<p>Hi all, D has settled into her new job/apartment in Baltimore. She has “her” car down there, but the car really belongs to me, it is registered in my name and has CT plates. Obviously since D is no longer a student she will no longer be able to stay on our auto insurance policy.</p>
<p>How does this work? Must we transfer ownership of the car to D, and must she register the car (in her name) in MD, in order to obtain insurance? Or can H and I still have title to the car, and she takes out a policy?</p>
<p>Anyone been in this situation? What did you do?</p>
<p>AND, another question…she has driven incident free on our policy since age 16. Do you think that claim-free experience will benefit her in any way, should she decide to stay with our carrier (Allstate)?</p>
<p>Even if she could get her own policy for a car in your name, you don’t want that. As the registered owner of the vehicle, if she has an accident you could still face legal issues since the car is yours.</p>
<p>Transfer the car into her name. It should be done as a transfer between family members…here in NJ its easy enough to do. My Dad gave me his vehicle and all we had to do was sign a form provided by the state that stated it was a transfer between family members with no money changing hands. This way no sales tax was due.</p>
<p>Then she can easily get her own policy. If she remains with Allstate, her own driving record ‘should’ help as they already know her driving history.</p>
<p>Depending on your state you may be able to transfer the car to her so she holds the title for no cost or a very, very minimal cost. Then she will be able to register it and get her own insurance in Maryland. These are all state laws so the best thing might be to call and ask in Maryland what their rules are or check the rules in your state for gifting a car. What we did was title the car over in our state for $1 since our son still had a driver’s license for “our” state as a college student even though he had the car at college and we were able to keep the insurance since he was a student, even though the car was in his name. When he graduated and found a job he went to that state’s bureau and registered the car, got a new driver’s license and got his own insurance… Now if you had no intent on giving her the car, that’s a different animal.</p>
<p>She can insure the car in her name even if you own it unless MD has some goofy law against that. If you own the car outright, I would transfer the title to her however. If something happens, you don’t want your assets attacked. It just makes it easier all around. Her driving record will certainly help but her credit rating even more so. She may want to shop around for coverage though as Allstate might be more expensive for her.</p>
<p>You can’t do that in Michigan, we had a circumstance like that just this year with an elderly family member’s car that needed to be driven but the insurance had lapsed and we could not insure it in our name without holding title.</p>
<p>In our state if the title is transferred to your daughter, your insurance will need to become hers as well. When we bought DS’s car, we actually wanted to out his name on the title with one of us as joint owners. We called the insurance company and they politely told us they would cancel the policy if we did that.</p>
<p>Hmm. Good advice here! I know we can easily do the family title transfer, since this car was originally my mother’s, and that’s how I took title of it. So, I suppose we’d do the title transfer in CT, she could keep the same plates (as I did when it transferred to me), then register the car in MD? And after that, she’d get the policy? Or would she need to have proof of her OWN insurance prior to registering in MD? ORRRRR, would she need to have proof of her own insurance prior to doing the title transfer in CT??? Oh, this is so confusing…I have to put these in the correct order</p>
<ul>
<li>Transfer title to D</li>
<li>D gets her individual insurance policy</li>
<li>D registers the car in MD</li>
</ul>
<p>In our state they no longer require proof of insurance to register a car. It’s too easy to use old insurance cards, having canceled a policy or whatever. They do random checks, calling insurance companies directly or using CLUE reports to check (if required in your state-not all states require car insurance). I would call a DMV in CT and ask what the procedure would be for a new resident to that state. My GUESS is that it doesn’t matter who has the insurance when you transfer title since it is a family transfer but that the car is insured. No matter what, transfer the title to your DD. </p>
<p>Long story but my Dad sold a truck, title never got transferred properly, someone stole the truck, committed a crime with that truck, sheriff shows up at Dad’s with a lot of questions…he had his copy of the title transfer so he was ok but, get the car in your DD’s name.</p>
<p>Have her go to the DMV in Maryland and ask them. They will give her all of the info she will need. DS did this himself in his new state. It was much easier knowing what the new state required.</p>
<p>We need a MD parent to answer these questions!</p>
<p>I know that in DS’s new state, he first had to get his drivers license, then we sent him the title signed but not dated. The day he took it to the DMV there, he signed and dated it. I also included a letter saying this was a transfer to a family member. He then registered the car and got a title in that state. He had to have proof on insurance within 14 days, so he got his insurance concurrent with registering the car.</p>
<p>Rats. Per the MD MVA website, a family transfer can only be done with a car that’s titled in MD. So…in order to avoid an excise tax I guess we’d have to do the transfer here in CT, and she’ll have to go to CT DMV in person to do it. So it’ll have to wait until she’s back next. </p>
<p>Hopefully, since the car technically isn’t HERS, she’s not in violation of the “you have to register your car in MD within 60 days of declaring” rule.</p>
<p>We found that if a car we owned was out of state for more than 6 mos we had to insure it in that state. It meant that we lost the family discount as our s had to have separate insurance, but we still owned the car, even though DS had separate insurance on it in another state…</p>
<p>Wow. So glad for this thread. (The things you learn on CC!) My daughter is moving this month and we knew she’d need to get insurance in her new state. Didn’t think about the title, though. It is in our name. Guess I’ll have to check things out.</p>
<p>I guess MD could be different but here in NJ you cannot insure a car you don’t own. You have to have “insurable interest” in it. I assume all states have that law. You can’t just go around insuring other peoples’ cars. Not sure why it would be a problem, but I’m sure some creative crooks or scammers would find a way to profit on insuring cars they don’t own…or, maybe if someone has a bad record they get someone else to insure it…that’s probably the reason.</p>
<p>You could also try adding her as a co-owner. The insurance will still ask where the car is garaged. That could be good or bad depending on what part of MD or NJ… (cities often have higher rates)</p>
<p>We were going to add our kiddo as a co-owner of a car when we bought it. We called the insurance company and they said NO. The policy was in my husband’s and my name and the kid was on the policy not as a car OWNER but as a family car USER. They were clear that the company could drop us from coverage.</p>
<p>Wow,
Now I’m confused. D has had a car in TX for 2 years, only 1 as a student. Now she will be beginning a 6yr Ph.D. program in a different state, but neither school place is our home state. Our ins. guy never mentioned anything about her not being able to be insured on our policies in IN. Wouldn’t he mention it was illegal, or are we just “lucky”?</p>
She has “her” car down there, but the car really belongs to me, it is registered in my name and has CT plates. Obviously since D is no longer a student she will no longer be able to stay on our auto insurance policy.</p>
if the title is transferred to your daughter, your insurance will need to become hers as well. When we bought DS’s car, we actually wanted to out his name on the title with one of us as joint owners. We called the insurance company and they politely told us they would cancel the policy if we did that.</p>