by timberline » Fri Jun 21, 2013 01:22 pm
Hi -
New here and hoping that we can find some answers. I have what seems to be a unique situation, that I can not find an answer for, so here we go...
My wife and I have the good fortune of owning homes in multiple states and work takes us around the country. We have homes on both coasts, CA and NY as well as a home in Las Vegas and one in Minneapolis.
We also have cars at each home, insured and registered in their respective states, here is where it gets tricky we are "residents" of Nevada, this is where we file tax returns etc ...
So what we are trying to figure out, is if we are in NY or MN for a couple of months are we to get new driver's licences ? Or what happens if we decide to drive from our home in NY to our home in Las Vegas and one of the cars is here for a couple of months in winter, but we know it is going home in the spring ? Do we need to reregister the car here and reinsure it ?
Does anyone have any thoughts ?
I know these are very 1st world problems but, no one, my attorney included seems to have a clear answer.
Maybe random internet boards have an idea ?
Thanks
Timberline
New here and hoping that we can find some answers. I have what seems to be a unique situation, that I can not find an answer for, so here we go...
My wife and I have the good fortune of owning homes in multiple states and work takes us around the country. We have homes on both coasts, CA and NY as well as a home in Las Vegas and one in Minneapolis.
We also have cars at each home, insured and registered in their respective states, here is where it gets tricky we are "residents" of Nevada, this is where we file tax returns etc ...
So what we are trying to figure out, is if we are in NY or MN for a couple of months are we to get new driver's licences ? Or what happens if we decide to drive from our home in NY to our home in Las Vegas and one of the cars is here for a couple of months in winter, but we know it is going home in the spring ? Do we need to reregister the car here and reinsure it ?
Does anyone have any thoughts ?
I know these are very 1st world problems but, no one, my attorney included seems to have a clear answer.
Maybe random internet boards have an idea ?
Thanks
Timberline
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 04:38 pm Post Subject:
The matter is one of "residency". If you are "vacationing" or "temporarily residing" outside your home state (State A), you are not required to obtain a driver license or reregister your vehicle in State B. Your vehicles need to be registered in the states where they are "principally operated or garaged". Coverage under an auto policy is provided wherever you drive the vehicle in the US or Canada, and if your policy provides lower liability limits than those required in a particular state, you policy must improve to the locally required limits if a claim arises.
Consider the "snow birds" who migrate from Minnesota to Arizona from November to March in their RVs. They make no claim of Arizona residency -- they don't attempt to vote there, don't file taxes as a citizen of that state, etc. They don't have to pay vehicle registration fees to Arizona or obtain an Arizona driver license.
Your situation is no different. You have de facto residency in Nevada (most likely for the purpose of not paying personal income tax) -- it's where you vote and file your federal tax returns. Your anticipated, but transient, occupancies of second, third, and fourth homes -- we should all be so fortunate/unfortunate -- are just that . . . transient, or temporary.
Your much larger issue is your insurance in each of those places. Absence from any one of them for more than 60 or 90 days will invoke the Vandalism & Malicious Mischief exclusion in a homeowner's policy, as well as the "freezing of pipes/plumbing" provision. If you have not obtained additional endorsements to waive those provisions/exclusions, your transient occupancies could come back to bite you in your wallet and adjacent anatomy.
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