Nebraska motorboat bonded title bonds.
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The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles titles a motorboat with a missing or improperly assigned title, or a homemade one, as a bonded certificate of title once you file a surety bond for one and one-half times the boat's value, written for three years. A specialist quotes the bond, usually within one business day.
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How much does a Nebraska motorboat bonded title bond cost?
It is underwritten: the premium is quoted from the bond amount and your financial picture, so there is no flat price to show.
From missing paperwork to a titled boat.
The bond is the last piece of a Nebraska bonded-title application — the DMV wants it within 30 days of its date. Do the record search and certified letters first, then:
Request a quote
Enter the bond amount (1.5 times the boat's value), the make, year, model, hull identification number, hull length, hull material, and your county — the same details the DMV's own bond form asks for. There is no credit section in the application.
A specialist quotes it
A surety specialist confirms the bond is written to the right amount on the DMV's motorboat form and returns your exact premium, usually within one business day. Accept the quote and pay, and the bond issues.
File with the DMV
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email. Send the bond with your Application for Bonded Certificate of Title to the DMV's Driver and Vehicle Records Division in Lincoln within 30 days of the bond date — or have the bond emailed straight to the DMV.
What it is and who needs it.
What the Nebraska motorboat title bond actually guarantees
Nebraska requires a certificate of title for a motorboat before it can be registered, and ordinarily you prove ownership with a duly assigned title, a manufacturer's or importer's certificate, or one of the other documents listed in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 37-1278(2)(a). When a Nebraska title has never been issued and you cannot produce any of them, the same subsection sends you to a bonded certificate of title under § 37-1278.01 — issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles itself, not by the county treasurer who handles ordinary boat titles.
The DMV limits the bonded route to Nebraska residents and describes four situations: a title has never been issued in this or any other state, the motorboat is homemade, you cannot provide a properly assigned title or Manufacturer's Statement of Origin, or the boat already carries a bonded title from another state. Before applying you run a DMV record search, send certified letters to any titled owner and lienholder, and wait thirty days for responses. Since the 2026 amendment (LB972), a lien is extinguished when the bonded title issues if the lienholder does not respond within thirty days of receiving your certified notice.
The bond is not insurance for you. It protects prior owners and lienholders, later buyers and their lenders, and their successors against any loss — including reasonable attorney's fees — caused by the title being issued or by a defect in, or undisclosed lien on, your ownership. If the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. The title carries a notice of the bond until it is released: after three years with no claim, you apply to the DMV to release the bond and remove the notice, and surrendering the currently valid title can release it sooner. The bond is not renewed.
You need this bond if you're
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
Term and renewal are set in the underwriter's quote.
Keep the bond in force for as long as the obligation behind it runs.
How to file it
File with the DMV. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email. Send the bond with your Application for Bonded Certificate of Title to the DMV's Driver and Vehicle Records Division in Lincoln within 30 days of the bond date — or have the bond emailed straight to the DMV.
What sets the price
This bond is underwritten: the premium is quoted from the bond amount and your financial picture, so there is no flat price to show.
One short form to a quote request.
These are the actual issuing fields — the bond amount, the boat's make, year, model, hull ID, length and material, your county, and your contact details. No credit section, because this application collects no credit information. Submit once and a specialist returns your quote, usually within one business day. Free until issued.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Nebraska bonds.
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Get the boat titled and back on the water.
Send the boat's value and hull details, and a specialist quotes the three-year bond — usually within one business day. Free until issued.