My brother bought a used 14ft boat,motor,trailer 2 years ago for 1300 bucks or whatever. The registration was good thru 2012 and now it needs to be renewed. The problem is, he never transferred ownership or anything with the DNR or DMV. How does he go about getting the boat registered now and in his name? Any help would be appreciated. The registration on the boat has the registration number on it.
Does he have the registration tag that matches the stickers on the boat from the previous owner? If so just walk into DMV and tell them you need to transfer this into my name and renew registration.
If not bring the boat numbers in with you into the DMV let them know you do not have the regisration tag from previous owner or lost it. And let them know you need to transfer into your name.
Either way DMV will let you know what’s what.
Cheers!! 
This could range from easy to flippin’ nightmare.
First, there’s more to this than just transfering the boat’s registration. That’s only one piece out of a possible 3.
He needs to transfer:
1. The boat’s registration. This is the equivilent of a car’s license plates, it’s the DNR’s sticker and numbers on the front that tell them who owns the boat.
The proper way to transfer this is as already mentioned, to have the registration card that’s provided with the stickers. It is also possible to transfer this with a signed bill of sale that states the license number or the Hull ID Number.
2. The trailer license. And yes, even if it has a lifetime license, you STILL have to transfer that lifetime license so it’s registered in the name of the new owner. It drives me up a tree when sellers point to the lifetime license on the trailer as some kind of selling feature. Yeah, it’s a lifetime license. Until someone else buys it. Then they need to pay a fee to transfer it.
Again, you can transfer a trailer with a bill of sale from the previous named owner.
UNLESS…..
3. The boat or the trailer has a title. It’s unlikely a 14 foot boat has a title, but the trailer very well could. If it does, you will have to hunt down the former owner and get the title before you can transfer the registration.
And now somebody is going to step in and say, “No, you can just tell the DMV some BS story that the guy lost it, blah, blah, it’s homemade, blah, blah.”
No, you can’t. It’s all BS. If it was titled, the ONLY way to legally transfer ownership is to get the title. AND it has to be a clean title, meaning it will say “No Security Interests” or it must have a release card from the security holder.
If you pull some crap to game the system and a CO or LEO ever runs the VIN number on your triler and it come up stolen, you buttski is going to jail. Say hello to your new cell mate, Big Willie 
.
So your brother may have his work cut out for him. With luck, he has a bill of sale with the name of the previous owner, or the DMV will give him the name so he can get one.
If his luck is bad, the boat is stolen or there was an unsatisfied loan against it, in which case it belongs to the bank.
This is way I’m constantly waring people to keep track of ALL the paperwork for your boat. Title, registration card, loan release, trailer registration, etc. When it comes time to sell, there will be no end to the hassle if you don’t.
Grouse
I just went through this process last week. All I did was peel the registration sticker off the boat and take it to the dmv. They looked everthing up and was taking care of in very short order.
Everything grouse said is right on. If they are not titled it should be easy, if they are titled and the previous owner is no where to be found……not gonna be fun.
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