Insurance Corner: The 7-Day Plate Transfer Rule
Sep 30, 2019 06:00AM ● By Pamela Johnson
Everyone seems to know something about the 7-day plate transfer rule allowed by the RMV and local police. Unfortunately, few seem to know the full legal criteria associated with this rule. In fact, if you ask around the coffee shop, you’re likely to get as many different answers as there are patrons.
We get calls from our clients every day regarding plate transfers, trade-ins, dealer sales and private passenger sales. Invariably the conversation turns to the legality of “attaching plates.” Our client, like you, wants the rules governing this convenient rule to fit their situation. Although we hate to be the bearer of bad news, often we have to explain their situation does not legally allow for the attachment of their plates to the replacement vehicle.
This inconvenient truth upsets our clients who are still in possession of their former vehicle which may be up for sale or simply be an undriveable, mechanical mess. In those cases, our client is still “in possession” of the former vehicle, so the rule doesn’t work for them. In certain other cases, our client is miffed over the start time of the 7- day rule because their former vehicle is long since gone, sold, traded or totaled, meaning their 7-day window has already closed.
To help rush along the necessary paperwork, we sometimes create the often used RMV1, scan it and send it to our client wherever they might be. At that point, they print it out and head to the RMV or local AAA office if they are an AAA member. But keep in mind that AAA offices don’t issue new license plates; they can only do transfers.
