Member Submission: A cautionary tale.
I am charged with the following violations; 2 for failure to report and 2 for Providing false information.
This first issue has to do with me co-signing an auto loan with my son.
He is a co-owner and he is the only driver and it resides at his home address.
It has NEVER been at my home over night, and I have never driven it. The registration is in my name (oops) and his name as is the title. Of course I would have registered it with SO Registry, but I thought only vehicles that were at my residence or that I drove were necessary to register. Our current vehicle, which is registered was issued a new tag by the state, as they do every 10 years I believe, it was replaced on or about 4/5/2026 after my registration with SO registry at the beginning of March 2026. I failed to register the TAG change (duh) within 48 hours.
The deputy that arrested me stated that my daughter’s truck is registered at our home address but it is actually registered at a PO Box. I had previously registered the truck with SO registration when she was leaving it parked at our address and I was able to drive it. Once she moved to a different company, she no longer parked the truck here, so I deleted it from SO registration. He said they didn’t “ding” me for this issue.
So the bottom line is, I failed to register the Auto Loan co-sign within 48 hours (Failure to Report) and didn’t report it when I registered in September and March (Providing False Information) twice. And failure to report the tag change within 48 hours (Failure to Report).
My suggestion is to FREQUENTLY review the SO requirements to hopefully not get caught up in this TRAP. So 4 felonies… Arrested and spent 2.5 days in jail and 12,500 bond. Now I wait for trial…
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Had similar situation. My son did not live at home. Cosigned for a car so my name was on the title. Long story short ended with 2 felonies and 18 months house arrest. You do not get much help from court appointed attorney. What I don’t understand is they have all this information on their computer as what vehicles are in your name. I went to the DMV about the registration, and they pulled up on the computer my information all the way back, for vehicles, that I owned since moving to Florida in 1985.
I’m not understanding the need to reregister a vehicle, just because the tag is renewed. Nothing changes, other than a new sticker is applied, and that’s in the works to be possibly eliminated in Florida as well.
It’s not tag renewal nor sticker replacement that requires registration. Those events I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about.
Instead, it’s a change in tags.
And sometimes after 10 years with the same tag, the DHSMV issues you a replacement tag, with new tag number, that you did not ask for.
And if you are a registrant, you gotta update the tag number in the FDLE system.
It’s totally silly, and I hope you’re right that it’s in the works to be eliminated.
Because as it stands now, supposedly it is a FELONY not to timely notify the state of a new tag number that they (the state!) has issued you on their own initiative.
What if my son takes one of the cars off to college, receives a new tag, and affixes that tag to the vehicle without letting me know about it? I’m hit!
Jacob
I never thought about that. Thanks for the heads up. Stupid to change a perfectly good tag, what a waste. Now renewing the sticker is different. Thanks for reminding me because it has at least been close to ten years since I changed my tag.
I just went and looked, and my tag is 9 years old, the same age as the vehicle. So again, thanks for the reminder, I probably would not have thought of that once I got the new tag, good catch.
In the state of Florida, all license plates are required to be replaced every 10 years per section 320.06(1)(b), Florida Statutes. The moment you receive the new plate, you have 48 hours to update your “vehicles owned” information either online (if you’re allowed to go online) or in person at the sheriff’s office.
I strongly advise everyone to very carefully read the definition of “vehicles owned” in F.S. 775.21(2)(p) because it does not say what a lot of people assume it does. Nothing in the statute talks about where vehicles are garaged. The requirement to register a “vehicle owned” is based on the registrant owning it, leasing it, renting it, driving it, having it registered or co-registered in his/her name, or whether it is owned/leased/etc. by someone residing at the same address for 5 or more consecutive days.
Nothing in the definition specifies where the vehicle is actually parked or garaged. Under the letter of the law, if an out-of-town relative stays with you for a week, travelled by plane and left her vehicle back in New York, that is a “vehicle owned” and must be registered. I know that sounds crazy, but go read the statute and you will find that’s exactly what it says.
Even those of us who have very carefully read the statute, disagree on what it says.
Many of us assume, for example, that the definition of Vehicles Owned includes, as you put it, “driving it.”
But it doesn’t!
So if you test drive a vehicle, or work as a valet parking attendant, then you are driving it, without necessarily triggering the registration statute.
Nor does the statute state that you have 48 hours “from the moment you receive your new plate.”
Because remember that we are talking about a situation in which your vehicle already HAS a plate, typically one that has not yet expired upon receipt of the new plate. You still have some time to affix that new plate. (Now, once you affix it, that’s a different. story).
To my knowledge, if ownership and plate number stay the same there is nothing to do. Otherwise we would be renewing every year. Both my whips are in my wife’s name but I still have them registered as they are at my house, on my insurance, I drive them and She lives here. She and my daughter own a business and I even put that one on even though its the business which I have nothing to do with. Better to be safe than sorry.
Nowhere else in American justice!
This is tyranny in the extreme!
One of these days there will be enough of us, and we will fight this bullying and stalking!
And we will win our privacy and liberty!
JJJJ
Martin Luther king famously gave his “I have a dream” speech. Eventually black folks got a little more respect, but it took decades for it to happen.
The registry in Florida was started in 1991, we are still waiting for our dreams to come true, 35 years later.
How ridiculous these stupid charges, AND felonies!
I am in VA, and run the I.C.A.C. – UNPACKED! YT site where I skew these sorts of things, but most particularly the internet crimes police scams they run setting people up as child predators when almost no one they flag actually is.
I sympathize with you. Currently I am facing very similar charges — misdemeanors though — for nonsense the state police, aided by vigilantes, esp. Eric Lind of Alicia’s Project — who got them to kick in my door Aug, 2025, and seize my devices. Charges in the affidavit don’t resemble current ones. Idiotic. Fighting back.
I am sorry to hear this but is all too common. In 2016 my wife and found a house we wanted to buy. I went to the Sherriff’s office on March 28th (my birthday is April 9th) to clear the address and told them we were supposed to close on the property on May 6th. I asked what the procedure was and they told me to come back in May when I close on the house and that there were no other requirements.
On May 6th we closed on the house, and I returned to the Sherriff’s office to register and was immediately arrested for failure to register. I did what they told me to do and was arrested. I didn’t show up during my birthday month.
The case was eventually dismissed since I did what they told me to do.
I have since sold the house and left Florida. I will never return.
Every vehicle you have access to is required to be registered, even if you never drive it. Even if it doesn’t have a tag. Even if it’s a rotting heap in your back yard. I work for a company with multiple vehicles and ALL the vehicles have to be registered. IF I LEAVE THE COMPANY…I am then obligated, nay required, to REMOVE all the vehicles. Every email address I’VE EVER HAD is listed, even if it’s been deleted, just in case. Basically, you need to live as if every moment is out to make you trip yourself up, because that’s how the system is designed. Being on the registry is a mindset of cover your ass in ALL THINGS. Before you do ANYTHING, you need to think about how it’s going to affect your freedom. Eventually you will get yourself into a routine and it will become second nature. Always CYA. If you have to ask if it needs to be registered or notified, even if it seems mundane and inconsequential, it needs to be registered or notified. Just take that extra step and CYA. Every. Time.