02-26-2010, 07:05 PM
Peter,
You only have to register the boat if it has a motor.
I just went thru the DMV process and it was quite frustrating.
First I highly recommend making an appointment. You can do it online but know it'll be 3 weeks out. Otherwise the non-appointment line is out the door. Suggest you try Bishop when you're up there next time.
I think I might have gotten an uninformed agent but here's what they dinged me for:
There is an origination fee of $9 (one time), a renewal fee of $10, an alternative fuel/technology fee of $10 and most painful of all, if you bought it out of state within the last year there is a one time use fee equal to around 10% of the value of the boat and motor.
As I was standing there trying to talk to the woman behind 2 inches of bullet-proof glass (more on that later) to explain what type of boat I had and why I marked "Other" for everything on the form (propulsion, hull material, fuel) the line behind me continued to grow. It didn't help that her English was not very good.
She finally handed me the bill and I was shocked: $219 most of which was the use fee (or sales tax as I call it).
To add insult to injury, she charged me a 10% late fee on each of the above because I was registering it after 30 days. She didn't seem to care that it took 3 weeks to get the appointment and that it shouldn't be based on the purchase date of the boat (November) but rather the purchase date of the motor which was less then 30 prior because you don't need to register it until you have a motor.
Since the penalties were $26 and my time is more valuable than that and I had about 8 people grumbling behind me by that time, I chose not to go the appeal route.
If you can avoid it, either wait a year before you get a motor or if you get a motor take your chances for a year and then register it.
Then it should only be $29 for the initial event and $20 for every two years.
Now I know why they have such thick glass in there. I can hardly wait for them to take over my health care as well.
Jim
[signature]
You only have to register the boat if it has a motor.
I just went thru the DMV process and it was quite frustrating.
First I highly recommend making an appointment. You can do it online but know it'll be 3 weeks out. Otherwise the non-appointment line is out the door. Suggest you try Bishop when you're up there next time.
I think I might have gotten an uninformed agent but here's what they dinged me for:
There is an origination fee of $9 (one time), a renewal fee of $10, an alternative fuel/technology fee of $10 and most painful of all, if you bought it out of state within the last year there is a one time use fee equal to around 10% of the value of the boat and motor.
As I was standing there trying to talk to the woman behind 2 inches of bullet-proof glass (more on that later) to explain what type of boat I had and why I marked "Other" for everything on the form (propulsion, hull material, fuel) the line behind me continued to grow. It didn't help that her English was not very good.
She finally handed me the bill and I was shocked: $219 most of which was the use fee (or sales tax as I call it).
To add insult to injury, she charged me a 10% late fee on each of the above because I was registering it after 30 days. She didn't seem to care that it took 3 weeks to get the appointment and that it shouldn't be based on the purchase date of the boat (November) but rather the purchase date of the motor which was less then 30 prior because you don't need to register it until you have a motor.
Since the penalties were $26 and my time is more valuable than that and I had about 8 people grumbling behind me by that time, I chose not to go the appeal route.
If you can avoid it, either wait a year before you get a motor or if you get a motor take your chances for a year and then register it.
Then it should only be $29 for the initial event and $20 for every two years.
Now I know why they have such thick glass in there. I can hardly wait for them to take over my health care as well.
Jim
[signature]