Florida resident to register car in New Hampshire
 

Hello folks; Please refresh my memory as to what the latest rules are for registering a car at my five month seasonal NH home with my principal residence being in Florida (and my driver's license in Florida).

If I recall the rules changed a few years ago and this is now allowed. Can anyone bring me up to date on this and what the specific regulations are?

You can register a car in New Hampshire as a non-resident. You will have to sign a document that states you have a vehicle registered in your home state, Florida.

Prior to the law change a non-resident could register a car in New Hampshire but it had to be "exclusively" garaged in New Hampshire. The interpretation of that was it had to be in state every night. I was told a local Town Clerk used to send the police to the homes of people with non resident registrations to confirm the vehicle was there overnight. That was prior to the law change.

261:46 Nonresident Registration. –
Notwithstanding RSA 261:45, the department shall register motor vehicles owned by individuals who are not residents of New Hampshire upon presentation of an affidavit by the applicant, on a form developed by the department, swearing that the vehicle is principally garaged or is regularly kept overnight in New Hampshire and that the applicant is the owner of at least one other vehicle which is registered and insured in the state of the applicant's residence.

Make sure you take into account the cost considerations:

You already paid Florida sales tax on the car that is obviously not refundable

Depending of the age of the car NH registration fees can be much higher than Florida

Additionally compare insurance costs.


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Another thing to consider is that NH requires an annual state car safety inspection for items like brakes, headlights, turn signals, license plate lights while Florida has NO required annual state inspection.

Any holes in the car body will need to get bondo-ed with auto body filler. A working heater/windshield defroster and windshield wipers is required.

So, if you is driving some old junkie ragged Florida car, it will need to get a NH state inspection within ten days after your NH registration is issued.

I assume you are not bringing your Florida registered car to NH, but are purchasing one there?

When I registered mine with the town clerk, I had to sign a document stating, that as a non-resident, I would not take the car out-of-state overnight. I brought a vehicle from California I had owned for a few years, so all my taxes and fees for purchasing had been paid in CA.

I called my insurance carrier and asked if I would be covered if I had an incident while out of state, the insurance company didn't care. I'd be covered.

It seems it's a local govt. issue to try to keep out-of-state drivers from permanently registering vehicles in NH to take advantage of lower insurance costs, I was told.

That law was changed after hearings in 2019 and the new law went into effect January 1, 2020. There is no longer a requirement that the vehicle stay in New Hampshire.

Why do you want to register in NH? Florida annual registration cost is fixed and is a fraction of the NH registration. The only difference is that NH insurance is cheaper than FL.

The insurance is a significantly cheaper in New Hampshire. Also, there is no sales tax in New Hampshire. I did the math and there is a substantial savings, especially when purchasing a new car. In the last three years I have saved over $9,000 in sales tax alone.

Sorry, I missed the part about a new car. I have done the same thing many decades ago.

Many of us tend to forget that as much as we like the NH lack of sales tax and income tax, there are other ways such as car and watercraft registration fees plus meals and room tax that Concord raises money.

From the original post I agree with you, sounds like he’s transferring a car not purchasing a new car.

New vs transfer are completely different scenarios and definitely more beneficial to register in NH for new, a transfer you would have to run all the numbers. Sales tax insurance and registration fees


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Meals and Room (Meals & Rental) is a sales tax.
The tax rate is in addition to the sale price and based on the sales price.

BET, and D&I, are income taxes. The rate is applied to income either paid by a company, or individual in the case of D&I, beyond an exemption.

The adjusting annual portion of our on-highway vehicle registration is a property tax. That tax is 1.8% of the sales value of the vehicle the first year, 1.5% the following year, lowering .3% per year until reaching a .3% rate for the remainder of time a vehicle is registered... antique registration being different and not withstanding.

The Florida 6% rate would equalize with NH after 5 years; after that Florida would be cheaper. Inspection; Florida is cheaper from day one. The insurance seems to be their big issue.

Agreed, although the cost differential varies significantly with the cost of the car. That said, you don’t need to inspect a car that is registered in FL, as they don’t require annual inspections down there. Obviously inspections aren’t a big expense, but the can be a pain in the neck when you arrive back in NH each year.

One option …. Buy a car in NH, so no sales tax. If you keep it in NH for a period of time (I think it is 6 months), you are exempt from sales tax when registering the car in FL. In FL, you can register for 2 years at a time, so no need to do anything for 2 more years.

Actually, I am buying a used NH car from a good NH friend and I wanted to start driving it around once I arrive in NH in a couple of days.

In reality I would prefer to register it in Florida, but then encounter the big logistics question; How do I register it in Florida next week when I won't be returning to Florida until late October? i.e. signatures will be involved as well as paperwork and license plates will need to be mailed to me. And, I believe the Florida DMV will want to walk around the used car and physically check the VIN number.

With that said, all in all it may be easier to register it in NH now, and transfer it to Florida when I return back home. The sales tax is not the issue. And I like the idea of never to have the vehicle inspected once it is registered in Florida.

