chris branch

I work in the business office of a marina - Most customers are out of state residents with 2nd homes here in nh that use the trailer twice a year, or in state residents that do the same. Unfortunately the vast majority of customer's never title, or register their trailers, they go without a plate or will use personal plates twice a year to move boats into and out of the water(start and end of season). When the boats are sold or traded in down the road, and the customer has misplaced the CO's and or titles, the burden falls on the dealer and I then become a pest to dmv and town clerks to try and figure out how to transfer and or dispose of said trailers. I have several neighbors that have junk boats on their property because they have no way to transfer them to another owner as they lost or misplaced the legal documents of owner ship and the originating dealer is no longer in business or past the 7yrs of holding onto the files. I have this year alone spent a couple weeks worth of time and energy trying to track down and secure documents to "LEGALLLY" transfer trailers to the next owner. When you add in a customer that financed it, and the bank sells the loan to a different bank, the problems grow exponentially. In addition, manufacturers do not engrave the VIN #'s on the trailers, its a decal that fades in the sun and when wet. I then need to have a local officer waste their time to do a vin verification so I can then get a new vin applied to be able to LEGALLY transfer the trailer to the next owner, especially problematic if that is going out of state and our assigned vin # is not even 17 digits. Next thing I know, we're paying for a new trailer for an old boat. Save the DMV, the police officer doing the vin verification, myself, the marina and the tax paying customers the headaches and hassles.