After moving to Michigan, when do I need to register my car?

August 14, 2015 6:38 PM

We recently moved from Texas to Michigan and our registration tags are good through April, 2016. Michigan's Secretary of State says "Must register car immediately" but do we have any wiggle room?

We both have personalized plates and they weren't cheap... and Michigan registration is even more expensive so we'd like to stall on this as long as possible. If our tags are valid through 4-2016, do we really need to register our cars now/soon here in MI? We have been here one month.

"New Michigan residents must immediately title and register their vehicles at a Secretary of State office and turn in the title from their previous home state. "

What about Drivers Licenses? Mine is good through April, and Mr. Getawaysticks has even longer than that. (I will want to register to vote, for sure.)

Thanks for any help, just trying to save some money after this obscenely expensive move.

posted by getawaysticks to Law & Government (10 answers total)

I believe both the registration and your license are tied to your birthday, not (day you got the registration) + (fixed duration). If that's the case (and you should probably look up the details of how Michigan does it) it may not gain you anything to wait. That is, you might get plates with the exact same expiration date if you get them now or you get them next March.
posted by kiltedtaco at 7:16 PM on August 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

You should check to see if your insurance is still valid in Michigan. Our no-fault policies are wacky and expensive. If you need to get new insurance they will likely send you directly to SOS to register afterwords.
posted by zrail at 7:22 PM on August 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, and yeah our tags and licences are birthday-based.
posted by zrail at 7:23 PM on August 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: (Not thread-sitting, promise!) Our insurance has been redone already, thanks for mentioning it :)
posted by getawaysticks at 7:32 PM on August 14, 2015

Best answer: If you get pulled over by a cop and your insurance has your Michigan address while your license and registration have your old state address, it would be hard to argue that you're complying with the law, and you may get a ticket (failure to obtain michigan plates).
posted by muddgirl at 7:53 PM on August 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Technically, you shouldn't get ticketed when you legally park in the street, for instance, because you have a valid registration. The parking patrol won't know if you're visiting from out of town or whatever. But if a cop pulls you over, they could ticket you. I had cops pull me over twice with the wrong license (I used to speed a lot -- I don't anymore!) and I always played dumb about the timeframe after you move and promised to switch it over and got off with warnings. You are supposed to switch your plates right away, but I know how expensive it is, and I would personally just hope to not get pulled over. As long as the plates weren't expired, I would just keep them and gamble.

By the way, if you happen to be moving from California to Michigan, make sure you report to California that you've moved before your plates expire. Most states won't go after you if you don't renew your plates, but in California, they will garnish your wages unless you notify them you've relocated. Jerks. edit: See you moved from Texas. Don't know about them, but worth checking just in case.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:16 PM on August 14, 2015

The Michigan Secretary of State’s New Michigan Resident page is where you need to go. You have probably already seen it, because it does say that re-registration must be done “immediately.” Waiting for a few days is probably arguable. Waiting for the current plates to expire next April is certainly not. While the cost of registering “immediately” seems high, I can assure you that the cost of a moving violation is significantly higher.
posted by megatherium at 5:20 AM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Each state's DMV really doesn't care about when your old license plate expires. They care that you have THEIR state's plate, valid and paid for.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 6:18 AM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've dealt with Michigan on this exact thing, and I called the SoS because I was still moving stuff back and forth for a few weeks after my "official" move. The nice lady on the phone told me exactly what muddgirl and AppleTurnover and megatherium said -- no one at SoS is going to trigger an alarm if you come in after "immediately", but if you get stopped, you'll get a ticket.

And as kiltedtaco says, Michigan ties plates and registrations to birthdays, so figure that into your planning.
posted by Etrigan at 6:59 AM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another issue is that you can get fined if you wait an egregiously long time to go in and get new plates.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 6:27 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]