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I'm moving from VA to DC for six months. I'm trying to avoid the hassle of registering my car in DC and getting a new DC license. However, I'm wondering if my VA car insurance still valid if I am a DC resident?
11:44 AM 02/13/2013
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I know this is not exactly the answer to your question - but I think you will find not having the car registered in DC to be the real hassle unless you have a private parking space. Even then, if you want to park on the street in your neighborhood for more than two hours (and do this semi-regularly) for even a few weeks - you will begin getting ticketed. I thought I could get away with keeping my out of state vehicle in DC and was quite impressed by how quickly the ticketers caught on.
12:44 PM 02/13/2013 | -1 Votes
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Our building has a garage and we will rarely use the car. Even now, we only take it out a few times a month and that is to run errands. We're contemplating selling it but I wanted to have all of the information in front of me before making a decision.
2:01 PM 02/13/2013
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You will be completely fine then and you can continue to insure it in VA as long as you still have your mailing address there. If it makes you feel better, you could call your insurance company to let them know you will be "temporarily garaging it in DC" during the next few months (I'd be purposefully vauge).
2:52 PM 02/13/2013 | -1 Votes
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So should I keep my mailing address with the insurance company in VA even though it won't be my residence? I did a change of address with the post office, so any important mail should be forwarded...
3:11 PM 02/13/2013
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you would probably want to have an active mailing address in VA -- and it has to be a residence (i once tried to insure my car using my manhattan office address because it was $200 cheaper than my actual address in brooklyn and i only got away with it for a few months before my insurance company called me out on using a commercial address). I just moved from the west coast, and took a month or two to get my act together to re-register my car. In the interim, I got a speeding ticket from a traffic camera, which was mailed to my old address where my car was still registered to. Even though my mail was being forwarded, i never received the ticket until i went to reregister my car -- when i found out that i got slapped with a $150 penalty for failing to pay the ticket within 30 days. Since I could prove that DOT mailed the ticket to an old address, I had the fine waived, but it was still a pain in the ass. And I would have never found out about it if I hadn't reregistered my car. Potentially, after another 30 days, it would have gone to collections, and i'm not sure if i could have gotten it cleared up after that.
3:53 PM 02/13/2013
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NY
I don't know about that "completely fine." One of the questions in the application is your residence. Where you are living is material to the risk that's insured. You have already recognized that this could be a problem. Maybe you wouldn't owe any more and maybe the insurer would say a 6 mo. gig is ok as long as you are going back to VA - I don't know. But if you have an accident, you are going to have to report (or the police report if there is one will reflect) that you live in DC. It could be a tough situation to tell the insurer that you tried skimping on what you would otherwise owe them, but you want them to pay you in full.
3:12 PM 02/13/2013 | 0 Votes
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I moved from VA to DC a few years ago.... The insurance is much higher, but! - There isnt the property tax and the inspection is done every 2 year to every year in VA. Service station is very easy to get to. You might have to wait about 45 mins at the station to get the car inspected.... But its not that bad. The DMV is well like any other DMV, Dont go to um on the first or last days of the month. Middle of the month you seem to be in and out. Now if the police notice your car out on the street and believe you live there, they will give you a ROSA ticket. For Failing to secure DC tags. I got one of these tickets and it is a 100 dollar fine if you fail to do so.
5:16 PM 02/13/2013 | 0 Votes
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Will you be legally changing your residency? Ie, will you be changing where you vote/file taxes? If so, change the car. If you are not changing residency, then I think it is valid to inform your insurance company that you will be garaging in DC for 6 months, as previous posters advised.
10:23 AM 02/14/2013 | 0 Votes
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Dupont Circle, DC
DC law is that you must register your car and obtain a DC license within 30 days of becoming a resident. If you are only here as a temporary resident, you can work around this by maintaining your residence elsewhere as your primary residence. That entails keeping the utilities in your name, using it as your address for filing taxes, and also where you vote. You could receive a citation about 6 months on that your vehicle has been seen 2 or more times overnight within a 6 month period and you have not obtained DC tags. If you get one of those, bring proof that you reside elsewhere into the DMV and it'll be voided. You will need recent utility bills or bank statement (issued in the last 1-2 months), your vehicle registration, your license. The address must be the same for all of them.
2:59 PM 02/14/2013 | 1 Votes
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For six months, I'd do it. But only because you say you have a private space, and you have to be able to maintain correspondence with the VA address on record. Caveat: I moved to a major urban city but registered my car at a friend's suburban address. I'm a little embarrassed to say how long this went on for (ok, three years). Now, granted, I'm more of a risk-taker than most, and the fact that you're asking indicates you might be a little uncomfortable with the idea. I was also assured by my sister, who worked for a major auto insurer at the time, to just say, "Oops, I forgot to tell you I'd moved" if they found me out. She said it happens all the time, and there's nothing they can do but take your word for it.
3:38 PM 02/14/2013 | 0 Votes
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