Re: Buying boat w/out title
I'll offer sort of a reverse view of why geting the paperwork done properly is important.
A couple of years ago, I gave a vehicle to someone I had known for quite some time. He was a person who had some problems in the past, but had been making clearly visible efforts to live a better life long enough, for most people to accept his change in behavior.
About six months ago, I started receiving certified letters in regard to the vehicle. Because Of the public nature of an internet forum, I'm not going to get into specifics, but suffice it to say that I was looking at significant financial problems, due to his actions. The problem was that I just signed the title over to him, and did not insist on doing so in front of a notary. I just trusted him to register the car in his name and obtain a new title, but he never did. He then moved to another state, and drove the car there with a plate that he took from another vehicle.
As it turns out, the DMV in my own state still showed the car as being registered to me. What I didn't know at the time, is that even when you turn a licence plate in properly, as I had done, they still maintain records as if the car continued to be registered in your name. This is done because people will often "put a car up," when there is mandatory insurance and they can't afford it, temporarily.
Contact with me as the "owner" was made, because the folks in the other state were able to track the vehicle via the VIN. When I emphatically stated that I no longer owned the car, and hadn't for some time, I was told that legally, I did still own it. Things became complicated because, even though I tracked down the person that I gave the vehicle to, he wouldn't help clear the matter up. I eventually did get the whole thing straigtened out, but it wasn't easy.
So, I guess the moral to my story is; do the paperwork properly and "no good deed goes unpunished."
