Ede

Do you save your registration papers? I know a lot of guys who throw them in the trash as soon as they step out of the sheriff’s office. I keep ALL of mine all the way back until they started this darn thing, which means I have an huge box full of registration papers.
If they ever try and say I missed something, I will challenge them with my bazillion registration papers.

Didn’t the Jews in the holocaust have to show papers upon request? Not at all saying we went through what they did, but it’s our burden we carry being on the registry, having to constantly being forced to prove we didn’t do this or we DID do that. And at every turn, they come up with more restrictions on what we can do and where we can go. It is basically a trap, and they damn well know it.

Use the Cyber Comminications System to prevent these from becoming problems.

NEVER purchase a vehicle/vessel on Friday or any holiday that includes a weekend; if you do not use the online portal, or if the registration offices will be closed after the purchase.

So, Mother, may I report an update within 48 hours?

Did a temporary plate get issued for purchase? Report it and the purchase on time, trip one.
If the temporary plate expires before the permanent plate is issued, park the vehicle.
Was a temporary replacement plate issued? Trip two.
When the permanent plate is issued, report it on time, possibly trip three.

Plan your purchase and avoid receiving a temporary or permanent plate that does not comply with the 48-hour law when an in-person update is made.

Does the online portal pose any specific risks, or have you heard of an arrest due to a typo?

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).

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.

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.

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.