An Update on Dealing with the DMV

This is update to my original article on this subject.

I received the notarized copy of my lien release for my vehicle from Nissan this past Saturday. I wish it would have arrived on Friday so I could have gone to the tag office and gotten this process started sooner, but that wasn't to be.  I had to wait till Monday.

I went over to my local Georgia tag office Monday morning. The line was only about a 5-minute wait. So that wasn't too bad. When I got to the window I was told that receiving my new title would take 10-14 days. Now, I am wondering why the website said 3-days. Anyway, the clerk thought I would receive it this coming Saturday or Monday.

Well, my Georgia car registration expires on Monday (my birthday), and I knew there would be no way I could get to South Carolina and transfer my car in time. Travel for me next week is out of the question because my roommate will be attending a work conference in Las Vegas.  That leaves no one to watch the pets and I really don't want to spend the money on a sitting service for something like this. And with my dog's health issues, I simply prefer to leave her in my roommate's care when I am out of town.

My plan then shifted to just registering the car in Georgia for now and dealing with DMV stuff in South Carolina once I am completely moved. When I inquired about this, I was told pretty much what I expected. There's no way to register my vehicle for the coming year in Georgia due to the fact I now have South Carolina auto insurance.

This leaves me with only two options. First, I could switch the car insurance back to Georgia. However, considering the paperwork and cost involved that's not really possible or even logical because I'll be leaving the state for good in about 6 weeks anyway. The second option is to just let the registration expire and go to South Carolina sometime during the week of May 11^th and switch everything.

The short of it is that current registration for car transfer purposes is only required to prove ad valorum tax payment. And if I don't have a current registration in Georgia at the time I am transferring the car into South Carolina, I obviously will not have paid the tax.

After speaking to the supervisor to not only confirm this, but to see if there was any exception that could be made to make me legal in Georgia after May 4^th, she agreed that I should just allow the registration for Georgia to expire. The tag on my car says May 2009 and cops won't be red-flagged until June. The only possible problem with this is if I am pulled over for a moving violation before then. If something like this happens, I'm in some serious trouble.

At this point, I don't really have a choice. I have to basically drive a non-registered car from May 5^th until May 12^th, and just pray a cop doesn't pull me over for any reason. I suppose it's something I could possible explain my way out of, but let's just hope it's a non-issue and I won't have to deal with any cops at all.

I'll be heading to South Carolina to hopefully get this all taken car of Monday, May 11th.

Wish me luck!