Getting rid of an old boat around Lake Livingston comes down to two jobs. The paperwork runs through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which requires the title to be surrendered when a boat is accepted for disposal. The physical job is getting a dead pontoon, bass boat, jet ski, or rusted trailer off your property, and that is the part County Line Junk Disposal handles. We are based in Trinity, we run the whole lake, and the price goes by the space the boat fills in our dump trailer, firm on site before we lift a thing.
Nearly every shoreline neighborhood has one: the boat that ran fine ten years ago, got parked under a tarp after one bad summer, and has been settling into the yard ever since. The motor is seized, the floor is soft, and the trailer tires gave out somewhere around 2019. Here is how to get it gone the right way, paperwork first, then the haul.
What does TPWD require before you scrap a boat?
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department requires the title to be surrendered when a boat is accepted for disposal, and the title paperwork on a disposed or destroyed vessel must be filed within 20 working days to avoid penalties. Motorless boats under 14 feet, kayaks, and canoes are exempt from titling.
That rule covers nearly everything sitting dead in a lake yard. A pontoon, a bass boat, a jet ski, anything with a motor carries a Texas title, and TPWD wants that title settled when the vessel goes to its grave. When the boat is yours and the title is in your name, the filing is the easy part: turn in the paperwork, the record closes out, and nobody ever comes asking about registration on a boat that no longer exists.
Dig the title out before you schedule anything. If it is lost, TPWD can walk you through a replacement, and doing that first saves you scrambling against the 20-working-day clock after the boat is already gone. The trailer underneath is its own piece of property with its own paperwork, so decide early whether it leaves with the boat or stays behind for the next project.
Can you take an old boat to the landfill?
Sometimes, with strings attached. Landfills that accept boat hulls commonly require the fluids drained and the hull cut into sections, and every site sets its own rules, so call ahead before you hitch anything up. Hull recycling barely exists in the United States, so a fiberglass boat's last stop is usually a landfill in some form.
Fiberglass is the whole problem. It is cheap to build with and stubborn to get rid of, which is why the country is dotted with dead hulls and why no simple drop-off exists for them. Before you commit to hauling one yourself, walk through what the trip really involves: draining the fuel, oil, and any hydraulic fluid, cutting a hull apart with a grinder, loading the sections, and paying by weight at the gate. We ran the numbers on that whole exercise in what it costs to dump junk yourself in East Texas, and a boat is the hardest version of it.
One shortcut to skip entirely is the burn pile. Burning fiberglass is dangerous and illegal. The smoke is toxic, and no backyard fire burns hot enough to make a hull disappear anyway. If you want to know where things legitimately end up after a haul, we laid that out in where your junk actually goes.
Can you donate or sell a boat that no longer runs?
Donation is a realistic path for a boat that runs and carries a clean title. A seized motor and a soft floor put a boat outside what donation programs and most buyers will take on, so a hull that has sat dead for years usually ends up on the disposal path.
If your boat still cranks and the title is clean, sell it cheap or donate it and let it become somebody else's weekend project. Lake country is full of tinkerers, and a running boat priced to move will move. The math flips once the boat is genuinely dead. A hull with a locked-up motor and water damage costs money to move, which is exactly why so many of them sit in East Texas yards for a decade straight. At that point the best thing you can do for the property, and for whoever ends up dealing with the place someday, is get it hauled off and take your yard back.
What if somebody abandoned a boat on your property?
Under the rules TPWD administers, a vessel left on private property without the owner's consent for more than 7 consecutive days is legally abandoned. Claiming it for yourself runs through TPWD's surety-bond title process, which is slow and heavy on paperwork, so plan on months and start with a call to TPWD.
It happens around the lake more than you would think. A renter moves out and leaves the jet ski. Somebody asks to park a bass boat behind your shed for a month and never comes back. After 7 consecutive days without your consent the vessel is legally abandoned, and abandoned and yours are two different things. TPWD's surety-bond title route is how a landowner takes ownership: a certified-mail notice to law enforcement at least 30 days before applying, a surety bond posted at one and a half times the value TPWD sets for the vessel, and roughly six months before the process wraps up.
Some folks see it through. Plenty decide the boat is worth less than the paperwork. Either way, get clear direction from TPWD or local law enforcement on the ownership question first, because hauling off a vessel you do not own creates problems fast. Once the disposition is settled and the paperwork side is yours to sign, we handle the lifting.
How we haul dead boats off Lake Livingston properties
We load pontoons, bass boats, jet skis, and boat trailers into a hydraulic dump trailer and haul them off lake properties all around the reservoir. You square the title with TPWD, we do the physical removal, and the price is firm before we touch the boat.
Our setup was built for exactly this kind of job: a 2024 Ram 2500, a Big Tex hydraulic dump trailer, and a Mahindra tractor for the hull that settled into the mud or got swallowed by yaupon behind the shed. Greg has run heavy equipment for more than 20 years, so a boat coming out of a tight spot gets thought through before it gets pulled. We work what is on the bank and in the yard; anything still in the water needs to come out before we can load it.
Pricing follows our normal ladder: $95 for a single item, $175 for a quarter load, $325 for a half, $475 for three quarters, and $650 for a packed full trailer. A jet ski usually lands at the low end of that ladder, while a big pontoon or a boat-and-trailer pair gets its own firm number on site before we lift anything. Travel is free within 25 miles of Trinity, which covers Point Blank, Coldspring, and the north end of the lake with room to spare, and new customers get 15% off the first job. We already run the whole shoreline for furniture and storm debris, and you can read how we work the lake in our Lake Livingston junk removal rundown.
Ready to get your yard back?
Text a few photos of the boat to (936) 259-3200 and we will send back a ballpark the same day. From there we come look, give you a firm number, and haul it once your TPWD paperwork is squared away. We work 7 days a week, 8 AM to 6 PM, and you pay when the job is done, cash, check, or Cash App. Get a free quote, or see how we cover the north end of the lake in Onalaska and the east shore around Livingston.
Questions we hear a lot
Two steps. First the paperwork: the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department requires the title to be surrendered when a boat is accepted for disposal, and the disposal paperwork must be filed within 20 working days to avoid penalties. Motorless boats under 14 feet, kayaks, and canoes are exempt from titling. Second the haul: we load the boat and trailer and get them off your property, priced by the space they fill.
Some landfills accept hulls and some will turn you away, so call ahead before you hitch anything up. The ones that do take hulls commonly require the fluids drained and the hull cut into sections first. Hull recycling barely exists in the United States, so a landfill in some form is the usual end of the line for fiberglass.
Donation realistically works for running boats with clean titles. Programs and buyers want something they can put back on the water, so a hull with a seized motor and a rotten floor draws little interest. If the boat is genuinely dead, plan on disposal and save yourself a round of unanswered calls.
Per TPWD, a vessel left on private property without your consent for more than 7 consecutive days is legally abandoned. Claiming it means TPWD's surety-bond title process: certified-mail notice to law enforcement at least 30 days before applying, a surety bond at one and a half times the vessel's TPWD-determined value, and roughly six months of waiting. It is a slow road, so call TPWD or local law enforcement first and get clear direction before anything gets moved.
Yes. Jet skis, boat trailers, pontoons, and bass boats all ride in the same hydraulic dump trailer. Small stuff prices low on our load ladder, which starts at $95 for a single item, and a big boat-and-trailer pair gets a firm quote on site before we lift anything. Travel is free within 25 miles of Trinity, which reaches most of Lake Livingston.