FREE NEWSLETTER
WE BOUGHT A SAILBOAT and trailer in 2008 for our son for his 15th birthday. At the time, he was too young to own a boat, so I registered it in my name.
Fast forward 15 years, and we finally got around to transferring the title to our son. Transferring the boat was quick and easy. Transferring the trailer was not.
Cars, trucks, boats and trailers all have unique vehicle identification numbers, or VINs. In this case, it’s a 17-digit number.
The first number of the VIN engraved on the trailer is a five. The seller sent in the title transfer paperwork, which included the VIN number and which I signed. Two weeks later, I got the title from the state. Everything was correct, except the VIN started with a four—something I didn’t notice at the time.
When we tried to transfer the title to our son 15 years later, we discovered the state had ownership records for the various VINs—but I wasn’t listed as the owner of any of them. Compounding the confusion, the state upgraded its computer system in 2008, and it’s now difficult to get information from that time.
Fortunately, I still had the original bill of sale, the original title transfer, and the title that I’d received from the state. The state asked me to produce:
Fortunately, I’d purchased the boat on consignment from a well-known boat dealer that’s still in business. When I showed the boat dealership all of the photos and original paperwork, an employee had no problem signing the statement.
I took all of this information to the license center. After about an hour consulting with the department of motor vehicles, calling the seller and running a background check on me, the license center was able to give me clear title to the trailer. All told, I spent about six hours cleaning up the mess.
If I had to do all of this for a trailer, I can’t imagine what an ordeal it would have been for an automobile. Needless to say, I’ll be double checking the VIN on any future purchases.
It must be great to be young Kenyon and still believe that government workers actually care about honest, taxpaying citizens.
Didn’t someone famous say that ‘That the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”’?
More than 75% of government workers are teachers, police, firemen, and the military. I think most of the folks in each of these groups do care about the citizens they serve.
In the 1970s, the title for my new car had one digit missing in the VIN. Luckily, I checked it as soon as I got my title, and the dealer took care of getting it fixed. It was complicated somewhat because the dealer was just over the border in an adjacent state. A few months later, I moved to a third state, I don’t know what problems that would have created if I hadn’t found the error. Since then, I’ve always checked the title for errors.
My grandfather (an attorney) filled out paperwork in VA to transfer trailer ownership to my father circa 1968. For the year of manufacture, he filled in ‘circa 1962’. The application was denied because they had no record of the manufacturer ‘Circa.’