The Expert Podcast

Here's another question we get all the time about the Vermont registration Process Yes Look this Vermont What They call loophole We don't like to call it a loophole but people call it that So you know we go where the where the The well how the people are referring to it
Is a method that's been considered valid by many official sources Here's Haggerty insurance one of the largest insurance companies for classic vehicles
They had an article on her Website about somebody who used the loophole And how he got a title for his vehicle happened to be an old Lotus using this Vermont to loophole And you notice there's a Vermont license plate on the car car and driver has featured it Even major automotive publications like Jalopnik have included it Look you may run into trouble with some DMVs in your state trying to switch over But it's usually just the person at the window who doesn't know about this it's a legal Registration For a vehicle And whether Or not You You know you get it through Your state's That's a different story But You shouldn't be driving around on it That's the question that comes up Well can I just put the plates on it and drive it on Vermont plates No don't do that
We're not attorneys We're not giving you legal advice but Almost every state has a law that says if you're a resident of that state you have to have your car registered in that state You can't register it somewhere else and zoom around in your state That's probably illegal in your state Check your laws Check with an attorney But the idea of this is not to put the Vermont plate on your car Like this guy did And zoom around with it The idea is that it's a kind of a stepping stone for you to say well here's a way that I can get some verification validation of my ownership Through Vermont through you know A legitimate government agency and then use that To get Something From my state It's like a Stepping stone You're not supposed to slap that plate on there and drive around Here's why Your state almost certainly has a law that says as a resident of the state you have to switch over Any out-of-state plates Within 30 days and people think well that gives me a 30 day grace period Well that's not true That just means if you move from another state it means that you have 30 days from when you become a resident to switch over You're already a resident You don't you've been a resident for more than 30 days You can't be driving on an out of state plate In your state if you do and the car gets pulled over They can seize your car They can consider it You know Evasion or whatever there the law says Remember we're not attorneys Don't take legal advice from us But we're just telling you that the idea is not for you to put the plates on and go drive it around The idea is to use this As It means Like A stepping stone And it gets something That's legit Legitimate Because all you have As A bill of sale bill of sales not good enough to get title in most states There's some other options besides Vermont you might want to consider those like a bonded title or a court order title But if you do insist on wanting to use this because it seems cool to use this loophole Go ahead But don't use the plates Because you can get in trouble Nine times out of 10 maybe you won't but here's the thing This article It's been very popular There's another article Let me show it to you So here's another article This came from Jalopnik one of the largest automotive enthusiast publications in the country And it says the Vermont DMV is America's DMV So secretly well it's not so secret Government Agencies know about this police departments know about this DMVs all across the country know about this They see these all the time coming in And me of the time you bring them a Vermont registration Vermont plate Great You bring It to your state you Switch it over Most Most people I don't have Any problem With that Occasionally you get one employee at a DMV that might not know what it is or give you a hard time but most of the time you're good to go But what they don't want to do is see this license plate on your car They don't want to see this Because the police know about this It's not like they're not stupid Right They know that this Vermont loophole exists So if you're driving around in Texas with a Vermont plate They're going to want to know why and they can run that plate And that plate will come back to your car with your address where you live because when you get a Vermont registration it has your address in your state You don't have to have a Vermont address You can get a Vermont registration as an out-of-state resident So your registration will show your address In your state So when they run your plate And they see that it comes back to a local address You're going to see blue lights And I'm going To pull you Over Nick and Hey what's Going on
And And Most states have a law that says your vehicle is subject to seizure and forfeiture They might not do that They might not go to that extreme but why risk it Right A lot of people think well I already paid for the registration so why not just use it Well the registration is $76 Right and also give you a little hint If you Order from us We'll give you some Tricks on how to maybe get that back get that refunded Either way don't use the license plate because all it does is put you at risk You're going to have to switch it over to your state anyway At some point so do it right away And that way you'll have good valid documents in your state And not have to worry about looking over your shoulder because you have green Vermont plates sticking out like a sore thumb Especially if you're far away from Vermont you know if you're in New York Pennsylvania New Jersey canal Rhode Island you know they see Vermont plates cause they'll state you're close together
But if If you're anywhere Where More than two Two or three A hundred miles away from Vermont
People are looking at this and saying wait a minute You know the police have meetings they know about these things
Some states put out bulletins on a regular basis be on the lookout for green license plates from Vermont run the plate They're not gonna just pull everybody over because some people are traveling But you don't want to be the one that gets pulled over your car gets impounded It gets towed in and then you're back to square one Don't use the plates It's not good Right And also before you do this process you might want to even check with your state Look I'm not going to have a problem with switching over this They might suggest another option like a bonded title court order title Prior on our contact There's other methods of getting a title besides just Vermont We talk about that all the time But if you decide to do it that's fine Just make sure that you know what you're getting into Because It may not be the best way for whatever reason Some clients just want to do it because they want To do a Loophole everybody Nobody wants to do Something that's A secret Secret Loophole secret Right That's very appealing The do something that maybe you think you're getting away with something You're really not But if you're using the plates you're just putting yourself at risk Let us know what questions you have in the comments If you've been through this process before Millions of people have done it over the years We've seen this going back as early as the early two thousands 2003 2004 almost 20 years ago
People have been doing this Cars motorcycles SUV's vans All kinds of vehicles even boats and vessels Can do this So tell us what your experiences If you were a police officer or DMV let us know what you see with this Do you see these coming in or people bringing you these Vermont registrations to change over at your DMV office We'd love to see that