Titling trailer in MO with no existing title

Turn4fun

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
76
OK I live in Missouri and I bought a 31 year old boat, motor & trailer in Illinois through a Boat Angel charity auction. When I received the documents in the mail, it turned out that the donor was also a MO resident. The boat did have an Illinois title but the motor and trailer did not. Although the previous owner is a MO resident, the boat, motor and trailer were kept in IL for the entire 15 years that he owned them and therefor were not required to be titled in MO. The motor shouldn't be a problem since IL does not title motors, but they do title trailers and that's where I'm in a bind.

I didn't purchase from the previous owner, I purchased from the out of state charity that he donated to. However, the bill of sale provided by Boat Angel lists the donor so the BOS reads as if it were an in state purchase. I don't know how I prove to the DMV that the trailer and outboard actually came from IL. I was able to contact the donor and learned that he was the third owner. He knew the names of the first and second owners and stated that the motor had never been titled by any of them. The trailer however was titled in MO by the first owner but the second owner did not transfer it to her name and therefor had no title to transfer to the third owner. A Google search of the first and second owner's names turned up obituaries for both of them.

So where do I go from here? Has anyone here successfully obtained a new MO title without a previous title on a trailer purchased in another state that requires title? What did you have to do and what documentation did you have to show?
 

redneck joe

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
10,200
i did it years ago and, like most things in MO, was not fun. Cannot remember what I had to do just involved many trips and inspections and of course money.
 

gm280

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
14,585
I just so happen to buy a same Boat Angel boat, motor and trailer setup myself off Ebay. And I got the same type paperwork as well. BUT, I had to rework everything being how it was so rotted and rusted, that my state of GA, simply titled my trailer as a mere home built and a State Patrol Officer actually came to my house and checked the trailer over and verified I installed the new metal identification tag they issued me and signed off on the home built trailer. So I have it all covered now and since it is listed as a home built, it only requires a simple license plate and no taxes otherwise... In fact that trailer IS the trailer project listed in my post projects if you want to see before and after results. So if you have a hard time titling, your trailer, maybe work it as a home built as well. It solved my issues. :joyous: JMHO!
 

Turn4fun

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
76
Thanks for the replies. I've already been through everything on the DOR website GA Boater, and the answer is not there. I've been the homebuilt route before but it's not feasible in this situation. When I did it before back in the 90's, the trailer actually was a homebuilt that had been made in the 60's. Unfortunately when you title a homebuilt in MO they only let you use the current year as the year of manufacture, so I had a 1960's trailer titled as a 1990. We also have county assessed personal property tax here, so for years I ended up paying quite a bit more in taxes on that trailer than I did on the truck I was pulling it with. The other thing is this is a 25' trailer rated at 3600 lbs. Homebuilts over 16' or 2000 lbs have to be inspected by the Highway Patrol rather than any old Mom & Pop service station, and there is no way they are gonnna let me call it a homebuilt when it is clearly a manufactured trailer.
 
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