someone with way too much time on their hands and a LOT of angst ratted out Ed Sheeran for not having insurance on his 66 Aston Martin during the 5 years it was in a shop undergoing restoration... why the hell would you keep paying driving/operation insurance during a 5 year restoration?
I took my Mustang off the street recently for extended renovation and upgrades. I cancelled the insurance on it and ended up getting a letter in the mail from the state (Florida) that they would cancel the registration if I did not have insurance on it.
ReplyDeletedamn, that sounds like the insurance company notified the state to make sure they didn't miss out on profits!
DeleteLong reply:
DeleteIn Georgia too, the ins companies are Required to maintain the status of insurance with the state DMV , , the DMV maintains a database of VINs that have valid insurance,
if the insurance is cancelled on a car, the ins co updates the status in the state database, then you go to the DMV website and mark the license plate as sold or wrecked or whatever, the states computer is happy.
if the database indicates your license plate/ VIN is still active but is now without ins coverage the state sends you a letter and if you dont respond showing you sold the car or wrecked it or that its no longer being driven the state will suspend your drivers license.
Its kind of like the non-op thing in California, you have to tell the state youre not driving the vehicle on a public road and cancell the registration
the state did this to deal with the many many thousands of people who dont have insurance,
at one point, I think one out of three vehicles on the road in Georgia didnt have valid insurance
you have to show proof of insurance to register the car, but many people would either buy insurance , get the car registered and then cancell it the same day, or make a fake insurance card to show the DMV, by switching to electronic proof of ins, provided to the DMV by the ins companies, this prevents drivers from faking that they have insurance.
Georgia also will impound a vehicle if the states database says the vehicle doesnt have valid insurance and you have no hard copy of a policy or any electronic proof of insurance.
you get stopped for a minor violation, and dont have ins, your car gets impounded, if you pass a patrol car with the automated license plate reader, and the ALPR says you dont have insurance, it alerts the officer.
as for having ins on a collector car thats in a shop for a while, if my collector car was valuable, id want ins to cover it from fire, theft , and any other damage .
and Georgia and Florida allow you to register and use a Year Of Manufacture license plate up to 1989 model year vehicles.
if you have a 65 Ford Falcon you find a old 1965 Georgia license plate and if the tag number is not currently in use, the DMV will let you display that plate and they enter it into their computer as the plate thats registered to that vehicle. and I dont know how other states do it, but in Georgia the state does the drivers licenses, but the counties do the vehicle registration, and sell you the license plates the state provides them, and enters the info into the states computer.
thank you for taking the time to put all this in writing!
Delete" one out of three" WOW! I thought San Diego was BAD... but it's only 1 out of 5 here.
I'm all for insurance (but feel they are OVER charging us by 2X) and anything on the road, sure, must be insured.
But, like Ed said to the court, the restoration shop is the legal owner of the car when it's contracted to them to fix it (all the laws about until they hand you back the key, they own it (some really old laws known as Mechanics Lien) and they must carry insurance... not the car owner, during that time, and evidently, the court disagrees for some legal reason I did not learn, and fined him. Not maliciously, but relatively lightly, to make a point with a celeb, because of the free publicity it will bring, and here we are discussing it.
back to driving without insurance... so, why aren't Flock Cameras resulting in insurance fraud getting stopped? And driving without insurance getting tickets and tow trucks sent to the owners homes to collect based on the license plate readers... I don't know.
I love that some states are good with using old plates that are suitable to make cool old cars cooler - with a era correct plate