How to Put a Lien on a Boat in Florida: FLHSMV Filing and Statute 328.17

Placing a lien on a boat in Florida follows one of two routes, and picking the right one is the whole game. If you’re a lender or anyone else securing a debt with the vessel itself, you record a title lien with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) using Form HSMV 82139. If you’re a marina or boatyard holding a vessel for unpaid dockage, storage, or repair charges, you already have a possessory lien by operation of Florida Statute 328.17, and your job is to enforce it correctly through statutory notice and sale. Federally documented vessels take a third path through the U.S. Coast Guard. Each route has its own paperwork, its own filing office, and its own consequences for getting a step wrong.

Recording a Title Lien with the FLHSMV

A title lien is the route for lenders, finance companies, and anyone holding a security agreement tied to a Florida-titled vessel. Once recorded, the lien appears on the certificate of title itself, and the owner cannot obtain a clean title to sell or transfer the boat until it’s released.

The form to use is HSMV 82139, downloadable from the FLHSMV website. It asks for:

Vessel details: Hull Identification Number (HIN), registration number, make, year, and title certificate number
Owner information: full legal name and last known address of the registered owner
Lienholder information: your name, address, and the date of the lien
Type of agreement: whether a security agreement is already executed, or the notice is being filed before one is finalized

The completed form goes to your local county tax collector’s office, not to the FLHSMV in Tallahassee.¹ If there is already a lienholder on the title, you first send a copy of the form to that existing lienholder by certified mail, then submit the original along with the signed return receipt and the recording fee to the tax collector. The FLHSMV charges $1 to record each lien.²

Marina Possessory Liens Under Florida Statute 328.17

A marina doesn’t file anything to create its lien. Under Florida Statute 328.17, the lien attaches automatically the moment the vessel arrives at the marina or first occupies rental space, and it secures unpaid storage fees, dockage fees, repairs, improvements, and other work-related charges.³ Nothing gets recorded with the FLHSMV. What the statute does regulate, tightly, is how the marina turns that lien into money by selling the vessel.

Who Must Be Notified Before a Sale

Written notice goes to the vessel’s owner in person or by certified mail to the last known address, and must also be conspicuously posted at the marina and on the vessel itself.³

The owner isn’t the only person on the list. The marina must also notify every other party holding a recorded interest in the vessel: anyone with a lien shown in FLHSMV records, anyone holding a preferred ship mortgage or claim of lien filed with the U.S. Coast Guard, anyone with a UCC security interest, and anyone who has filed a judgment lien certificate against the vessel.³ Finding those parties means pulling ownership documentation from the FLHSMV, obtaining an abstract from the Coast Guard if the vessel is federally documented, and running UCC and judgment lien certificate searches.

What the Notice Must Contain

A short “you owe us money” letter won’t do. The written notice must include:

An itemized statement of the amount owed and the date each charge became due
A description of the vessel sufficient to identify it
A clear demand for payment
A conspicuous statement that the vessel will be advertised for sale if the claim isn’t paid, along with the time and place of the planned sale
The marina’s name, street address, and phone number for response

All notices to the owner and lienholders must go out at least 60 days before any sale.³ That window is a hard floor. Miscount the days and the owner has grounds to challenge the sale afterward.

Advertising and Conducting the Sale

If the 60 days pass without payment, the marina can move to sale. Florida law authorizes a “sale or other disposition,” so a formal public auction isn’t required.³

Before the sale, the marina publishes an advertisement once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the area where the marina is located. The ad must include a brief description of the vessel, the marina’s address, the owner’s name, and the time, place, and manner of the sale. The sale cannot occur sooner than 15 days after the first publication.³ Where no newspaper of general circulation exists in the area, the marina posts the advertisement in at least three conspicuous places in the neighborhood at least 10 days before the sale. A single advertisement can cover multiple vessels at the same sale.

Handling the Sale Proceeds

After the sale, the marina may satisfy its lien from the proceeds if its lien has priority over all other liens. Any remaining balance must be held for delivery to the owner on demand, with notice of the balance sent in person or by certified mail.³ If the marina’s lien is junior to other liens, the entire proceeds are held for the higher-priority lienholders instead.

Federally Documented Vessels

If the boat is documented with the U.S. Coast Guard rather than titled through Florida, the FLHSMV process doesn’t apply. Lien claims on documented vessels go to the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC), which has no standardized government form and advises claimants to consult private legal counsel on the elements and validity of a maritime lien.⁴

A notice of claim of lien filed with the NVDC must include:

The vessel’s name and official number
The name and address of each claimant
The nature of the lien, the date it was established, and the total amount claimed
The claimant’s signature, notarized
A declaration that a copy has been sent to the vessel’s owner, any party with a recorded claim of lien, and any holder of a preferred mortgage on the vessel

Filing runs through the NVDC’s eStorefront portal at $8 per page, with a page printed on both sides counting as two. Fees are nonrefundable, and the vessel must already be documented or have a pending application for documentation for the filing to be accepted.⁴

Check Active-Duty Status Before Enforcing

Federal law makes this check nonnegotiable before selling. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prohibits enforcing a lien against property owned by a servicemember during their military service and for 90 days afterward without a court order, and it explicitly covers liens for storage, repair, and cleaning.⁵

Knowingly selling a servicemember’s vessel without a court order is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine, or both.⁵ The Department of Defense maintains a database where active-duty status can be verified before any sale goes forward.

Boundary: Towing Companies

Towing companies that recover or store vessels do not use the marina possessory-lien process. They follow a separate statute, Florida Statute 713.78, with tighter timelines and different notice rules. If your situation involves a tow rather than a marina slip or repair job, the process above does not apply to you.

Releasing the Lien After the Debt Is Paid

Once the debt clears, the lienholder is legally required to release the lien on demand. For title liens recorded with the FLHSMV, that means Form HSMV 82260 (Lien Satisfaction), mailed to the FLHSMV’s Division of Motorist Services in Tallahassee within 30 days of final payment.⁶ The lienholder must also enter the satisfaction on the face of the certificate of title and deliver the title to the person who paid off the lien.⁷

Sitting on it is expensive. A lienholder who fails or refuses to furnish a satisfaction within 30 days after payment and demand becomes liable for all costs, damages, and attorney fees the owner incurs in a lawsuit to cancel the lien.⁷

1
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Application for Notice of Lien / Reassignment of Lien or Notice to First Lienholder of Subsequent Lien
2
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Vessel Titling and Registrations
3
The Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 328.17 – Nonjudicial Sale of Vessels
4
United States Coast Guard (National Vessel Documentation Center). Notice of Claim of Lien
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3958 – Enforcement of Storage Liens
6
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Lien Satisfaction – Form HSMV 82260
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 328.15 – Notice of Lien and Satisfaction of Lien on Vessel; Recording