Florida Tag/Title Question

[2Humans3Dogs]

Just set up our mail forwarding address with St. Brendan's Isle today, so we officially have our Florida address now. Now we need to send in the paperwork to get our Florida titles and tags for our car and motorhome. My understanding is they will process the paperwork and then contact us when it's ready and we can travel down and complete the process and actually get our tags and also get our FL drivers licenses at the same time . Do we have to have our insurance changed over to the FL address before we mail in the paperwork or is is sufficient to have it when we actually go down and pick up the tags and get the DLs? We are currently insured in GA and our home sales November 22nd. Thanks for any insight.

[rmarling]

Not sure about the pre-process, but when I came to Florida, I still had my insurance through my carrier out of Indiana until my renewal, then I changed it over. I changed my tags and got my FL drivers license no problem. Be prepared to wait, the license,tags,property tax etc... is all combined in one office. Take a number,take a seat, wait.

[cavie]

Originally Posted by rmarling

Not sure about the pre-process, but when I came to Florida, I still had my insurance through my carrier out of Indiana until my renewal, then I changed it over. I changed my tags and got my FL drivers license no problem. Be prepared to wait, the license,tags,property tax etc... is all combined in one office. Take a number,take a seat, wait.

Been here for 68 years

[Podivin]

The only way to get the RIGHT answer would be to call the folks where you're going to be picking up the plates. You know how difficult some of these places/people can be. When you say "but, the folks in iRV2 said I would/wouldn't need that" I don't think that's going to carry any weight with them.

Of the choices in Clay county (which I THINK is where you'll be going), I'd choose the one in Green Cove springs. Smaller town, which will hopefully translate into a shorter waiting period.

477 Houston St.
Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
904-284-6320
Mon-Fri 8:30am-5:00pm

https://www.flhsmv.gov/locations/clay/

[timjet]

Yes the wait time can be significant. I bought our MH in Ft. Myers and titled/tagged it there. It took 2 hrs to get it done.
Where I live in Pasco County just north of Tampa, when I re-register our toys and cars the wait time is seldom longer than 15 min.

[aether_one]

Since you have to show up in person anyway I'm not sure what the advantage is to sending anything ahead of time. You can do it all at the same time.

You generally will need your Florida Drivers License before you can title/register the vehicles. Florida has implemented the Real ID licenses so you need to bring your life history to get that drivers license. Check their website for what you'll need.

Generally you just need a Proof of Insurance card to register the vehicle. They are usually not state specific so as long as you're insured you check that box, it doesn't have to be a Florida policy.

And my recommendation for which office to go to would be the Lake Butler Tac Collector office in Union County; very nice people there and rarely a wait.

[skypilot_1]

Auto insurance is rated and quoted by state. They definitely have to know the state of home base as the premium is base on that area. The proof of insurance card will have a state name printed on it.
If you show a insurance card for any state other than FL, they won't accept it for tags. And you do not have to have a driver license from same state that tags are in. We only have one driver license obviously. We own vehicles insured and tagged in other states.
You can get FL tags from any county in state you choose. For 1st time vehicle tag, FL charges an impact fee on top of registration/title fees. You can get FL tag/registration without taking vehicle into state. Just get VIN verification form signed by LEO from any state.
But as we all like to say....no state income tax
We've had FL driver's license since 1962.

[arcaguy]

When I registered a vehicle in Florida a few years ago it was a fairly simple process. I took all of the pertinent paperwork to the tax collector's office and was done in an hour or so as I recall. Since you are "moving" to Florida I would get my insurance through an Florida agency, it helps establish residency, that's what I did. However get ready to write a reasonably hefty check. As I recall it was around $600 or so to register a truck, motorcycle and boat. There is a fee for bringing vehicles into the state. Again I see no advantage to doing anything beforehand, it wasn't that hard, but I guess that's already done. Good luck.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by tfryman

Since you have to show up in person anyway I'm not sure what the advantage is to sending anything ahead of time. You can do it all at the same time.

You generally will need your Florida Drivers License before you can title/register the vehicles.

Not true, had 2 boats, a car and MH with Florida tags and still had my NY license.

