Currently we insure and register 3 vehicles in the state of GA. Registrations expire next July. We have sold our house and DH and I are moving next month to a rental house in CO. We don’t expect it to be a permanent move but we will be there at least a year or two. We plan on letting one child (who is 19 1/2 and has been taking a gap year) use one of our vehicles and take it to college in FL. The other child(23) has been using a vehicle and attends college in GA near our house and will be starting a job in NC in January. DH has a company car.
What will be the least painful way to handle this with our insurance company? We plan on titling one car over to the 23 yo in January as a gift and she will be responsible for her insurance and NC registration. Will it be terribly expensive to tell the insurance company that our children are using the cars at school halfway across the country? I am especially worried about the premium for the younger one. Should we just not let her use it?
I obviously know that much depends on our particular insurance company but I thought I would gather the wisdom and suggestions of other CC parents before I called.
I have friends who work at UF who tell me that student cars get ticketed starting a month or two after school starts if they have out of state plates in the student parking lot. Check out Florida law, you may have to register that car there.
We did that for our youngest because we were moving when she was starting freshman year and it was logistically easier. Her insurance is less in that state, but her registration fees are higher so there’s not much difference.
We let our kids have cars for their last year in college, which involved shipping said cars to CA, where they were attending the U. They had to get new registration and insurance in CA. We called an insurance agent recommended by a friend to get insurance, since our HI policy wouldn’t apply there. Initially got S Mercury Insurance and D USAA. The premiums weren’t as awful as I had predicted, with the good student discount and no accident history (about $600/6mo with high policy limits). We did title the cars over to each kiddo. Because it was a gift from parent to child, there was no special tax (as there would have been otherwise).
My son has one of our cars in FL at school. It is registered in our home state and insured on our policy, although our insurer is aware it is in FL with him 9 months of the year. He had to get a school parking sticker. I can’t imagine a college ticketing because a car is not registered in FL. Do not try to hide the location of the cars and principal drivers from your insurer. It could be grounds to void the policy if it is determined to be a material misrepresentation.
When our D2 was in college in another state, she had a car registered to us in our home state, no problem. She then moved to yet another state with car after graduation.
We decided to title over the car to her because our regional insurance would not cover her in Boston. She had to get her own insurance in Mass., get a Mass. drivers license and prove her residence. Her new drivers license could not be mail delivered unless her name was on the mailbox.
She had to return her home state license plates to us. We had to return them to the DMV and show proof that our D2 was no longer living with us and registered in another state before our insurance co. will take her and the car off our insurance. And they charge a fee for making the change.
Each state is different. But it will probably be complicated.
If you no longer live in GA, you either need to register your cars in your state of legal residence, or sell/give them to the drivers to register in their state of legal residence.
Your 19 1/2 year old will be deemed to live in CO if you will claim him on taxes. So you can register that car in CO in your name and allow him to take it to his school. He may need to comply with out of state residency rules for vehicles.
I live in the DC area where many military are stationed. Even folks who are legal residents of other states, and have license plates from their home states, must display the local county stickers for cars residing in the locale.