I live in MD and my family sublets an apartment so I can remain close to high school. Because our name is not on the lease we have no official documents for proof of residency in that county. We use my grandfather’s address for driver licenses and paying taxes. His address is in another county but also in MD. We used for the FASFA application. Do we use his address on college applications? Do we use his address on scholarship applications? Can College Financial Aid tell if the information is not accurate?
You should use your permanent address, where your family has their primary residence.
Where is that?
That address should also be listed on your tax return.
And you need to be honest on financial aid and college applications.
How long are you subletting for?
If that sublet IS your home, you need to use that as your address. The place where you LIVE…not some other random place, even if it’s your grandfather’s.
Some places (and I think maybe Maryland is one) have different costs for their community colleges for residents of the county. You need to be TOTALLY honest about your living address.
@happymomof1 ??
Who lives there? Just you? Then you are like a boarding student, and your legal address is at your parents’ residence wherever that is.
If it is your whole family living there, then just because your parents aren’t on the primary lease doesn’t mean that you have no documentation of your residence. If you have a written contract with whoever you are subletting from, then that is your lease. If you are in a public school, you would have needed documentation of your residence in order to qualify to attend that school. If you are in a private school, where you live doesn’t matter. You could live at your legal address five counties away and commute in every day.
Addresses of record for taxes change all the time when people move, so I wouldn’t worry over much about that right now. In the future however you need to make certain that your living address and your tax address line up. Different counties, and even different cities, in Maryland have different local tax rates for the state income taxes. Your county residence also determines what you would pay to attend the community colleges.
I can understand that your family might have needed to move around a bit to find the best sublet situation. In that case keeping the driver’s licenses at grandpa’s address makes sense. No one changes their license for a short-term address change.
Thanks for the advice. I’m supposed to use the address at the sublet. It’s good to hear that the school will not ask for proof (since there are no lease/ no contract/ no bills in my mom’s name). It also good to hear that it is common for tax address not to match living addresses sometime. Thanks for the advice
What school will not ask for proof? All that I know of will. We have a school district that is so popular that people will rent apartments and never live in them to establish residency in the district. The district will send out a team to make sure they DO live there, check utilities and the date when the driver’s license was changed.
You mother can have a sublease prepared that shows the dates. If you want to establish residency at this address, I suggest you start having mail sent to you there, get some ‘official’ things like a library card, a rec center membership through the city, a business (doctor, dentist) send you some mail. Keep it all.