Buying a boat in FL, need advice

You will need to draw up a Bill of Sale, the seller needs to sign over the boat/trailer to you and you need to take a suitcase full of $$$$.

Find a notary near where the boat is located and have them guide you through the process and notorize everything

The sale is occurring on a Sunday.......

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Don't I need the bill of sale notarized with both parties present?

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No....just both you signing it

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And how do I go about getting him to sign it over, what are the necessary steps.

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He signs over the title(s); there are places on the back of the title for this

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8200 won't fill a suitcase I'm pretty sure

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Buy a bigger suitcase or get a duffle bag

have the seller sign the title for the trailer. also get a photo copy of the front and back of his id. i did this when i bought a car in Florida and brought it back to Louisianan and had no problems with the registration. for the boat and motor i suggest doing the same on a generic bill of sale. Louisiana requires one on both the boat/hull and the motor separately.

1. You will need two separate notarized bills of sale for the hull and the trailer (hull BOS will go to LDWF, Trailer BOS to LADMV)

2. After you get back home with the boat/trailer and notarized bills of sale You will need to print and complete LA form R-1331 to show proof of sales tax paid on the hull. Without this form LDWF will not register a used out of state boat until the king’s toll has been paid. To do this you will first take the hull BOS and a printed R-1331 form to your parish tax assessor’s office & pay parish sales tax. Next you will take the same documents to either the New Orleans or Baton Rouge state tax office and pay state sales tax.

3. Once the two above steps are completed, you can submit the original copies of both the notarized hull BOS and LA form R-1331 to LDWF for registration processing.

Tips:
- if you know a notary in LA, go ahead and get them to pre-stamp your bills of sale with everything but the buyer’s signature left blank, this will avoid having to find a notary on a Sunday in an area you are unfamiliar with
-Have multiple original copies of each bill of sale made

In short:
1. BOS for hull, BOS for trailer (both notarized)
2.Completed R-1331 form (parish & state tax payments)
3. Submit originals to LDWF

Regarding titles, the only reason you would need titles on the boat/motor in LA is if you are financing the sale. You will need the trailer title for DMV purposes.

Disclaimer: I am not an official in these matters, this was just my experience with a used hull out of state sale.

Just want to add that getting a copy of the seller’s DL helped me when I went to the tax office downtown. I guess that proves it’s from an individual.

I bought one in Pensacola a few years ago and it was painless. Got a copy of his DL, a BOS, he signed the trailer title and I rolled back to La. In Florida they title boats so I also had to give that to LDWF. He let me just mail the license plate back to him once I got home and got an La plate for the trailer.

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Incorrect. Louisiana requires the bill of sale to be notarized

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My bad......IMO this is stupid for a BOS to be notarized. If the parties want to that's one thing but making it state law is

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the 1331 form is only required for used boats purchased in 2016

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Could be (and hopefully is) true, I can't argue anything to the contrary as mine was purchased in '16.

Two bills of sale just helped simplify things for the fine folks at the DMV, I've done combined ones in the past though and they were just as functional but I had to do a bit of walking them through it.

Bottom line is this is a government process, it is far better to overshoot on your documentation than to leave them wanting more & have to track down some stranger in Florida. Be sure that he gives you any and all documents in his possession pertaining to the moveable property (sales/service receipts, dealer invoices, driver's license copy, Florida wildlife reg documents etc). That, combined w/ notarized sale documents should get you more than covered with LDWF, LADMV & LA Dept. of Revenue.

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You can have one bill of sale that includes all of the items (trailer, Hull, etc.), or two. It’s up to you.

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When I brought mine back to Louisiana the Department of Revenue forced me to separate the trailer from the boat. It was a giant headache. You are right and LDR was wrong, but that day they were only interested in their personal opinion not the actual rules. They even made me go to the DMV to pay the sales taxes on the trailer in a separate transaction. To complicate things even further I got in an insult contest with a lady at the DMV who demanded the Florida title for the trailer but as you know Florida does not issue titles for trailers. No matter how bad she wanted that Florida title she wasn't getting it.

I ended up needing the help of an attorney to get a license plate for the trailer. Getting the hull registered wasn't too much of an issue but it did require multiple trips to the head office in Baton Rouge.