Thoughts on best strategy for dealing with DC DMV
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Anonymous
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It's a long complicated story, but basically I bought a new car in March, signed the paperwork for the new car, had the title signed over to me, took possession and signed the title for my old car over to dealership (outside of DC), handed them the keys and left the car in their possession. Dealership said "we'll get the DC registration process going, you'll get it in a few days in the mail, here are your plates, DC might ask for them back" and I called the insurance company and let them know I no longer own the old car, and now own the new car, insurance company switches the coverage. dealership actually lists my old car on their website for sale, the very next day.
A few days later, DC DMV sends the new registration and says "congrats--put the plates from the old one onto your new car", which is odd, because that's never happened with any new car I've bought, but whatever, the DMV works in weird ways, and so I do, put the stickers on the windshield and am done with it. The other day, I realized that the stickers say my registration has expired, and that's when it all dawns on me, that the registration transferred, not set a new 2-year term. shrug and go to DMV website to renew the registration, says I have holds. Call 311, and a perfectly nice lady explains that DC DMV didn't receive notice that I had transferred the title to the dealership for five or six days after the fact, and so they regard my switching insurance to new car as cancelling the insurance on the old car, and therefore having an uninsured car in the district, and I now owe $150 (and possibly some sort of reactivation fee?) before I can get my registration renewed. I received neither the notice that I had an uninsured car nor the registration renewal warning in the mail—it's not unusual for my mail to go missing, but I understand that arguing that to the DMV is probably not a winner. It only matters because I'm outside the 150 day window to admit but argue, or whatever they call it, and I think I can't renew my car's registration without clearing this, so a long appeal process isn't useful, it has to be done the day I go into the DMV. Obviously, if I had received notice of this a few weeks after it allegedly happened, I would've gone through the appeal process... I have to go to the DMV to handle this, but I'm curious for any advice on strategy... My experience with contesting tickets in DC is that it is a bizarre and unhelpful system designed to screw you, but my experience with in-person visits to the DMV is that, despite the stereotype, if you're polite and prepared, they're very nice and helpful. The 311 person was actually quite helpful and friendly and sounded like this is a regular problem. I don't see anyway around acknowledging that, according to the DC DMV's official records, I still had the car in my ownership and it was not insured, and I don't have time to futz around appealing, since it has to be appealed. If I pay the fine, I think that shuts my opportunity to appeal under DC's weird rules, right? The best strategy I can think of is to go in, explain the issue, and ask them to waive it because the rule is designed to keep people from owning/operating uninsured cars in DC, and, despite what the date on the records the DMV wound up having, the car was not in my legal possession when I moved my insurance to the new car... despite the paperwork issue, at all times, the car I owned, drove and had in the district was insured and I can prove that. Basically, if I had opted for new registration, this wouldn't be an issue, but it's because the registration was transferred—which I didn't ask for, the dealership just said "we've started the process, you'll get your paperwork from the DC DMV in a few days"—that any of this matters. But is waiving the fees a thing? The 311 lady was the one who said they might waive it, but she may not be a great source of info. A possibly unreliable internet source suggests that in Maryland, the DMV is relatively happy to waive any penalties for failure to insure as long as you can show that, no, you really were insured. If they won't waive it, I was just going to pay it and then complain to my city councillor demanding they stick up for their constituent, and pointing out that I can prove that I didn't actually own an uninsured car... The DC council is pretty useless for anything but leaning on people and meddling, so I figure I could maybe get my money back that way, but really, I just want to get this done as quickly and easily and smoothly as possible. I'm not interested in getting in an argment with a DMV rep... My only other takeaway is eff that dealership and I guess the next time I buy a new car, I have to stress I do NOT want a transferred registration. |
Anonymous
| wow. I stopped reading. my eyes glossed over. |
Anonymous
sounds like you're not the person to help the OP then, thanks for letting us know. |
Anonymous
Yeah this is way too much information. The gist is there was a lapse in insurance coverage so OP is getting fined $150? Just pay the $150. Its the DC DMV, they never will budge on anything. |
Anonymous
Never mind, it's too much for you to figure out. |
Anonymous
| Move to MD? |
Anonymous
| TLDR |
Anonymous
| Summary pls, OP. |
Anonymous
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Having purchased at least 8 new cars in DC I have never reused plates. You say you have a letter saying to reuse your old ones from the DMV? Weird. We just bought a new car this spring (in MD), temp tag on then the dealer calls to say the plates have arrived weeks later.
That is as far as I read. |
Anonymous
| I'm in NY and had something kind of similar happen. Was in an accident, they took the car and weeks later insurance deemed it totaled and directed me to turn in the plates, but they canceled insurance retroactive to the date of the accident making it seem like i was uninsured while in possession of the car. DMV sent a letter that I was in trouble. For some reason though they weren't charging me a fine. I wrote a letter explaining what happened with my proof and they wrote back withdrawing their letter. |