Title or registration in NY?

[John 4]

I am selling a trike and I have no paper work with it but will gladly make out a bill of sale. Wouldn't that be plenty to get the thing legal for riding on public land?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

MMMM, not really..

How long have you owned this trike??

I ask because in the case of registering an ATV that has no paperwork the person registering it has to sign an affidavit if ownership stating they have owned it for a certain amount of time and never registered it. I have gotten mixed answers from DMV about the minimum time of ownership from different DMV workers. Most say it's 3 years, a couple have told me 1 year.

If you have owned it for "X" number of years and are confident it has not been previously registered in recent years and most importantly has not been reported stolen here is what you do...

1: Take the actual machine to the local Police/Sherriffs Dept and have them verify the VIN. All they will give you is a sworn police statement attesting to the fact the VIN you are attempting to register is a real VIN on a real machine. They will not do a VIN history search, the DMV does that. They will also accept a rubbing or printed digital picture of the VIN.

2: with the VIN statement from the police/rubbing/printed digital pic, go to the DMV and tell them you wish to register an ATV that you have owned for "X" number of years and never registered. They will give you 2 forms to fill out. One will be the affidavit of owership and the other will be the application for a new registration.

You will turn in those 2 DMV forms along with your police statement and then the DMV will run the VIN. Here is where you start biting your nails. So long as the VIN comes back clean (never reported stolen) and no registration history (for at least as many years you swore on the affidavit of ownership form) then you will get a temporary registration card that is non-transferrable.

SIDE NOTE: If you signed the affidavit of ownership form swearing you have owned it for say 10 years and the DMV worker brings up history that shows it was last registered in someone else's name 4 years ago, you could/will likely be in some trouble for falsifying a legal document. And I' sure that's not a road any of us wants to go down.

So, back to the temporary non-transferrable registration. This will make the trike legal to ride in public areas (so long as you also have it insured to minimum required by NYS law)... You are given the temp registration because the main DMV headquarters is going to do a final check on your VIN. I don't know why they do this, but that is the procedure in these cases. It usually takes 2-4 months for your transferable registration to come from Albany if everything checks out. I have had one take 2 months, and I have a brother whos took 4 months...

So, there you have it. It can be done. It can be a bit of a pain and a little bit of a nail biter but once it's done your machine is set.

Because of the delay in getting the full transferable registration, it would be quicker if your buyer did the first time registration, so long as you are extremely confident there is no shady history on your trike. Otherwise you can get it registered, and send your buyer the transferable when you get it in the mail. Then he can simply take that transferable to the DMV and transfer ownership from you to him...


BTW: ATV's are not titled vehicles in NY. Thats why the registration is transferable.

Hope this helps you out..

[John 4]

MMMM, not really..

How long have you owned this trike??

I ask because in the case of registering an ATV that has no paperwork the person registering it has to sign an affidavit if ownership stating they have owned it for a certain amount of time and never registered it. I have gotten mixed answers from DMV about the minimum time of ownership from different DMV workers. Most say it's 3 years, a couple have told me 1 year.

If you have owned it for "X" number of years and are confident it has not been previously registered in recent years and most importantly has not been reported stolen here is what you do...

1: Take the actual machine to the local Police/Sherriffs Dept and have them verify the VIN. All they will give you is a sworn police statement attesting to the fact the VIN you are attempting to register is a real VIN on a real machine. They will not do a VIN history search, the DMV does that. They will also accept a rubbing or printed digital picture of the VIN.

2: with the VIN statement from the police/rubbing/printed digital pic, go to the DMV and tell them you wish to register an ATV that you have owned for "X" number of years and never registered. They will give you 2 forms to fill out. One will be the affidavit of owership and the other will be the application for a new registration.

You will turn in those 2 DMV forms along with your police statement and then the DMV will run the VIN. Here is where you start biting your nails. So long as the VIN comes back clean (never reported stolen) and no registration history (for at least as many years you swore on the affidavit of ownership form) then you will get a temporary registration card that is non-transferrable.

SIDE NOTE: If you signed the affidavit of ownership form swearing you have owned it for say 10 years and the DMV worker brings up history that shows it was last registered in someone else's name 4 years ago, you could/will likely be in some trouble for falsifying a legal document. And I' sure that's not a road any of us wants to go down.

So, back to the temporary non-transferrable registration. This will make the trike legal to ride in public areas (so long as you also have it insured to minimum required by NYS law)... You are given the temp registration because the main DMV headquarters is going to do a final check on your VIN. I don't know why they do this, but that is the procedure in these cases. It usually takes 2-4 months for your transferable registration to come from Albany if everything checks out. I have had one take 2 months, and I have a brother whos took 4 months...

So, there you have it. It can be done. It can be a bit of a pain and a little bit of a nail biter but once it's done your machine is set.

Because of the delay in getting the full transferable registration, it would be quicker if your buyer did the first time registration, so long as you are extremely confident there is no shady history on your trike. Otherwise you can get it registered, and send your buyer the transferable when you get it in the mail. Then he can simply take that transferable to the DMV and transfer ownership from you to him...


BTW: ATV's are not titled vehicles in NY. Thats why the registration is transferable.

Hope this helps you out..
Thank you very much sir! I now find out that the person who wants to buy it lives in PA and I live in NY. Now they are telling me that there is no way to ever make the trike legal in PA if I don't have a title. I told the guy to get lost and stop contacting me because he then offered me half of my asking price because of this. Some people huh?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I hear ya...and glad to help.

I would recommend you get it registered in your name ASAP and maybe it would be wise to put selling it on hold till you get your transferable reggy. Having that reggy makes a machine much more sale-able and adds it's share of value to boot.

As to registering it in PA being impossible... he is full of BS....so long as you sell it to him with a transferable NY registration. A transferable NY reggy is equal to a title.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

BTW, what is it you are selling??

[John 4]

BTW, what is it you are selling?? I just sent you a PM.