Our D has been a student in Providence R.I. for 5 years. She has our car and is on our insurance.
She will be moving to Boston for the next two years and will be a student.
She will live in Somerville, Mass.
The information found so far makes it appear that she must own the car and register it in her name.
Thus she can no longer be on our insurance.
There MANY students in Mass. who have parents cars.
Does anyone have information about this situation?
Thanks!
Yeah, I don’t think that’s true, oregon (that she has to register the car in Mass). As long as she’s a student and as long as the car is registered under your name, you should be fine. Check with your insurance company (or better yet, an agent if you have one); it may charge a small surcharge depending on where she’s living. And if she is ever stopped/asked about it, just tell the officers it’s her parents’ car and she is a full-time student.
Thanks
I think some phone calls are in order.
The various schools such as Tufts seem to have a way to give students permits.
D’s school is officially still Brown in R.I. and will remain so.
If she wants to park the car on the street in Somerville with a resident parking sticker, she may have to have the car registered in her name to do so. This can make a big difference in her lifestyle if apartment doesn’t include a parking spot. Check with the city of Somerville parking website if it applies to her.
She might be better off without a car in Somerville.
I think one big issue is parking. Off-street parking is something of a commodity in multi-family homes in the area. I don’t have off-street parking. In order to park on the street by my apartment, I need a resident permit for my town and I need MA registration to get that resident permit. If she can get off-street parking, either by getting an apartment that it comes with or renting a spot (people rent unused spots sometimes) she should be able to circumvent that.
Does she need a car though? I honestly might recommend just avoiding the car hassle for a Boston-area student living in Somerville. Parking is hard, parking downtown is expensive, snow creates big problems, and the T will take her most of where she needs to go (unless she foresees working in the suburbs or something) and there’s this registration/insurance issue.
I don’t have any personal experience with this, so call to confirm, but the Mass. RMV appears to have a form to fill out for this situation, linked here:
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/forms/registration.htm
Nonresident Student Vehicle Information Form
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/forms/20098.pdf
Travelnut raises a good issue. Your daughter will need to register the car in MA to get a Somerville parking sticker. There’s a 30-day grace period for new residents, but once that’s over she’ll rack up the fines if she tries to park in resident-only parking spots without a sticker.
http://www.somervillema.gov/welcome#parking
She will need a residential parking sticker in most neighborhoods in Somerville if she’s going to have a car. If she can do without she might want to consider it. Limited spaces, parking bans during snowstorms, and having to dig that car out are all good reasons to take the T if it’s practical.
adding: @Buenavista, I believe the nonresident permit is only for students registered as students at Massachusetts schools, so it probably wouldn’t work in this case.
Thanks all
So she must own the car in order to register it?
That is how we understand it. Which means she is off of our policy and must take out her own.
I believe a title in the MA resident’s name is required for registration.
Yes. My S moved to Boston last year and we had to sign title over to him so he could register vehical and get insurance. Very few insurance companies write in MA so we couldn’t even use the insurance company we already had for the car. She will definitely need resident parking permit if she is going park on the street.
S only uses his car to get to work (office is in a suburb) but only takes public transportation/uber to get around the city. If there is no specific reason she will need a car it might be best not to have one at all.
Yea, I gave Title of son’s car to him, and then went to registry. Insurance firm had been previously notified, so they had son’s new policy prepared. I think we did all this in Watertown. I do recall they wante $80’cash or a bank note, so son stayed in line while I went to an ATM.
Yes, oregon, perhaps I didn’t understand your question correctly when I first responded. She must own the car in order to register it, and have her own insurance. And the other posters make a great point about needing resident parking permits in a large portion of Somerville. And great points about why wanting a car at all in Boston?!
We live in MA and insure the cars with Amica. 23yo S owns his own car, and is still on our insurance. He does still live with us though. And I agree with others. does she really need a car? She can do zipcar if necessary.
Ok, many thanks for the clarification. It looks like we will sell her the car for $20.
As is is a 1995 it is an Ok price!
She needs a car to commute to Brown when needed.
She can take the train but still needs it when in Providence.
And she will be commuting one hr north of Boston one month for a medical rotation.
Also, her 95 yr old grandmother lives near Amherst and she likes to visit her.
H did talk with our insurance company, Amica, and they do have coverage for Mass.
Again, I knew I would get clarity from all of you.
Not the answer I wanted but good to have the facts.
$20 seems like a lot. S only had to give us $1.
^Yeah, we want her to appreciate it! :))
She tried to bargain us down to $16 but we drove a hard bargain.
After all we had just handed her a $20 bill…