Buying a yacht, pleasure vessel, or commercial boat is a big step for you to take. You make a commitment of a lot of time and money when you do this, and you want to make sure everything about the transaction goes smoothly. Getting all your paperwork together to make sure you have everything you need is essential whether you are buying or selling a boat like this, but perhaps the most critical document for you to have is the bill of sale. Without the bill of sale, there is no record of the transaction to show you are the new legal owner or the one selling the ship. Getting a boat bill of sale is an imperative part of the purchase and there are steps that you’ll need to follow to make sure it is correct.
No Standard Bill of Sale
There is no set standard form for a bill of sale when it comes to vessels. The Coast Guard does not offer a specific document for you to use for this purpose, but you will find many templates available on the Internet that could be useful for you. A basic search will reveal many different forms that you can download and use. Some of them may have an associated fee, while others can be downloaded for free. You need to look at the documents to make sure your template includes the information that is most important, like buyer and seller information, cost, date of sale, specifics about the vessel, and so on.
A Sale Record is Needed
Whether you are choosing to register your vessel with the state you live in or federally document your boat with the Coast Guard, having a boat bill of sale will be a requirement. This paperwork is just one part of what you will need to submit as a record of ownership when you buy a new boat or a preowned one. Once you have your document, you can move ahead with the process and file what you need with the state or the Coast Guard so you can be on record as the new owner or the previous owner that has just sold the vessel so records can be updated.
Filing a Bill of Sale
Your boat bill of sale is needed so you can get a Certificate of Documentation (COD) from the Coast Guard, and here at the Maritime Documentation Center, we make it easy for you to fill out forms and file your documents with us so we can get them to the Coast Guard for you. You can fill out your application on our secure website and then transmit the application and your supporting documents such as the bill of sale electronically to us. We will thoroughly look at it for you to make sure it is correct. We will get it to the Coast Guard so that they can process and approve the application for your new boat.