Insuring Car Outside NY
We’re buying a weekend home in CT, and it just occurred to us that we could now change our car registration, legally and legitimately, to CT and thus pay lower insurance rates. Any reason not to do this? Given that Brooklyn is our primary home and we’ll be spending more of our time here, is…
We’re buying a weekend home in CT, and it just occurred to us that we could now change our car registration, legally and legitimately, to CT and thus pay lower insurance rates. Any reason not to do this? Given that Brooklyn is our primary home and we’ll be spending more of our time here, is there any advantage to keeping our NY registration?
Thanks for any insights!
I have a car now registered and insured in Brooklyn. I’d like to move registration/insurance to our weekend house, still in NY but outside NYC.
We drive the car back and forth so car is in Brooklyn 5 days a week, but we really only park it here — are repark once a week for street cleaning. I drive almost exclusively to/from the house and AT the house. I’m wondering if that would still be illegal — it’s about time spent driving/miles logged or time spent parked?
Disadvantage? Insurance fraud. Also, if you’re the sort of person who feels bad when they do something unethical, that might be a consideration. I would also think about going with another insurance broker.
illegal and risky. Not worth it if you have any assets.
I do this also > car registered in MA but drivers license in NY. It is perfectly legal to have NY license with out-of-state registration. Yes you will eventually run into problems if you are bad drivers that make lots of claims or get violations (tickets) in Brooklyn. Otherwise forget about it. The savings IMO are worth the risk, no matter what the other bitter people say. The money I am able to save per month in insurance, I pay for off-street parking….which greatly reduces my risk for “problems” not to mention hassle.
It is definately illegal to insure and register your car anywhere except your primary residence. Technically you are suppoused to transfer to the state plates even if you are at sleepaway college. The insurance companies have many ways they determine where your car is located. They check into repair shops where you fix your car, they check your voting , they check the tickets on the car and the drivers.. they check where you have claims, and they can and will deny claims if you falsify where you are at
I do it. I register in MA , where I have a home and where my DL is also and keep the car in Philly. The tax on the car was high the first year it was new but still less than the insurance difference and then it went down a lot in the second year.
If you have a major accident where someone gets killed and there’s a big lawsuit then I suspect they will actually investigate as to where it really has been.
Legit if you were moving to CT. If you left the car up there and took the train on weekends, I’m not sure. If the car is garaged or parked in Brooklyn, where you live, during the week and you drive it to CT on weekends then it’s not legit. You wouldn’t be the only one bending the rules (there’s no way all the PA plates I see are on cars owned by people who live in PA). You own 2 homes, & would make an attractive target for a lawsuit, do you really want to take the risk and commit fraud? You’d probably get away with it, but you’d hate to have an accident and have your insurance company trying to get out of paying.
Thanks everyone for your helpful input. I forgot about the CT property tax on cars thing that JoeBushwick mentioned, so will have to investigate that too. In the end it may not be worth the effort, as I’d have to change my driver’s license too. Will have to mull it further…
I actually believe it would be insurance fraud unless you used your car primarily at your weekend home. I do think people do it all the time, but that doesn’t make it right. Additionally, you wouldn’t want to be in a situation where you want to draw on your insurance and your provider refuses to pay because of this issue. Just my thoughts.