Lessons in Beurocracy

I haven't posted anything since getting Papillon home but, that doesn't mean things have not been happening. One of the first things I needed to do was to get the Michigan title transferred to me and a new Minnesota title and registration issued. I also need a title for the trailer as Michigan does not title trailers of the size I now have. I bet you can see where this may all be leading......

So I called the local MN DMV folks, took me about a day and a half to actually get through as the line was constantly busy. Once I get a hold of someone there, they inform me that since my boat is not a vehicle I need to contact the Minnesota DNR, Department of Natural Resources, in order to get the title swapped and the new registration. After thinking about it, it actually made some sense. So I called the DNR and asked what to do, they said to bring my info to the local service center, one is just down the road from work, and they will be able to take care of everything. One nice thing is that seeing as I bought Papillon from a private party, NO SALES TAX!! Weeeeeee!!!! Gotta like that. OK, that is the happy part of this story. 

When I was on the phone with the DMV folks, I asked about the trailer. Remember, it took me a day and a half just to get someone on the phone. The person said I needed to contact Michigan and get a copy of a letter on their official letter head that states that they do not title trailers as such as mine. Legal disclaimers and all that between MN & MI. Oh yeah, here we go.....

So I call the Michigan DMV, nope, the Secretary of State's office handles all this stuff. Maybe 10 minutes including hold time for that call. Now off to the Michigan Secretary of State's office. 10-15 minutes on hold for a person to say that they need to transfer me to someone else. Another 15 minutes on hold and I get a nice lady that says, "Sure, I can fax that to you." Well that was a nice surprise. So I have her fax it to the fax machine at work hoping that in the last 7 years the number hadn't changed. I had no idea what the number was either, who faxes anymore??? I found it on my business card. Which, I don't use and I have never handed out more than 5 of I think in the 7 years I have been at this company. 

Anyway, I get the fax and it looks good. So I take all my fun little documents to the service center over lunch thinking I should have packed my sleeping bag for how long I think it is going to take. Well it wasn't too awful. About a 15 minute wait for my number to be called. The nice young gal helps me with the boat title first. Pretty straight forward. Write a check and thats about it, including the new registration.

Now for the trailer, well..... "Minnesota needs 4 pictures of the trailer. Front, back and each side.". She also didn't quite buy the letter from the fine state of Michigan either. Even pulled their statute book out. Oh hell.... so this is what I get.... "You need to take the pictures and come back. I can't say for sure that MN will be OK with the letter or not. Will have to see. You may need to get your trailer bonded too as MN does not want to get sued by MI for something that has an outstanding title on it". But, but, Michigan said that..... yeah OK. 

So now I need to get pics of my trailer, print them, bring everything back and oh yeah, a copy of the bill of sale so I can say how much of that was for the trailer as I need to pay the 6.5% sales tax as a trailer apparently is a vehicle...... I will get the pics done over the upcoming weekend and deal with the rest of this fun and excitement next week. The Holidays happening is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Project #1 for the boat is also starting up. Took some pics and will be starting to document that "little" project here shortly......