Mission Impossible: Massachusetts Trailer Registration

 It is not that often that I have a beef with Massachusetts.  In general, I think it is a fantastic state to live in.  There are times, however, where things get dumb.  I ran into some dumbness recently when trying to register a boat trailer that was given to me.  MA doesn't require titles for trailers under 3000lb GVWR.  Great.  Or so I thought.  My trailer didn't have a title, but it did come with a Declaration of Origin "Title" signed over from 3 previous owners since it was purchased new in 2003.  After a little research online, I figured I needed a form filled out and signed by the "seller" saying that the boat was a gift for $0 so I wouldn't owe sales tax on it.  I got this form filled out and took it, my Declaration of Origin and my registration application stamped by my insurance company to the RMV to get my registration.  When I got to the front of the line, the woman took a look through the paperwork and ran a check on the VIN and said I didn't have the right paperwork.  I needed a previous registration to be able to register the trailer.

It turns out none of the previous 3 owners of the trailer ever registered it.  The company that sold the trailer no longer existed.  There was no previous registration.  It appeared I was stuck and couldn't register my trailer.  Online forums turned up no shortage of other people with the same problem.  Some said they registered their trailer in Maine instead.  Others more recently said that Massachusetts was cracking down on Maine registered trailers in Massachusetts.  It is illegal to pull a Maine registered trailer with a Massachusetts registered vehicle in Mass unless you have an apportioned license plate on the tow vehicle.  Clearly Massachusetts is aware of people trying to avoid paying Mass trailer registration fees.  They don't seem to realize that their policies often make it impossible to register a trailer in Mass, however.

I spent some time calling the RMV.  I was trying to see if I could just pay an estimated sales tax for the trailer as if it were new so I could register it.  I figured if I could just give them money, everyone would be happy.  After getting transferred around a few times I finally got connected to someone in the Title department who could answer my questions and was a big help in understanding the laws (shout out to Dan who was very patient with me and nothing like the RMV employee stereotype!).  This is what I learned: The Declaration of Origin Title I had was only valid for the original dealer selling it to the first owner.  The first owner should have registered it.  When he signed it over to the second owner, that was not a valid transfer as only a dealer can transfer a Declaration of Origin, unlike with a true title that the individual owner can sign over.  Since the second and third owners were not dealers, the Declaration of Origin was not valid as proof of ownership.  Since I would have no way of contacting any of the previous owners except for the one who gave it to me, I was stuck and unable to prove that I was in possession of the trailer legally.

Dan then explained that what I would have to do is go through a new titling process, even though titles aren't required for <3000lb trailers.  To do this, I would have to get notarized affidavits from as many of the previous owners as I could indicating they were the legal owners of the trailers.  I would then have to submit this to a board at the RMV who would review it (could take months) and decide if they could accept the evidence and issue a new title.  I would then have to post a bond for up to 1.5x the value of the trailer.  Dan couldn't tell me how long the bond would be kept for, but I later found out it would be held for 3 years and comes with a $100 fee for the bond.

That didn't seem like a feasible solution either, so I asked Dan if I could register the trailer in Maine under my name and then use that registration as proof of ownership to apply for a Massachusetts registration.  He said if I could satisfy Maine's requirements and get a Maine registration, I could use that to apply for a Mass registration transfer.  OK.  Now we're getting somewhere.

It turns out Maine has friendly trailer registration laws.  I found a trailer retailer in Maine that offered registration services for out-of-state residents.  All I needed was to upload a scan of a notarized power of attorney allowing them to act as my registration agent in Maine along with the other documentation (my Declaration of Origin title signed over to me and the Mass form showing it was a gift for $0).  I did not expect it to work, but this all satisfied Maine and I got plates in the mail a week or so later after only paying $46 for the registration process and postage on the plates.  Yay Maine!

I went back to the RMV with my paperwork and my new Maine registration in my name.  The clerk at the triage counter looked through it and had some questions.  Since my address on the registration was in MA and not in Maine, it wasn't a straight transfer like it would be if I just moved to the state and wanted to transfer the registration, so they couldn't process it.  She told me I need to get a local police department to do a VIN inspection and I would need to preapre a notarized affidavit of ownership stating that I was the owner of the trailer and how I acquired it.  Luckily, these were feasible and didn't cost any money, so I was able to get those done the same day.  When I came back, the clerk looked at it again and seemed to think everything was in order.  But she wasn't the one who processed the registrations.  I would have to wait, and it would be about 3 hours.  Or I could get an appointment and come back next week.

I spent the weekend sweating over whether the actual registration clerk would accept my paperwork or if I was going to have more problems.  Even with my appointment, I still had a 40 minute wait (now you're living up to your stereotype, RMV!).  The clerk looked at my paperwork.  He started asking me questions about where I had the trailer in Maine, and I was worried he was going to deny me.  I told him the trailer had never been to Maine, and I just registered it there to establish a provenance of ownership.  It turned out he was just personally curious as he was from Maine.  He decided all of my forms and affidavits were good, registered it and gave me my plates.  Hooray!  It took me a month, a ton of time, and a lot of driving around to the RMV 3 times and two different notaries, but I did it.

In summary, Massachusetts red-tape basically made me launder my legally obtained crappy little boat trailer through Maine in order to get it registered in Mass.  Based on the amount of forum chatter, getting trailers registered in Mass is a very common problem and there are lots of others in this boat.  I think a lot of them are just risking driving around with an unregistered trailer.  I got busted for doing this while I was in college (an entertaining story) so that wasn't something I wanted to do again.  If Maine can register trailers by mail without onerous paperwork, why can't Massachusetts?  We should be better than that!