Do I need a title for my trailer?

Need to register a jet ski trailer but no title?

• i just bought 2 jetskis from the previous owner with the trailer. but the previous owner never had it registered, it has no plates and no title. now i need to get the jet skis home so i need to register the trailer but how would i go about doing this without having a title or anything? its in new jersey by the way and thats where i need to have it registered. has anyone done this or know what to do? i was thinking of trying to register it as homemade but its clearly not homemade and i dont know what to put together for a parts list because i heard you need recipts to register a homemade trailer. my other option was trying to register a cheap like $50 beaten up traler with a title and then just use those plates on the other trailer.

• Answer:

  If the previous owner didn't title it, then it wasn't theirs to sell. That's how ownership gets transferred - with a title. Illegally attaching plates probably isn't the best thing to do, either. It can cost you up to $1,000 in fees, tracking down the rightful owner (better hope it wasn't a repo) and bonded title costs, and take up to 6 months, but your dmv should be able to tell you how to start the process. Meanwhile - life lesson - if you bought something without a title, you didn't actually buy it - you just handed cash to someone. Posession is NOT 9/10 of the law, when it comes to vehicles. And most of the time, those jet skis ALSO have to be registered.