere. The guy gave me a bill of sale and he said he got a bill of sale from someone before him. How can i get a title and has anyone gone through this before?

[Fletch170]

DMV.

However, before you do this, you will need to have the state assign a HIN. It will most likely be registered as a home build boat. I BELIEVE, to do this you will have to have a state approved facility inspect the boat and fill out the paperwork before the state will issue a # and title.

[love2fish]

you'll need to call the FWC and they will have an officer come inspect the boat... to be honest try to get them to just register it as a homebuilt boat- especially since you dont have a hull ID number on the boat... I had a little 14ft boat that a neighbor gave me:wrote up a bill of sale and had them sign it. The officer looked at the boat, ran the hull id number and had to go through 8months of letters to the state, who would then send that letter to the last person who had the boat registered, back to the state, back to me, finally got the previous owners info from my neighbor and he even wrote me a bill of sale,,, blah blah blah,, boat is still un-registered and just sitting onthe side of my house.

The state will want the last person who owned AND registered the boat to re-register it so they can transfer that title to you... huge pain in the .....and basically the state gets a bunch of $ from all the paperwork.

Homebuilt hull- its the way to go!

[Fletch170]

I'll 2nd that.

Been waiting to buy a 20' trojan Delta-conic for 2 years. Yard has a lein against the boat, guy just abandoned it. The State is "tracking down the paperwork". I'm guessing my kids will be in college by the time that title shows up.

[CaptSteveBetz]

Your bill of sale is basically worthless. You need to find the last registered owner and see if they will give you a title.

Since you have no numbers that is probably going to be impossible to do.

I went through this last year with my Proline and it can be difficult to say the least.

If you try to register it as Home Built and you are in Florida you will have to get an FWC inspection.

After that it is all luck. The next step can be as simple as a letter from the DMV to the FWC or as complicated as Court proceedings.

I learned my lesson about buying boats with out clear titles. I will never do it again.

[wingtime]

What about getting a salvage title?

[bripley]

The previous owner of my 222 FF said he never had a title, but when I talked to the state of FL they found that it was titled in his name so they gave me a copy and I got him to transfer the title. Sometimes you get lucky!