Relocating to CO end of September...CA car registration expiring 3 weeks before that! (new home, DMV)

[dclynds]

I need the best and brightest minds on this one. Looking for out of the box thinking...

My car registration is expiring for two vehicles registered in the state of California around September 7th. However, both of these vehicles will be registered in Colorado around October 1st after relocating at the end of September.

Is there any way I can avoid paying a full year's registration in California AND avoid traffic tickets for the month of September until I get my cars registered in Colorado? Not driving them is not an option. If I get do get a "fix it" ticket in California, can it be fixed by obtaining registration in another state AFTER the original due date of the California registration?

Any known loopholes? Any good ideas?

[SportyandMisty]

You may not be able to register them in CO. I believe the CO DMV will require that the vehicles be currently registered in order to re-register them in CO.

It is possible you can get a certificate of non-operation and re-register them, but if you get a ticket, you are f'd.

Or... take the cars to CO, register them, get your CO drivers license, then return to CA as an out-of-state driver for the balance of the month until you permanently relocate.

[jeffredo]

I'd wager the trip back and forth (gas/lodging/food) would be more than a year's registration. Colorado requires you to have your old registration not more than six months expired to register a vehicle there. Basically, you're O.K. on their end waiting three weeks, its just a gamble making it there with an expired tag on your California plate.

[Luvs2Trvl]

I'm from CO and I don't think it will be an issue on the CO side. You have 30 days to obtain a new license once your a resident and 90 days to register the vehicle. When you renew your registration here we have a 30 day grace period, if it expires in June you have until the last day of July to re-register. Does CA not have this as well?

Two links for CO DMV: Department of Revenue - Division of Motor Vehicles:Registration Requirements

Department of Revenue - Division of Motor Vehicles:New Residents

[Drover]

Steal a current sticker off someone else's car.

[esmith143]

One obvious solution is to register your cars in California and then continue driving them with CA license plates till September 6, 2012. It is illegal to drive a car with expired tags (though I personally did this for more than a month last year, without any consequences), but it is much less illegal to keep driving a legally registered car after moving to a new state. Yes, yes, I know, you are supposed to re-register it within 90 days if you become a resident of Colorado, but chances of you being prosecuted for failing to do that are slim to none.

Colorado might have a lower registration fee, but that's something you need to check.

Also, if your registration expires on September 7, it probably means that your tags say "September 2011", and you are unlikely to be pulled over for expired tags before the end of the month. (Although, if you're pulled over for whatever other reason, e.g. speeding, they'll still be able to ticket you for expired tags too.)

[dclynds]

Man, this is a smart group! Definitely some good ideas here. Love the "steal someone else's tags" comment. That gave me a good chuckle. Well, I will check the tags on my car to see if they do, in fact, have a 9 on them. If they do, I will probably be ok through September in CA...but need to get my butt to the CO DMV as soon as I arrive at my new home. Thanks to everyone.

[Curmudgeon]

We had that same issue when we moved from CA to MO. Our CA tags expired a week after we left the state and it was about three weeks later when we registered in MO. They didn't bat an eye and it cost us $12 for a safety inspection and $85 for two year registration. CA renewal would have been close to $400. We did have to pay $202 in property tax on the car the following year - that will go down this next year - but it was still a savings. Registration for the year and with vanity plates was about $69. All-in-all we come out around $100 a year better here than we would have if still in CA. Every little bit helps!

[jifie]

Originally Posted by esmith143

One obvious solution is to register your cars in California and then continue driving them with CA license plates till September 6, 2012. It is illegal to drive a car with expired tags (though I personally did this for more than a month last year, without any consequences), but it is much less illegal to keep driving a legally registered car after moving to a new state. Yes, yes, I know, you are supposed to re-register it within 90 days if you become a resident of Colorado, but chances of you being prosecuted for failing to do that are slim to none.

Colorado might have a lower registration fee, but that's something you need to check.

Also, if your registration expires on September 7, it probably means that your tags say "September 2011", and you are unlikely to be pulled over for expired tags before the end of the month. (Although, if you're pulled over for whatever other reason, e.g. speeding, they'll still be able to ticket you for expired tags too.)

You can do this, and it will save you any worry you might have, however, this is not neccesary.

If you are truly getting your plates registered on Oct 1st you will be fine and you wont even get pulled over for it. CA has a grace period law that will allow you to drive on exp tags for 30 days(and I believe that may have even gone up to 60 days recently, as my department has recently been told that we cannot ticket anyone until they are 60 days expired due to new laws). So if I were you I would not renew anything and wait until you get to CO to register.

[cb73]

Originally Posted by dclynds

I need the best and brightest minds on this one. Looking for out of the box thinking...

My car registration is expiring for two vehicles registered in the state of California around September 7th. However, both of these vehicles will be registered in Colorado around October 1st after relocating at the end of September.

Is there any way I can avoid paying a full year's registration in California AND avoid traffic tickets for the month of September until I get my cars registered in Colorado? Not driving them is not an option. If I get do get a "fix it" ticket in California, can it be fixed by obtaining registration in another state AFTER the original due date of the California registration?

Any known loopholes? Any good ideas?

Because of the issues with the budget this year, you have a 30-day grace period in California (for vehicles expiring up to December 31st), so your tags aren't actually due/late until October 7th. Since Colorado is ok with the vehicles being expired, don't worry about it.