Showing posts with label how to get motorcycle ownership when it's missing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to get motorcycle ownership when it's missing. Show all posts

Sunday 17 April 2016

Affidavits & Broken Ownerships

The XS1100 is finally mine.  After buying it off a clueless millennial who had managed to lose all useful paperwork associated with the bike, I've been able to re-establish ownership.  Here's how you do it:

In order to reconnect continuity of ownership you need to get a signed affidavit from a legal notary.  Your local town government will have a notary on hand that can sign, stamp and date your declaration of ownership (they'll offer this as a service).  I stopped in at the Centre Wellington Town Offices in Elora and explained the situation (clueless kid was previous owner, etc).  I showed them the ownership history the MTO had printed out for me (all six pages of it!), and the letter of sale from the previous owner.  I also said I'd made repeated attempts to find the last legal owner (I suspect he's deceased).

The county clerk (who is a notary) signed, dated and stamped the affidavit I provided (that's it above), and I took it back to the MTO office the next day.  In just a couple of minutes I paid the taxes on the sale price and the bike was attached to my name and a new ownership was printed out.  They keep all the relevant paperwork, including the affidavit.

It's a bit of a pain in the neck to reestablish ownership, but it's not particularly expensive (twenty bucks to get it signed) and just takes a bit of leg work by the new owner.  I'd argue a hundred bucks off the price for your time and costs to get the bike sorted - more if the previous owner is a tool (which they probably are if they lost all their paperwork).