New to MA, dealing with car/license stuff

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

I'm new(ish) to MA and Somerville and looking to get all my automotive ducks in a row. I brought a truck with me, which has a clean GA title and expired plates from GA, and have bought a car here, which has a signed-over MA title and no plates. The truck and I have GA-issued insurance. I have a GA driver's license. Neither vehicle has a MA inspection sticker, and I expect them both to fail at least once in some quickly rectifiable manner. Neither has a Somerville parking permit.

I live in Somerville, but have not gotten any mail yet and won't be getting any utilities in my name.

Can someone give me some pointers on what order I should address this all in, and what things I need to gather or do beforehand? I'm ready to spend a day or two standing in lines and such, but I suspect that having a plan ahead of time will save me a lot of wasted effort.

Comments

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

You'll need to get insurance in your name at your somerville address at least and register the vehicles in MA at that address too. I think also a MA license though I'm unsure on that one. I know they look you up in the system for the insurance thing/registration thing. You only need the ins. reg. to get permits, you DO need mail to get guest passes. The bill does not have to be TO you, just to the address you are living and the car is registered at. Also, here is the application that gives whatcha need :) http://www.parksomerville.com/pdfs/permits/Resident_Parking_Permit_ApplicationNEW.pdf

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

And here is the page for the MA registration. Insurance is required before the registration can occur.

http://www.mass.gov/rmv/regs/

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Since you haven't mentioned accumulating daily tickets, I assume these are parked off-street somewhere? That gives you breathing room, anyway.

For ease of everything, I'd recommend finding insurance first. If you use a local agent, they should be able to take care of registrations for you. You won't be able to inspect until you register. I don't think you have to do anything about your license, but if you want to, you can at your leisure. Except if you want to vote in MA, deal with it by October 17.

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

When I was new in Somerville, Traffic and Parking took a letter on from my bank on their leatterhead stating the address they had on file (my Somerville address) as proof my residency. I found this to be the easiest way to get my parking permit when I didn't have any bills to show them. Check to see if this is still an option.

[totient]

There is an order of operations issue in getting insurance, title, and registration. The answer is to have your insurance agent deal: you call them up, they send a courier for the old titles and your credit card number, and four hours later the courier returns with registration and plates (the last time I did this, the new title came in the mail rather than with the courier, since there's no hurry about that part). I recommend Nancy Bender insurance as being particularly good at this game.

Only once you have new plates can you deal with Somerville or with inspections. You can't even get a "new resident" permit from the city in the meantime (they're good for 2 or 3 days) because neither vehicle is legal to park on the street without a current registration somewhere. But once you have the plates, bring the registrations to Traffic and Parking with a little bit of cash and they'll give you a parking sticker. The address on the registration being in Somerville is what they need; they don't care if *you* live here or not as long as the *cars* pay their excise taxes to the city, which they will if the registration says Somerville on it. Excise taxes are a big part of the city budget so that's what they care about.

Once you have plates, you have a week to get the car inspected. This is $29 and if you have something small to fix they'll give you a sticker that says you tried and that's good for I think 30 days (they'll charge another $29 when you fix it, unless you let them fix it themselves right there which only some places will do). But if something big is wrong with it, then it becomes immediately illegal to drive anywhere, even to a repair shop, and you're supposed to have it towed. So all in all if there are things you know are wrong it's best to fix them first.

[totient]

Oh, right, license, you might have to do license before any of the rest of it, since the insurance rates depend on your driving record which they get from the state.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Already registered to vote. Thanks for the reminder! I would have registered in time for the primaries if I had known how much they matter here.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Seconded on Nancy Bender, I've been going to her for years. Her people are also really good at explaining what you'll need to do and the order you need to do it in.

I moved here in 1999, and I got a license first, then a couple of days later I went to Nancy Bender with my car registration (it was a year old and still had a loan out on it, so I didn't have the title) and they took care of insurance and plates. Once you have a registration and plates you have 7 days to get the car inspected. If you own your car outright you'll bring the insurance agent the title instead of the registration. You'll get plates that day or the next day b courier and you'll get the MA title in the mail a few weeks later.

My move here was in 1999 and IIRC they just took my word for it that I lived here, and where. Post-9/11, they may require more documentation. Not sure what they're asking for these days.

Check any documents carefully for accuracy before you leave the RMV and ideally before you step away from the counter. I've had really poor luck. When I traded in my out of state license they initially omitted the motorcycle endorsement I'd had since 1987. Good luck fixing that mistake later after your old out of state license is long gone. :-/ I noticed it only because the amount I was asked to pay was wrong. A couple of years later the RMV got a change-of-address wrong, which I didn't notice until I failed to get a registration renewal notice a few months later. Fortunately I didn't need the reminder and I noticed the mistake when I went to the RMV office to renew in person, and got a registration with a wrong address on it.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

I wish I had known this.

It took us 3 trips to the RMV to register my husband's car, then four to register mine.

From one transplant to another, the RMV in Massachusetts is by far the most beauracratic and unpleasant I've ever had to deal with. We've never been able to get straight answers over the phone, and when we show up with incorrect information, the clerks treat us as if we just crawled out from under a rock.

In short, if I had known there was someone we could go pay to deal with all this crap for us, we'd have done it in a heartbeat.

[inahandbasket]

Re inspections: you get one shot to fix any issues and re-inspect for no additional charge.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

They're a little outside of Davis, but I've been happy with Good Gas over at 345 Medford St in Somerville for inspections. Straightforward, and they're nice guys.

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

When I was pulled over on route 2 by a state cop a couple years back I still had my PA license and was informed that you only have 30 days after you move here to switch your license, unless you are a student and register through your campus police department that you are indeed a full time student. The cop then gave me 10 days to get it done and didn't ticket me for not having switched the license. I had already switched my insurance and registration over through the insurance company but hadn't done the license.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Technically you're supposed to get your license in MA within 30 days of becoming a resident.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

you're lucky -- a friend of mine was pulled over (over a similar living-in-MA->30-days trick) and ended up having to get his car towed home. i forget whether he was arrested, but if he wasn't it was a near thing. cops take this pretty seriously.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

I have dealt with this more than once. You do not need to use an insurance courier as described above, but it might save you time. Here's the order I would suggest:

-Get insurance. I had my insurer switch my policy from NY to MA over the phone. This took maybe half an hour on the phone.
-Get license. Bring every piece of documentation you think you might need and more. I threw everything in a "Demoulas bag" (that's what people in Massachusetts call a grocery bag; now you know some local lingo) and dumped it out on the counter at the Registry (more Mass speak: call it "the Registry" and not "the RMV") and had the lady there sort it out.
-Register cars. I think you can do this at the same time as the license. The fees for both are listed on the RMV website. There is a relatively large fee to transfer the title, so don't be surprised by that one.
-Get Somerville permits.
-Get inspection. I like Jack's Gas on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. Many others here do as well.

You can change up the order of the last two. You have seven days to get the inspection sticker once you register the car, but you'll probably want your Somerville sticker ASAP.

I have been to the Registry offices in Watertown, Boston (Chinatown), and Revere. The Chinatown one was the best, but that was six or seven years ago. They gave me the biggest hassle about various New York forms I had with me at the Revere one, but the lady there was a character and ended up being very helpful. My boyfriend went to the Lawrence one recently to renew his license first thing in the morning, was let in before they opened, and was out in ten minutes, but Lawrence is probably out of your orbit. If you go to Lawrence, get some cannolis at Tripoli Bakery.