Thread: Buying a boat from Tennessee

A used boat.


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It's been a few years, but I made a visit to my county court clerks office. Told them what I was doing and they told me what I needed to get the boat registered in KY. I've bought two used boats from TN without registration problems in KY.

I think you will need a title or a bill of sale signed and dated by the previous owner ...

And probably the hull stamped number on starboard rear of the transom ...

I do not know if a notary has to be involved ...

Like Ag Teach mentioned call the county clerks office ...

Rickie

The trailer will also likely be registered. When you register them in Ky, DON'T register the trailer seperately from the boat. Ky doesn't require the trailer to be registered/licensed, so if you do register it you will get seperate registration notices ... and they won't arrive in the mail at the same time. You'll pay registration/taxes on both, and your county clerk's office may not combine them if you do register them seperate. IF you take the registration forms to the county clerk's office to pay for them, you shouldn't have any problems, but if you mail them back in (even both together) you will have to pay the "fee" ($2.00) for EACH one of them.

That's what happened to me when I bought my current boat from a friend. He bought it in Tenn. and then went thru the process of registering it in KY, but registered the trailer seperate from the boat. I did the same thing when I bought it from him, and I've had to pay for them seperately. The county clerk's office says the trailer was registered as a stand alone and wouldn't add its value back into the boat's tax/registration cost. The mail-in fee for the trailer is more than the taxes on it.

This may not be 100% accurate, as I'm going on memory from years back, but just putting it out there so you can mention it to your county clerk and hopefully get the boat/motor/trailer registered & taxed as ONE single outfit.

Years ago I bought a boat/motor/trailer from Missouri and ALL three had a separate title. I got titles for the boat and the trailer. But that was easy as I just transferred the titles.

I bought a used boat in Ohio and I brought it home to Louisiana to register it. In Ohio the boat, the trailer and the motor had seperate titles. I needed the clear titles in my name before I could register it. Louisiana also required a copy of the front and the BACK of the Ohio boat owners drivers license I bought it from.
Call both states and get the info from both the Department of Motor vehicles and the Wild life agency as to what you need. Does the bill of sale need to be notorized? Do I need copies of the titles? My bride and I drove from Lacombe La to Columbus Ohio straight through. Looked at the boat that night. Got up the next morning and the previous owner accompanied us to his bank, then to the motor vehicle place then to the Wild life agency. We left not knowing we need a copy of the back of his drivers license. Fortunately when we got to the Baton Rouge Wild life and fisheries office the previous owner emailed a copy of the back side of his drivers license and I could register the boat, motor and trailer.
I suggest calling a couple of times because I got conflicting info and not all the info.

The KY Dept of Fish and Wildlife has nothing to do with boat sales. Everything goes through the County Court Clerk just like an auto.