Does Your Vehicle Need To Be Registered

13 Does my vehicle have to be registered, even if I don't bulldoze it?

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This article is from the California Driving (and Surviving) FAQ, by "George J Wu" georgewu@netcom.com with numerous contributions past others.

13 Does my vehicle have to be registered, even if I don't drive it?

from dhepner@cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner) on 23 Dec 1992:

Normal registration fees are due if: The vehicle is parked on a public
street, or at any public parking facility in one case during the yr in question;
the vehicle is towed once on a public street during that year; and of
grade, if the vehicle is driven. One-trip permits allow for moving a
vehicle from 1 storage place to another, or to a repair facility, just
doing either without such a permit incurs the full fee. Off-highway fees
(commonly far less than normal registration) are due if the vehicle is
operated, or transported, off-highway within the land of CA.

Once due, these fees do not go away with the next year; rather the opposite
occurs, the fees are delinquent, implying a penalization. The longer they remain
delinquent, the greater the penalty. Each year adds new fees, and a new
punishment. Every bit bad as could exist imagined.

In that location does appear the _option_ of waiving the fees and penalties to new
owners, but CVC 9562 suggests that this should not exist expected if one buys a
vehicle with out-of-date plates. "Certificates of non-operation", which
claim that the vehicle never incurred the fee, are commonly used in
circumstances which would imply a massive liability, merely one must be signed
by each of the previous owners.

from capps@crash.cts.com (Melville Capps) Tue Dec 28 14:49:14 1993

There is at present a non-operational registration that must be used if the
vehicle is not going to be on the public streets (either driven or
parked). The not-operational registration costs $5 for the yr, and
you tin register the car at whatever time by sending in the registration
fees. Unfortunately the greedy DMV doesn't pro rate your registration.
The state raised over $1,000,000 in 1992 from the $v non-op fees. How
much coin the state grabbed by not pro rating the registrations on these
200,000 vehicles is anyone's approximate.

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