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bostonshopper OP t1_jdfau4l wrote

Seems like this will be my last post, and they'll just quietly drop the suspension in a week or two. Obviously if that turns out to not be the case, I'll definitely give that as an update!

Thanks so much to all of you who PM'd ideas, or gave me an email address of someone who could maybe help, or just said "damn that sucks."

I will definitely be much more careful with what I write and say to bureaucracies in the future. I do think this particular bizarre situation was hard to see coming, but volunteering the information that I was visiting the area for a specific amount of time turned out to be a big mistake.

And naively, I do hope the pressure from the news coverage ends up improving things for people interacting with the RMV in general. To just give one example, u/isenfire literally had to sell their car to resolve an issue they had with the RMV, that shouldn't happen to anyone. Whatever oversight or funding or reform the RMV needs to do its job in a more fair and humane way, and if there's a part of the state law that could be fixed, would be great if at least some of that could end up happening.

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powsandwich t1_jdg69cf wrote

Some folks in bureaucracies enjoy 30-year careers enforcing random shit like this. And they were trained to do it. My experience working in a bureaucracy for several years is that everyone treats it like Skynet, you can’t change it even from the inside. Sorry you got caught in the bullshit.

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mukluk_slippers t1_jdh859c wrote

One last update if they do drop it would provide us all some closure!

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Brighteyed77 t1_jdg0ss5 wrote

Just curious, what should you have said instead of you are here for x amount of time?

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b1s8e3 t1_jdg3yno wrote

“I’m just visiting” alternatively “None of your business”

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homesnatch t1_jdhjhan wrote

The RMV has a specific clause around being in Massachusetts for 30 days.

Nonresidents Registering in Massachusetts

Even a nonresident (anyone whose legal residence is outside the Commonwealth) may be required to register and/or insure a motor vehicle or trailer in Massachusetts in certain situations. Following are some examples:

• Nonresidents whose primary residences are in other states may not operate motor vehicles ... in Massachusetts for more than 30 total days in one year unless they have liability insurance

https://www.mass.gov/doc/chapter-6-owning-a-vehicle/download

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milkfiend t1_jdhpmb6 wrote

"having liability insurance" is a far cry from "you have to register your car here" though. If that were the case, why isn't everyone who lives in NH and drives to Massachusetts for work required to get Mass plates?

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RockHockey t1_jdhwao0 wrote

>having liability insurance"

Could this be a rule since NH doesn't require Insurance?

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milkfiend t1_jdhzrr6 wrote

That is exactly why this rule is in place, i'm not sure what it has to do with the requirement to register the car in Massachusetts though that the RMV appears to see in this legislation

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foonsirhc t1_jdhproa wrote

So literally everyone who works in MA from out of state has to dual-register in order to go to their job. This is asinine.

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Papasamabhanga t1_jdm06v2 wrote

That's the price the free-staters pay for complaining about oppressive taxachusetts while reaping the benefits of our infrastructure and economy.

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medforddad t1_jdhpvx0 wrote

That's so dumb. A car should only have to be registered in a single state. Tie it to someone's official residence, or maybe whichever state the car is operated in the most.

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jason_sos t1_jdjusog wrote

The reason it is like this is because someone would claim residence in some other state that doesn’t have taxes on cars and register their car there. They could have a friend in Alabama, claim it’s their home state, but live in MA 364 days a year, and skirt the law. So they made a law to force these people to register it here, since they are using the roads, etc. The idea behind it is solid, but of course there are situations like OP’s who get caught up even though they never really lived here, they just visited. This is why the cases need to be looked at when they pop up, and not just blindly apply the law. Common sense needs to be used, but that’s of course lacking in many offices.

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medforddad t1_jdkdd3x wrote

How would that be a problem with my proposed rules? In your example the owner of the car resides in MA and the car spends the majority of its time in MA.

Edit: I'm not saying that it would solve people lying about which state their car should be in. I'm just saying it would be more fair and it would solve this ridiculous 30 day issue.

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jason_sos t1_jdkeef6 wrote

That’s exactly what the rule/law is supposed to do. But MA law says 30 days rather than a majority, because they have to set the limit somewhere, and people will always try to get around it on a technicality. “Well the car was here for 181 days, so that’s not a majority, so I register it in the other state.”

Of course it’s also that MA wants their cut of taxes too when someone is living here for a good part of the year, and it makes sense.

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medforddad t1_jdkfoga wrote

If the car is truly in this state for less than half the year (even 1 day less) and your official residence is in another state I'm fine giving up all the tax revenue.

And for those willing to lie to get around it, they'd also be giving up their right to vote in this state and anything else tied to residence.

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jason_sos t1_jdkh9mp wrote

What if their residence is officially MA for taxes but they move their car to another state for 184 days of the year because it’s a $250k car and they are just avoiding the excise tax? Then they bring their other $300k car here for 181 days, and just go on vacation somewhere else for the few days they don’t have a car here?

The 30 day limit is to make it very difficult to do this to get around paying your fair share. Don’t believe that people with money wouldn’t do this either. They would claim they shouldn’t have to register it here, even if they live here because the car isn’t here most of the time. They have nice cars that use the roads, but register the car in a state with low/no taxes.

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medforddad t1_jdki8r4 wrote

Then the other states get to claim the cars for 100% of whatever taxes they charge.

If those states don't charge excise taxes and yet somehow maintain their roads just fine, maybe we should be looking into how those states are able to do so.

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jason_sos t1_jdkifgx wrote

They charge other taxes, or they are southern states that don’t get all the winter damage we get.

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duncanidaho2001 t1_jdissat wrote

I'm glad this seems to be getting resolved in your favor. I'm not surprised some goof ratted you out, given how petty some people can be.

I moved to Quincy, MA from NYC and for over 2 years my car still had NY plates. No one ever bothered me about it and cops used to pass by the car all the time. What made me finally transfer my title and registration to MA was I realized that my insurance would drop to less than half what I was paying for my NY registration. Would have saved myself over $2K had I done it sooner.

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