When you change towns how to go about the car registration? (Hollis: apartment, lease)

[Merjolie8]

We relocated last year to NH and loving it! We moved to a new town this month. The car registration is good till March 09, but we don't know if we need to do something or just wait till we need to renew the registration in the new town.

Thanks,

Angela

[buck naked]

I believe the law gives you a couple of months anyway, but everyone I know just waits until the current one expires and then registers in the new town.

One girl I knew from PA lived in NH for 3 years and never registered her car in NH. She kept her PA registration and used her parents address.

[Yankeehombre]

If you just bring this years registration to your town clerk's office. They will get you started on the process. Some towns have the ability to complete the process for the state Division of Motor Vehicles, saving you the trip there.
Bringing your old registration will save your new town clerk from looking up much of the info on your vehicle. If you want to swap to vanity plates, or if you want to register a heavy vehicle such as a motor home, over 10,000 GVW you will need to go to the division of motor vehicles. In the old days, you had to pay your Head Tax to the town. many towns have eliminate this stupid $10.00 tax, because it cost more in record keeping than it raised. As a lion's share of registration fees goes to the town during the registration process based upon the value of your vehicle when new, but eventually goes down to about $50.00 when your vehicle gets to be about 10 years old, if it hasn't rusted out from under you in that period.

If you have notified the state of your change of address, they will send a notice in the mail about license renewal, when thats due. Most likely your registration will be due by the end of month of your next birthday. Sometimes the town clerk will register you for more than 12 months if theres only 13+/- months until your birthday.Don't forget vehicle inspection. That will be due whenever you re-register, and or 10 days into the month following your birthday + new registration. Rules about the 10 day thing + when it applies are a bit sketchy.Vehicle inspections are fairly comprehensive including, you can not have any 'thru-rust' anywhere. Otherwise it's, no cracks in windshield, tires, all lights must work, brakes are a common place to get hit with an expensive repair bill.

[NXC9900]

so if i register my car in May... and my birthday month is december does that mean that I'll have to re-register and pay more money in 6 months? did i get that right? if so, that's annoying!

[Yankeehombre]

You really shouldn't have to do it more than once a year.
The town clerk should extend it for 16 months if you go in May to register[ or thru your next birthday]. when does your current registration actually run out?it shouldn't run out until your birthday.
Paul [Yankeehombre]

[BF66389]

My town (Hollis) told me to do the following:
- Fill out a change of address form and mail to DMV (they will send you confirmation)
- As long as that's at least 2 months before your registration is due, you can then register in your new town online

It was incredibly convenient, they told me not to worry about re-registering the car mid-year.

[NXC9900]

lol well i'm registered in new york and it's good through may.... granted, i only paid $25 to register for 2 yrs in new york so if i had to do it early it wouldn't be the end of the world... i'm just trying to take my time b/c my car is newer (2005) and it's not gonna be cheap to register... especially as a broke grad student LOL

[dubthang]

If your car is registered out of state, and you have a NH license, then you need to get it registered in NH asap. If it is registered in NH, you have a NH license, but the addresses don't match, its ok. I believe there is a space on the back of the NH registration to put in the new address (but there may not be, can't remember.)

Two months at any given address were you are on a lease, or are paying utilities deems you a resident. You must be able to show that you are a resident by having a lease or bills or whatever. The town registration is simply a way for towns to collect user tax from you, and update their records that you are there. I've never had any issues with waiting until a valid NH registration runs out before reg'ing in a new town.

[NXC9900]

nah i have NY license and NY registration. i do rent an apartment but it's a school-year lease. I've never had to change my license and registration due to renting an apartment for the school year. or if i did i've never actually done it in the 6+yrs i've been in school LOL however, since we've decided to stay in the state permanently... i'll do it in may when we're getting ready to move into our more permanent digs...

[BF66389]

Oh sorry, I didn't notice you moved to NH from another state. If that's the case I'd register your vehicle here soon; if you have a loan/lease it can take a little time. If you have the title on hand- its MUCH faster.

Make sure you look up EVERYTHING you need to bring with you to the town clerk, because I pay all our bills online getting proof of where we lived was very difficult... also if you do have a loan/lease make sure you bring all bank info so that the state can swap your title over to a NH title.