Quote:
Originally Posted by KBlanchard
Judge, please state the law. I have a friend that resides in AL, lives in a motorhome in AL but has property in Mississippi. His MH is licensed in MS. Has been in AL for nearly 5 years and I mentioned to him that he may be in violation of a law pertaining to license and insurance coverage.
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One of the things the 9/11 Commission learned was some of the terrorists had multiple ID's / drivers licenses. Some with 17 different names based on 17 different state drivers licenses.
As part of the move to REAL ID's, the federal government started requiring that people surrender their current drivers license when applying for a drivers license in another state so no person could hold a valid drivers license in more than one state.
Now individual states have different rules for when you have to apply for a drivers license and transfer your vehicle registration upon moving to their state. Many states say that once you have established residency (deed, rental agreement, utilities bills, etc.) for 30 days, you must apply for a drivers license in that state and register your vehicle in that state.
Then, most personal insurance carriers require you to be insured in the state in which you are registered. You must then provide proof of vehicle registration in that state for most insurance carriers to provide coverage for that vehicle.
In my case, my wife's car and our motorhome are registered in PA in her name since she declares PA as her state of residency. The PA house is in her name. The vehicles are stored there and insured there. My vehicle is registered in FL since I am a FL resident and it is stored and insured in the state of FL. The FL home is in my name but I also own a rental property in PA.
Now we don't live in Russia and we can drive across state borders and spend a lot of time out of our home state... traveling.... visiting relatives..... working, etc. You won't be violating any laws and your insurance carrier will cover you if there is an accident, theft, etc. while out of your home state.
I'm not an expert and don't know the specific laws for each state but if your friend established residency in AL (he owns a house, rents, has utility bills in his name, etc.), he should find out AL requirements for recognizing residency and if he must get an AL license, registration and insurance. Residency also requires you spend 51% of time in that state.