What exactly is considered “residency” to need to register car (California: apartment complexes, car registration)

[Saturngoddess]

I live in CA and will be moving to either MD or DE in the near future. We are waiting on a house to sell (long story- it’s not been listed yet).

My kids live in MD, and since hubby and I didn’t want to drive 2 cars from CA to MD when we move,
my son and I drove my car out last week.

We originally were going to move out here in June, but it has gotten delayed.

Anyway… I looked up the requirements to register the car and the MVA says 60 days from residency.
If I’m just leaving my car here till we move, do I need to register it now or can it wait?

We may not even move here, as DE is closer to my parents and I don’t want to register it twice.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help

* I do have MD insurance on it, so no worries there.

[North Beach Person]

What are you claiming as your home address? If you're not claiming a MD address then you're a transient and are just visiting.

Your California insurance should have been adequate for the latter above. You also don't have a residence to claim for car registration if you're just visiting.

[GunsMass]

I've witnessed many neighbors leave their former state's tags on their car for years. And I've read many suggest online that this is justified given MD's fee for new registration. This leaves me with the impression that as long as your car is registered anywhere, you're good.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by GunsMass

I've witnessed many neighbors leave their former state's tags on their car for years. And I've read many suggest online that this is justified given MD's fee for new registration. This leaves me with the impression that as long as your car is registered anywhere, you're good.

Maybe. Local law enforcement, and even MSP, will go on campaigns after out of state tagged cars occasionally.

What's funny is that Maryland's excise fee isn't that much different than most states for out of state tag transfers.

There is an exemption for military for tag/title transfer and, of course, snowbirds who claim residency in, say, Florida.

[K-Luv]

I have lived in a few States, and Maryland is the only one I recall that insists you have to change registration and DL within 60 days. It's just another way the state nickel and dimes you. The only reason why I switched to MD was because my registration was with the State of Maine, who does vehicle inspections yearly.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by K-Luv

I have lived in a few States, and Maryland is the only one I recall that insists you have to change registration and DL within 60 days. It's just another way the state nickel and dimes you. The only reason why I switched to MD was because my registration was with the State of Maine, who does vehicle inspections yearly.

Virginia, at least in the tidewater area used to be worse. When I was stationed there I would get pulled over at least monthly for having Maryland tags on the car even when I was in uniform. They have some 'gotchas' in the law. For example if the car is titled in both you and your wife's name it was not eligible to have out of state tags if you had an address in the state even though you were active duty. Hampton police used to sit outside the gate at Langley AFB and Newport News police used to sit outside Ft Eustis and pull people over on a regular basis.


They used to drive through apartment complexes and put tickets on cars with out of state tags at least monthly (or more often if things were slow) And you had to take time off work and go down and go to court to get it thrown out. I wore my blue uniform more for municipal court than anything else in the years I was stationed there (normal work uniform was fatigues, couldn't wear them to court). You would go there and it was a sea of Navy, Army, and Air Force uniforms.