boat trailer registration / title issue... any input?
 

Hey all,

I'm looking at buying a boat and boat trailer from Georgia. In GA they are required to register the boat and trailer but not title it.

I will be registering and title the boat in Illinois, where you are required to do both.

Concerning the boat trailer, the seller never registered it because he never used it.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

I don't think I will be able to register/title the boat trailer in IL without the seller's registration card to surrender to show proof that he technically even owned the trailer. ??????? Do I have any other options?

I haven't had any luck getting through to IL DNR yet, so thought I'd ask on here too.

my dad bought a rinker 232 from georgia a few years back and all he needed was the bill of sale if i am not mistaken. we are in nebraska, they are usually not to bad about argueing that stuff. bad part of that deal was the boat had 90 hours and we got the pleasure of finding out it had froze and had a cracked block :(

I think regalman is right...
 

...on the money!

I bought a homemade trailer from Michigan here in Florida. When the seller did the Bill of Sale (he had no title with him) I had him put the weight on the bill of sale with a description and his phone#.

When I went to DMV I got a title & registration with no scale slip or questions.

Out of curiosity, what kind of boat and trailer are you buying hand where at in Ga? I ask because I had my trailer stolen about 4 weeks ago and would love to catch the SOB that stole it!

I bought a boat and trailer from Ohio, no title.

All I had to do was show the bill of sell, and have the police do a VIN verification.

Easy, Indiana issued the title.

25' tandem trailer for a baja outlaw.... up in north georgia area.

I bought a Myco trailer out of Georgia. I had a little trouble getting a title for it here in NC. I needed a notarized statement saying the trailer had no title and a notarized bill of sale both with VIN #. Jeff Wurl

Just make sure the trailer hasn't been titled in a another state prior to it going to Georgia.

Just thought I would ask. I figure we were targeted and someone knew they wanted mine to either scrap out or most likely modify to fit another boat. Ours was a triple axle Eagle trailer shown in my avatar for our Formula 292 fastec and was stolen while hooked to my truck at one of Lanier islands launch ramps.

thats some what interesting, Barkley at Lanier Harbor Marina had his trailer stolen from the marina. it was for his 353 fastec Formula. happened a few a couple of few months ago.

Not a problem! Sorry for your loss... what a gutless act of stealing!! :angry-smiley-038:

Well thats definatley an interesting fact! Sounds like there may be the start of a pattern going on down here.

What kind of trailer did he have?

THats gotta suck when you come back from a day on the water with the boat, and the trailer is missing, what do you do?

First off, you will need to speak with someone at the DMV for issues with the trailer. IDNR will only handle the boat.

Second, you will probably have some with this because IL is jacked up when it comes to this. If the trailer has a VIN number then you might have a chance. No title and No VIN, then you can forget about it.

I just ran into that problem on my trailer, no title and no VIN. Ended up having to register the trailer in my G/F name in the next state.

And you can not do a homemade trailer in IL unless it is actually homemade. ISP will come inspect your trailer if applying for a homemade trailer. Once they deem it is not, then the application will be denied.

It will definatley piss you off and make your day go to hell real quick!

Luckily we have a bunch of friends with slips at the marina across the cove from where it was stolen and we were able to keep it there for a few weeks while we argued with insurance company and got a new one built which by the way is another nightmare in itself!

I posted this once already but 2 of my other buddies called their ins companies after this happened and were both told the same thing: their trailers were covered for collision and comp but NOT theft! I would advise that every one double check their policies to make sure you are covered if this happens to you! It was like pulling teeth to get our insurance company cover this and and had to show all sorts of proof that the trailer was part of the policy and supposed to be covered. Long story but its worth making the 5 minute call to verify theft coverage!

Not sure if this helps or not? I purchased a truck in Kansas which is a no title state. When I brought it back to PA I had to contact the Kansas DMV which understood my problem and they have a paper title that they issued just for this situation. I had to fax them proof of purchase and Kansas registration. I'm sure most non title states have a similar process.

mcourson is absolutely correct!
 

I would go one step further and go to the office where you will do your paperwork and tell them what you have coming. While the state does set down procedures, many of the offices have their own "practices". Where I hail from I drive an extra 10 minutes to one office because if there is an unforeseen problem the people there do everything they can to resolve it, while the registrar which is closer does almost everything they can to find problems.

Never know, the current owner might actually still have the MSO and all problems over.