Inspection Sticker Ticket

[Godfish]

Hi everyone!

I just graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota FL. I have been living down there for basically 4 years. I am a Vermonter, born and raised there my whole life until school. Over the last 4 years I've continued to register my car in Vermont because I did not have a permanent housing address in Florida, and mainly because it was easy to get it renewed online and not go through the hassle of changing my plates, that and I'm a proud Vermonter. I would leave every summer to either come back to Vermont or go to an internship. The last two years I have had internships in North Carolina and did not have time or the money to drive all the way back to Vermont to get it inspected. That and the car remained in Florida while I was in NC because I did not need it at my Job.

The last two days I have been making the long two day drive back to Vermont to stay with my parents for a month before going to my new job in NC. In Georgia I picked up and bought a new Jet ski that came with a trailer. Checked all my lights on day one and day two and everything seemed to be working, running lights, brakes, directional's etc. I was almost an hour and a half from home and a local cop pulled me over for my left running lights on the trailer not working, I had no idea they had stopped. I gave him registration, insurance, license...blah and everything checked out. He gave me a warning for the trailer because I had just purchased it, but I ended up getting a 100 dollar ticket for the inspection sticker not being updated. I told him multiple times that the car has been in Florida and that I have not been able to bring it for inspection until now. This was my first time back in Vermont with the car in 2 years, this was actually my first hour and a half back in Vermont.

So what are the laws about that? I've tried looking up similar cases, but no luck. Couldn't he have just given me a warning until I could bring it to get inspected the next day? I know this doesn't exempt anyone from inspection but the condition of the car is great, it's a mint 2004 Volx Jetta, no rust, brand new exhaust.

Thanks!

-Godfish

[Joeyd6]

Guilty...pay the fine! No way out of this one....

[ChesCopPodz]

Think of it as karma for not wanting to go through the hassle of registering your car in your new state of residence. You wanted to take the path of least resistance by keeping your vehicle Vermont registered. You chose to keep it Vermont registered, therefore you must keep it Vermont legal.

[icu650]

What state Drivers license do you have?

[Godfish]

Vermont License.

and yes I know it was probably the least path of resistance but I don't have permanent residence in Florida. I only stayed in campus housing for the semester then either went back to Vermont or in the case for the past two years, went to NC for my internship, leaving the car in storage in Florida. Couldn't afford to drive it back to VT and then back to FL, up to my ears in loans.

[retdetsgt]

Unfortunately, motor vehicle laws don't take into account problems like yours.

Where do you get your mail now? Use that to register the car and you will be okay. Otherwise, leave the car in storage until you can make it legal to put on the street.

[DeltaV]

Florida allows you an exemption as a full time student that lets you keep your vehicle registered out of state. Since you've graduated, you need to register your vehicle in Florida and obtain a Florida driver's license if you intend to stay here. Failure to do so is an arrestable criminal offense, not to mention that if you ever get into a crash and your insurance company finds out you're carrying (and paying for) Vermont insurance instead of Florida insurance while you live in Florida, they'll probably try to deny the claim and drop you.

As to your situation, you really don't have a legal argument. If you choose to keep your Vermont registration then you're responsible for adhering to all Vermont laws as they relate to things like vehicle inspections. We could care less about your inspection sticker here as Florida doesn't have vehicle inspections. You can't have it both ways. You can't keep your Vermont registration while in Florida because it's easy and you consider yourself a "Vermonter," yet not abide by Vermont's regulations when your car is registered in that state. This is why you should register your car in the place where you actually live. It prevents things like this from happening.