How does California registration work?

[jimbo69ny]

I live in NY and I leased my Rav 4 in California and registered it to my aunts address there. I paid the $400 registration fee when I bought it so I left the California plates on it. Now that year is up and I'm going to register it here in ny.

I never received a renewal notice in the mail and it has now been just over a year. I contacted Toyota and they are sending me the paperwork that the DMV requested in order to complete the transfer to ny. In ny you can get in big trouble for driving an unregistered vehicle. I'm worried my Cali reg may have lapsed.

How does registration work in Cali? How much does it cost?

 

[davewill]

The registration would have lapsed once the year was complete. You should have transferred the registration after a month or so instead of waiting this long. Driving the car in NY with CA tags for that long when you were obviously living in NY was probably illegal. Renewing in CA would just perpetuate the problem at this point. In your shoes, I'd get it registered in NY ASAP, saying you just moved the car there from CA. I'd tell them your Aunt has been driving it in CA up to now. You'll probably owe some late registration fees.

 

[dstjohn99]

California DMV probably mailed the renewal info to the registered address. Registration is based on the car's value and late fees are pretty steep. You can renew online at www.dmv.ca.gov. If you transfer to NY you will need to repay a portion of the $2,500 state rebate if you took it when you leased. The car must be registered in CA for 3 years to keep the entire rebate.

 

[jimbo69ny]

California DMV probably mailed the renewal info to the registered address. Registration is based on the car's value and late fees are pretty steep. You can renew online at http://www.dmv.ca.gov. If you transfer to NY you will need to repay a portion of the $2,500 state rebate if you took it when you leased. The car must be registered in CA for 3 years to keep the entire rebate.

Thank you, I know about the repayment about the CA rebate so I didnt file for that rebate. I planned on keeping it insured and registered in CA for the first year because the registration payment was mandatory and included with the purchase.

Unfortunately NY doesnt allow monthly payments of taxes. They want all of the money up front, @$$holes. So I had to pony up $1000 to register it here in NY.

Its all done though, Im registered in NYS. I dont know what happened with Cali insurance. They had the correct mailing address. I dont know what happened. Oh well. Im legal again.

 

[4EVEREV]

If you were driving on CA insurance you had an even bigger potential issue. FYI, natives don't call it "Cali" it's really not a term that's liked.

 

[jimbo69ny]

If you were driving on CA insurance you had an even bigger potential issue. FYI, natives don't call it "Cali" it's really not a term that's liked.

Yeah I had CA insurance but I just changed that over to NY too. NY DMV is really strict. We would have to pay fines and potentially have our license suspended if we let insurance, reg slip.

Sorry CA residents, no insult intended.

 

[davewill]

Yeah I had CA insurance but I just changed that over to NY too. NY DMV is really strict. We would have to pay fines and potentially have our license suspended if we let insurance, reg slip.
...

He means that if you had an accident while on the CA policy, the insurance company could have refused to cover you because you weren't living in CA as they thought.

 

[jimbo69ny]

Yeah I had CA insurance but I just changed that over to NY too. NY DMV is really strict. We would have to pay fines and potentially have our license suspended if we let insurance, reg slip.
...

He means that if you had an accident while on the CA policy, the insurance company could have refused to cover you because you weren't living in CA as they thought.

I know. There were a lot of risks involved in the purchase and ownership for a New Yorker.