Insurance is state spicific. I called my company and gave them a effective date for FL insurance.

To the OP, you can call the Tax Collector and do tags over the phone. They mailed me mine to NY.

[Jlo11111]

Originally Posted by 2Humans3Dogs

Just set up our mail forwarding address with St. Brendan's Isle today, so we officially have our Florida address now. Now we need to send in the paperwork to get our Florida titles and tags for our car and motorhome. My understanding is they will process the paperwork and then contact us when it's ready and we can travel down and complete the process and actually get our tags and also get our FL drivers licenses at the same time . Do we have to have our insurance changed over to the FL address before we mail in the paperwork or is is sufficient to have it when we actually go down and pick up the tags and get the DLs? We are currently insured in GA and our home sales November 22nd. Thanks for any insight.

There is no need to do any of this in advance. You have to go to the tax collectors office in person and they will take care of everything (registration, licenses, hard plates and voting). It took us less than an hour. You need 2 items that prove you are Florida residents before you go to the tax collector. We chose proof of RV insurance and a bank statement. Before you go, establish RV insurance attached to the St. Brendan's Isle address. THIS IS A MUST! Find a Florida RV insurance provider (we use Good Sam) and they will date it to start the day you've choosen to become a FL resident. Bring that proof of insurance with you. Also, change your home address with your bank (or some official entity) to the new address. Print out a statement with that new address and bring it with you. We have USAA and it was quite easy to do, but you could do this with Fidelity or Vanguard or whoever. Also, bring 2 forms of ID. We chose birth certificates and passports. State issued drivers license work too. The first time registration for our RV was $460, but it drops to $90 thereafter. I think the total for reg, tags, and licenses was around $600. We even got to choose our own license plate design (they have dozens to choose from) and they hand it to you on the spot along with your new licences and registration. Couldn't have been quicker or easier.

[tbos1958]

I own a 5th wheel so my experience may be a little different. I use SBI too. I sent all the information to Clay County including I the check and received my plates in less than a week. The license plate of the 5er is now the first line on our driver’s licenses. We made an appointment in Green Cove Springs for 10:00 on a Thursday. We showed up 5 minutes early and got our number. Before we could sit down they called our number. We registered our truck and received our DLs at the same time. We were done in less than 45 minutes. You will need Florida proof of insurance for your motor vehicles. I’m pretty sure that will include the MH. I had changed several accounts over to the SBI address and that helped prove we were really going to be FL residents. We had our passports and SS cards with us. The people in the CC Tax Collectors office were polite and friendly. I’ve never experienced anything like it in MD. The personnel in the voters registration office were the same way. Don’t be afraid to call SBI and ask questions. They are also very helpful. We did call the tax office once while completing the forms ahead of time and they helped them too. You’ll be surprised at how smoothly it will go if you have all the documentation and forms completed ahead of time.

[oatmeal]

Originally Posted by tfryman

You generally will need your Florida Drivers License before you can title/register the vehicles.

Originally Posted by tbos1958

I use SBI too. ... The license plate of the 5er is now the first line on our driver’s licenses.

I've heard this before--that the license plate of the RV is used as the address for SBI customers' driver's licenses. That would indicate that the driver's license comes after registering the vehicles, not before, for SBI customers.

[Jlo11111]

Originally Posted by oatmeal

I've heard this before--that the license plate of the RV is used as the address for SBI customers' driver's licenses. That would indicate that the driver's license comes after registering the vehicles, not before, for SBI customers.

This was not my experience and I became a FL resident in Feb 2019, not that things couldnt have changed. Since the tax collector office does your reg and license and plates all at once, it probably isn't an issue if you just go to the office and have them do it all at once. My licence plate is not the address on my driver's license. The address on my license is the address of the Good Sam mail forwarding location plus a unit number. I also remember reading something strange going on at SBI earlier this year that didn't seem to affect other mail forwarding services.

[2Humans3Dogs]

Thanks for all the replies. We have decided to just go in and do the tag/title/DL/voting stuff all at once and not mail anything in ahead of time. Too complicated. The Green Cove Springs location is by appointment only when transferring an out of state license over, so I've already set that up and we can do the rest while there (hopefully not too terribly long).