Maryland MVA has me stressed!!

[subxero]

Ok let try to make a long story short

Traded in my car the other week for a truck. At the dealer i was cleaning out some stuff from the car and putting it in the truck and in the trunk buried under all the other crap i keep in the trunk of my car were my old pontiac grand-am plates from MD

So rewind few years, Moved to MD, needed a car, bought this old beater grand-am cash. Drove it for ~1.5 yrs engine blew on way to dads in PA from MD. Got car towed to family friends house who used to be mechanic and still does it on the side and helps us out. Told him, lets shop around for engine and just keep it on his property till i can find parts ect...

Year goes by, I bought a new car, family friend calls me says, hey, still have this grand-am sitting here. I say OH YEAH!, ill come up this weekend get stuff out of it and you can do what you want with it. He says, i will just junk it. I say fine by me.

Drive up, get junk, grab plates, (throw them in trunk of new car)

few years go by, pick up at (finding plates in trunk)

So after i find the plates, i take them in when i drop off my traded car plates. i dropped off my plates the other day (used drop box, MVA was closed on election day, go figure) So i should get receipt for it in mail for dropping off, BUT....now i am super nervous i am going to get this ridiculous fine from the MVA in the mail in a few weeks saying i owe them XX thousands of dollars for lapsed insurance on the grand-am, AHHH!!

I spent like 3 days reading every post i could find from people with similar issues.
Lots of mixed stuff, some people in my boat with an undriveable vehicle and they said MVA drop all fines. Others saying they got stuck having to do a payment financing through the MVA to pay off their multi thousand dollar fine!!

I'm so EF'ed in the A!!

[ryan.chin]

I don't think they're going to charge you much.

[subxero]

Originally Posted by ryan.chin

I don't think they're going to charge you much.

i wouldn't be so sure,

I have seen people saying they got fined up to $8k

lots in the $4k range

seems like $150 for initial lapse in insurance, (so when i canceled my insurance on my broken down car but still held the tags, not sure exactly when that was)

then $7 a day there after

$7 x ~ 3yrs (7 x 1095days = $7665)

absurd, no one can afford that kind of fine especially me in my current state.

Worst thing is, it seems like a lot of people don't think anything of forgetting to turn in their tags and and never receive a notice of a fine until several years after the incident occurred.

People who have moved out of state and forgot to turn in their tags, receive a fine for $5k or more 5 yrs after they moved!! And that was their first notice.

The way all this sounds is borderline unconstitutional.

I thought i was innocent until proven guilty, how bout i will pay the fine when you prove i was driving the vehicle uninsured not other way around, i have to prove there was no lapse in insurance otherwise i pay up.

but it does not sound like it works that way at all.

[subxero]

This has me thinking to, anyone in MD who winterizes their motorcycle and just completely cancels the insurance for a few months...... This whole BS applies to you as well.

If MVA some how figures out that you had a lapse in your insurance despite you not using the vehicle, they will come down on you hard!!

let this be a lesson to everyone, don't mess around when it comes to MVA, when you sell, trade, or store a vehicle, always turn in your tags before you cancel the insurance and keep receipts of EVERYTHING!! Hopefully i don't have to learn this lesson the hard way and somehow my F-up gets past them and gets buried forever.

[Jono]

That sounds like the stupidest law!

[Alienjoe]

Here in NY, a motorcycle is the only vehicle you can take off the road seasonally and not turn in plates. Come to think of it, the NY DMV asks us to destroy the plates of old vehicles or pay a 1 dollar fee to turn them in.