I'm up for suggestions......

@TheTimeTraveler, there are ways to register a vehicle not physically in Florida. I did this several years ago; it required a law enforcement officer to visually inspect the car in NH and sign the Florida VIN verification form. So that's one hurdle that can be overcome; you do still have the challenge of being in FL to pay and acquire plates.

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I'm not sure if there is an issue with 'snowbirds'. I declare residency in NH and register the vehicles in NH but live in FL during the cold months (Nov-Apr). Doing it for a decade without any issues.

My insurance guy, says it does make a difference in insurance as there is a change in the 'territory' rate. Florida's insurance is high. But insuring the car year-round as an NH car makes no difference. I'm still covered.

So do you bring the car back to NH each year when you return or leave in FL?

I have vehicles registered and insured in 2 states right now.
In NH you do need a governemt issued picture ID. Don't need to show any drivers license. A passport is just fine.

There may be an issue of residency. You can claim residency in any state.

As others have stated though. A summer resident can register a car.

Insurance usually wants to know where vehicle is garaged.

Im just wondering about leaving a NH registered car in FL full time and not having valid inspection sticker. Though Florida doesn't require it NH does so if you got in an accident an someone got hurt wonder what a lawyer does there if no valid sticker.

This may be out of date, but when I was relocating a lot (USN) I got my car inspected wherever I was. If no sticker, I kept the receipt. I recall I had 10 days to get a NH sticker when I returned.

Insurance applies whatever... If you are speeding and hit somebody or something everybody is still covered. To deny coverage would be "contrary to the public good". Of course, if you obtained the insurance fraudulently, all bets are off.

I don't think anybody has mentioned birthdays in this thread. If the OP buys the car in NH in May, and his birthday is in, say, August, he will have to renew for the entire year in August. When he gets to FL in October he will pay full registration fee. I doubt there will be any credit for the NH fees already paid.

More concern is your insurance company. Where is the car legally garaged ?

Each state has rules about out of state plates/registration.
If your legal residence is in Florida. You have a Florida drivers license.
Well . . . then just register car in Florida - once there.

Registration of vehicle
 

None of this applies to me, but I think you can get all your questions answered by calling your local Town Clerk and asking your questions. Now, maybe you don't want your local Town Clerk knowing exactly what you are doing, but if you don't present ALL the facts, then the answer might suit you, but not suit the actual DMV regulations. Just my $0.02 worth.

You would be fine. You cannot be cited in Florida for no inspection because Florida does not have a law requiring periodic inspections. There is no chapter and section of the law you could be found in violation of.

A lawyer would look foolish bring that up since you would be among millions of other Florida vehicles that are not inspected. At the time of the accident you would be in compliance with Florida law and that is all that matters. State laws from one state do not apply in any other states.

The only thing that could affect you is if faulty equipment on your car was found to have caused the accident. That would apply to anyone whether from a state with an inspection law or not.

Not to mention that he would need to keep registering in NH.

We have had a car in FL for 8 years and it is registered in NH and the insurance company does not have a problem; however, there are very few companies that are agreeable to this arrangement. If you register any car car in FL you will pay a $400 flat fee plus FL sales tax. The annual registration is extremely reasonably but in order to to get FL registration you must show proof of FL insurance which is not cheap.

We recently bought a collector car in FL and the process was very easy at the local FL DMV office. The people are knowledgeable and can be reached by phone to answer any questions. After all the fees our annual registration cost is $58 versus $284 in NH. As previously mentioned, FL hits you hard with initial sales tax and higher insurance but has a lower annual registration. NH registration costs stay high but insurance is much lower. Do the math and decide what is best in your situation.

We brought the wagon back with us. The convertible is normally garaged in Fl. Sometimes we bring the convertible North.

Twenty one dollars is the totally not-too-high price I had to pay in total to the combined State of NH/my local town just yesterday, Thursday, to get a new used Subaru registered from now through September, 2023.

The old Subaru, a 2014 with 146k miles recently needed a wheel bearing replaced for $391 at Keytown Auto in Meredith, and on this last rainy Sunday in Plymouth thought I'd kill some time by stopping into NuCar Ford in Plymouth to go window shopping just for fun to see what they got. So, what the hell if NuCar didn't have a newer year of my same Subaru with a 5-speed and much nicer seats and nicer steering wheel and better, louder cd disk/radio ........ it was like ...... holy smokes ...... I better grab this car fast and made a a car purchase at NuCar in less than one hour including a test drive ....... weeeeooooo!

A really good manual transmission, only car, daily driver is becoming EXTINCT lately. If you ask me, Joe Biden should outlaw the automatic transmission and require every car to be a manual transmission and America will become a better place! Get it in gear with Grandpa Joe in 2024!

And oh yeah ....... the new NH-registration, good thru Sept cost me a BIG twenty one bucks...... honest! ..... and just moved the old plates onto this new used car.