Hi! I moved states a year ago (Maryland to Michigan) and changed auto insurance within a month of moving due to Michigan’s specific auto insurance laws. I didn’t change my plates yet because I still (currently) have 9 more months of registration and the Secretary of State here told me it was okay to wait until they expired. Today I woke up to 9 emails from the DMV of Maryland saying I haven’t possessed insurance since I moved to Michigan, they’ve suspended my registration/plates, and intend to charge me over $3,000 in fees to get this figured out. I’ve provided my current insurance to show I haven’t ever had a lapse in coverage but they told me it wasn’t sufficient and I need to come in, which I physically can’t do. What can I do?
State says my insurance lapsed when it didn’t. Now they want to charge me $3k.
byu/Resident_Prompt_TA inInsurance
Posted by Resident_Prompt_TA
7 Comments
In Maryland, you need to cancel your registration BEFORE you cancel your Maryland insurance. You did not do so. This is an issue between you, and whomever told you VERY wrong information.
You did have a lapse and still have a lapse, but not from having actual insurance, but instead from having a lapse from MD insurance. See, when you move you have to do everything within 30 days of moving, that’s insurance, drivers license, and registration. You having 9 months left on what you paid for MD doesn’t matter. You moved and have to follow all rules of the new state. Your insurance is not able to report to MD that you have insurance because each state has their own requirements. You need to register in MI now and then let MD know, you will still potentially have a fine, but that is up to MD.
Yeah MD MVA is pretty strict about this. If you have MD plates, you have to have MD based insurance. You can try appealing it with proof of your MI insurance but you really need to reregister the car/ get MI plates.
Insurance is state dependent and each state has different minimum and rules. MI has really different insurance rules than pretty much any other state and those rules/minimums likely do not meet the requirements for MD.
I am not sure what Secretary of State told you that you did not have to register the car but if it was MI , why would they know about MD insurance rules? The MD MVA is very clear about insurance rules in their website and even has a chat feature you could have asked.
That’s were you “F’d” up.
Is there anything stopping you from completing the registration in Michigan at this point? That might be the easiest way to resolve this if you aren’t going back to MD.
I ran into this I moved from MD to PA. My insurance had to change to meet PA requirements, granted I didn’t keep MD plates (mailed them back in a tracked USPS envelope) beyond about 15 days. That being said, about 90 days later got an angry MD MVA letter stating I was without ins and owed a crap ton of fees and penalties. I faxed a copy of my insurance, that was dated to start the day the MD ins. was cancelled, a copy of the new registration, a photo of the contents of the tracked envelope with label on it before sealed (also had video of sealing it and handing it to the postal employee in the post office) and the tracking with the signature report. That was the first and last time I received anything from the MVA on this in 7 years. I’ve gotten these before when changing insurance carriers while still living in MD and just a copy of the new policy is all that’s needed, assuming no lapse in coverage. I was painfully thorough in my exit of MD because of the number of honor stories I’ve heard. The MVA is horrifically managed and the majority of employees just don’t care, unfrtunately that means that the burden of proof for these administrative shenanigans lies with the accused, not the incompetent state employees.
Send over a copy of your new ins, that hopefully meets the MD state requirements since you kept MD tags for so long. I’d send that with your tags and a copy of your MI registration as well. Hopefully you won’t have to return to MD anytime and deal with the MVA again
MD doesn’t budge on these fines, you can send all the out of state insurance you want and they won’t accept it. Every day you have the plates is costing an additional $7 after the $150. Get them back asap. I’m not sure what the secretary of state would know about plate requirements unless they’re a licensed P&C agent