The Expert Podcast

So what is going on with the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles and titles and registrations? A lot of crazy news is happening out of Vermont. First of all, in 2024, the year has started, and there's a whole lot of new laws that are going to affect titling and registrations in the state of Vermont, as well as some enforcement, maybe some drama, or some controversy with some of their employees.

The first thing is that last year, in 2023, the infamous Vermont title loophole was canceled. Vermont stopped issuing out-of-state registrations unless you were a Vermont resident or you got permission from your state to do the Vermont loophole. Most states won't do that. That happened in June of '23. Now it gets worse; in 2024, they're not even issuing registrations for vehicles older than 15 years old. You have to go through the process of getting a title, even if you're a Vermont resident. How does that affect current registration holders? Here's an example of a couple: the Maxwells went to the Mure DMV to get a new registration for a 2005 Jeep. Because the vehicle's over 15 years old, they were able to get a registration without a title in the past, but now all vehicles will need a title regardless of age. So anybody who had, let's say this 2005 G, maybe you had it for five or six years; you never had a title; now what are you going to do, right? All of the people who had out-of-state Vermont registrations are going to be voided anyway; they'll be canceled. But if you already registered a vehicle with your Vermont registration, or if it's coming from out of state, that's going to be a problem. There's a process to use the VIN number and affidavit to register the car if you are a Vermont resident. They're also upping their fees; they're jacking up the fees even more than they were before.

Now, what about the other news? There was a DMV enforcement director, not just an employee, the director of enforcement. He was placed on administrative leave. This person used to be a police officer, and there's supposedly an FBI investigation involved with this case. We don't know if they're investigating him or something else, but this guy is out of a job right now. He got the job in August, just a few months ago. He was previously the police chief of a small town and a detective. He went to the DMV to be their enforcement director, and now he's on leave and there's an FBI investigation. What could that be about? Did he do something wrong? Did he support somebody else doing something wrong? It'll be interesting to see how the Vermont DMV is affected by their enforcement director under an FBI investigation, and maybe it's the whole division that has some problems. Stay tuned; we'll see you in the next video.