Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

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GoodCall
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Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by GoodCall »

My grandfather gave me a 14' jon boat that's been lyin around his yard for 15 or 20 years, and i'm in the process of fixing it up. It has never been titled or registered...and pretty much just sat as a yard decoration all these years.

I've done this with a few other small jon boats and i've never come across one that didn't have any sort of Hull Identification Number or serial number on it. The only information i have is that it is made by Sears. I have combed every inch of it and can't find a stamp in the aluminum or any other info anywhere.

I have heard suggestions of tryin to register it as "homemade", but i believe it requires FWC inspection along with receipts for the materials you purchased to make it, and it is clearly not homemade. I want to go about this the right way, and i just can't seem to see a way to get this done. Couldn't find anything useful on the FHSMV website...seems like everything requires a HIN.

Anyone have any experience getting a boat titled/registered when it doesn't have a HIN or serial number of any kind?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Yakmanjr
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Re: Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by Yakmanjr »

I would contact the FWC/boating and tell them what you mentioned here. If the boat is pre-1972 it will not have a HIN and one will be issued for the boat. Good luck and keep us informed.
GoodCall
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Re: Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by GoodCall »

Preciate the advice, Yakmanjr. The previous two i've worked on were both 1973's so i guess they had just started using HINs.

This is very frustrating....I understand the reason for the difficulty, as it would be easy for someone to simply steal a boat, scratch off the HIN and apply for a title/registration some secondary way, but it doesn't appear there is one and I guess that's why.

I think there should be some distinction between needing an HIN to register an expensive flats boat vs. a piece of aluminum that, in it's current shape, is only worth about $50-$75 on Craigslist. haha. Seems a little ridiculous the trouble you have to go through for something that's not all that valuable.
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Yakmanjr
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Re: Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by Yakmanjr »

Here is a link to the website I looked at earlier. Maybe this can help.
http://www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/fffvo.pdf

I tried to copy and paste a paragraph from there but its not letting me. Look on the right hand side of page 5.

Funny you mention john boats on craigslist. You are definitely paying for the title more than the boat. So many people post john boats without titles!
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Re: Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by GoodCall »

UPDATE:

I had to take the Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles 82040 form (http://www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/forms/BTR/82040.pdf) and get a notary to confirm that the boat did not have an HIN. Took it to a tax collector's office and they assigned me one. Wasn't too bad of a process, but it's definitely way more difficult when the boat is so old that you don't have any bill of sale and it's never been registered or titled.
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Yakmanjr
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Re: Need help getting title for boat with no HIN

Post by Yakmanjr »

Thanks for the update. Glad you were able to get it registered. The REAL pain is when it has previously been registered....but somewhere down the line, multiple different people end up with the boat without having it registered. The tax collector sends a certified letter to the last known registered owner. I've had the happen before...the origninal owner wouldn't respond. I was pretty much up sh*t creek without a title.
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