I'd gotten an abstract of title from the Vessel Documentation Center years ago when I bought Touche'. Got to thinking it might be a good idea to order a new one which shows me as the current owner and to make sure the very old lien on the boat from the previous owner had indeed been recorded as satisfied.
The previous owner had failed to send the satisfaction of mortgage to the VDC to have it recorded. Hence it was still shown as outstanding when I bought the boat. Took 3 months to get it straightened out. The PO didn't want to send the signed satisfaction to the VDC. VDC now accepts copies. Easy process. All done online. Anyway, the new AOT does show the lien satisfaction recorded but the chronological order is interesting. In one transaction, it shows the previous owner as the grantor and me as the grantee. 3 months later it shows the lien satisfaction with the bank as grantor and the previous owner as grantee. To an inexperienced owner, it might look like the previous owner still owned the boat since he was, chronologically, the last grantee. I called the VDC and a very nice lady said that it wasn't unusual at all. Often the proceeds of a sale are used to pay off a lien and the satisfaction doesn't get to the VDC until well after the bill of sale. She explained to me how to read the info on the AOT. If you have an AOT, and choose to drag it out and look at it, you'll see a line with the following column headings: Instrument % Conveyed Date Amount Book Page. Instrument can be BS (bill of sale), SMTG (mortgage), etc. % Conveyed is usually 100% but could be partial ownership Date is when VDC recorded it Amount = $$$ Book and Page are where in the archives the document is actually resident, be it electronic or hard copy. Since I've lost contact with the previous owner I wanted a copy of the satisfaction for my records. The lady told me to request it via the VDC website email pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. She said to reference the vessel documentation number, the book and the page. There is a $4 fee. So there you know more about vessel documentation than you probably ever wanted to know. Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA
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