Ask a Conservation Officer

[Lee Borgersen]

                Ask a Conservation Officer:

                           Buying a snowmobile?

Mar 9, 2019 at 8:23 p.m

Q: Do I have to notify anybody when I buy a snowmobile? How long do I have to do it?


A: Minnesota Statute requires that you notify the state when ownership of any recreation vehicles changes. Snowmobiles are addressed in Minnesota Statute 84.84 which states that the commissioner of the DNR must be notified within 15 days of transfer of ownership or abandonment of the snowmobile. A bill of sale must be provided by the seller and must be shown at the deputy registrar. ATVs and boats also have the same requirement of 15 days and are addressed in different statutes.

  ...
Failure to transfer ownership can cause a domino effect for the machine going forward when registration is due for renewal or when ownership changes again. We frequently field calls from people having trouble registering something they bought and the prior owner never transferred it either.

  Usually by the time they are calling us, they have used the remaining years on the registration and have no idea who the prior owner was let alone who the actual registered owner is. We are unable to give that information to the public legally, so the new owner could be in for a headache in trying to transfer the registration.

Making sure you get a bill of sale and transferring the ownership right away when you buy a recreational vehicle will save yourself a headache in the long run. If you are buying new from the dealer, they should be taking care of the initial registration for you, but it’s not a bad idea to confirm with your salesperson that they are doing so.