Car registration and moving states

[FireDancer]

In NYS, it is called an expired registration. About 15 years ago, I got a fine, regardless of the fact that I was getting the car re-registered at the time I was stopped, or that I produced proof in court, on the court date, that the car was indeed re-registered by the time I got to court. The judge said that at the time the car was pulled over, I did not have a valid registration. (Regardless of whatever term we are mincing words on.) Hence the hefty fine.

If the OP is going to end up paying one way or the other, the $50 registration fee may be the cheaper way to go.

Barkey was the one who said the car may be impounded.

Perhaps that is the case there. Here expired tags get you a ticket, no more. If they were expired since 1997 maybe there would be a greater problem but one month, nope.

It is a calculated risk. Definitely pay for the extra registration or maybe pay a ticket for expired tags. I was willing to take the risk and it worked out. Sometimes it doesn't. Such is life.

 

[DVC-Don]

in some states the car will be immediatly impounded which means in addition to any civil penalty a person is looking at towing and impound fees which can add up pretty quickly. ...........

Same here, the police will have the car towed. My ex-dentist ran into this. He moved here from Utah 2 years ago, yes two years ago, and was still driving around with Utah plates and Utah drivers license. His wife got stopped for a unrestained child. Got ticketed for that, plus failing to obtain NY license and registration and the car got towed. He knows I used to be a cop so he called me at work and asked if they could do that. Yep. He's not my ex-dentist due to that but, he's kind of an odd guy. I go across the street now.

 

[lvanleer]

When we moved, we reported our change of address to Geico. They knew we had moved, but did not start insuring us at the higher Md rates until the renewal. They actually were the ones who told us we could do this and save some $$. I think our insurance renewal was in Oct, and we moved in August, so maybe just because it was a short time.

We had no issues keeping the Ohio registration. If there is such a law about switching the registration, I was/am completely unaware, and no one said anything at the DMV when we did renew. in fact, DH was pulled over here in Md about 6 months after we moved for speeding- no ticket, just a warning, but no mention about our plates. I know he gave the officer his current address, since his driver's license was also from Ohio. Maybe we just got lucky?

I just checked the MD MVA site and the law is 60 days....so you were just lucky.

 

[Kathi OD]

we would'nt be able to do that here. we can't insure an out of state vehical.

My car is insured in the state it is registered in. We've kept up with the insurance as well.

so in nj when a car gets paid off the bank or finance company sends the title to the dmv? interesting; i'm not sure how it works here, but when we lived in california the bank would send the title to the now paid in full owner who had to take it the dmv to request the new clean copy.

I guess I didn't explain myself well. Since the car isn't paid off, the title will have to be sent to the state and then back to the bank. I know too many people who have had their paperwork misplaced in this instance. When the car is paid off (which is in May), the bank will send us the title and then we can take it to a local MVC office, where the paperwork will be completed and the new title handed back to me before I leave. The title won't go floating around Trenton because I can handle it personally.

 

[barkley]

Same here, the police will have the car towed. My ex-dentist ran into this. He moved here from Utah 2 years ago, yes two years ago, and was still driving around with Utah plates and Utah drivers license. His wife got stopped for a unrestained child. Got ticketed for that, plus failing to obtain NY license and registration and the car got towed. He knows I used to be a cop so he called me at work and asked if they could do that. Yep. He's not my ex-dentist due to that but, he's kind of an odd guy. I go across the street now.

in california they are STRICT on vehical licensing and registration b/c people will try to retain licensing and registration in other states due to much lower rates (and i'm not sure if it got pushed through, but a few weeks ago when we were visiting there the newspapers were talking about how some kind of loophole in state law had opened the door for individual counties to tack on fees so there were several in the final stages of implementing this to increase revenue-so you just know if a county is going to have a financial stake in something their law enforcement is going to primed to start looking for potential violators).

we were running scared last summer on this issue-we learned from a friend that an elderly family member of ours (in california) had expired tags on their vehical. they did'nt drive the vehical anymore but out of area family that came to visit would use it vs. getting a rental car (and the person's caregivers drove them to appointments in it). the family member insisted that they had paid dmv, dmv said "nope". we contacted local law enforcement to find out what the ramifications would be pending our straightening the situation out. we were advised that if the car's registration was even 1 day expired, if law enforcement saw the car driven they could immediatly pull it over at which time they would impound and fine the driver (you can't legaly drive a car there with lapsed registration-so there's liability for the driver even if they don't own the car). the kicker would have been that b/c the family member's insurance company required valid registration for the car, in the absence of it the insurance would have been void-which is also illegal in california. so CHACHING-another fine.

fortunatly the family member conceded they had'nt paid, paid in full (with a substantial late payment penalty) and all worked out, but in the meantime we were calling family members like mad telling them that despite what the other person told them they could not drive the car unless they saw in person up to date registration paperwork and tags.

 

[disney1990]

Years ago, when I lived in an apartment, the police used to sit outside of the development and stop people on their way to work in the morning if they had out of state tags on their vehicle.