Leaving California

[FledCali]

Wife and I are in the planning stages of leaving California and setting up domicile in FL likely using MyRVmail. We will be selling house but would love to hear those that have left California on things we should do to ensure we make a clean break. Appreciate the insights

[markandkim]

You are escaping california.
Congrats.

[propchef]

Originally Posted by markandkim

You are escaping california.
Congrats.

We're going through the same thing and we'll miss it dearly. We've enjoyed our time here (15 years) and will leave with great memories.

Good luck OP. I'm following this tread for good advice.

[Danny969]

We sold our house in CA and became Floridians a few years ago. We're full timers so we got an address with Good Sam Mail (America's Mailbox). Our bank was online so we changed our address with them to the Good Sam mailbox address and had the bank send us a statement acknowledging our new address. We got insurance for our RV using the Good Sam address. We then went to the Okaloosa County tax collector with our docs and ID and they gave us our new licences, registration, tags, voter reg, etc with the Good Sam mailbox address. We let the post office know our new address. As an extra step we filed a declaration of domicile with the Okaloosa clerk of the court. I don't think this is necessary, but we did it anyway to stick it in CAs face if they tried to come after us. Unless you're really wealthy I don't think you need to worry, just make sure you sever any ties with any professional or financial orgs in CA.

[FledCali]

Originally Posted by Danny969

We sold our house in CA and became Floridians a few years ago. We're full timers so we got an address with Good Sam Mail (America's Mailbox). Our bank was online so we changed our address with them to the Good Sam mailbox address and had the bank send us a statement acknowledging our new address. We got insurance for our RV using the Good Sam address. We then went to the Okaloosa County tax collector with our docs and ID and they gave us our new licences, registration, tags, voter reg, etc with the Good Sam mailbox address. We let the post office know our new address. As an extra step we filed a declaration of domicile with the Okaloosa clerk of the court. I don't think this is necessary, but we did it anyway to stick it in CAs face if they tried to come after us. Unless you're really wealthy I don't think you need to worry, just make sure you sever any ties with any professional or financial orgs in CA.

Thanks Danny this is great. We are so over California that we are also going to change our cell phones to Florida numbers.

[momdoc]

Congrats on the great "escape".

We have been full time for awhile with no S&B anywhere. We use St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs for our domicile for mail, Driver's lic, voter reg and so forth. No problems. We have used them for the last 8 years; 3 years in the RV and over 5 years while we lived in the Dominican Republic.

[FLJOE]

If you don't own any property or businesses in your home state then it really isn't a big deal to change over. We just happened to have a single retired friend who had moved to central Florida so we use her address as our legal address. Been full time traveling in the RV since 2012 with zero issues and part of my retirement comes from my home state.

[SLOweather]

In my experience after leaving CA 2 years ago for IL, CA DMV did not make it easy to figure out how to tell them the truck and motorhome were reregistered in IL. Due to Covid at the time I could never get a live person to answer the phone. Go to DMV in person before you leave and figure out the forms you need.

[Mzbrandi]

When I left CA 8 years ago for SD, CA sent me a notice that they were going to sent my registration fees to a collection agency. I sent them a letter back stating “go ahead and wait in line” and that I had moved to SD and that I had submitted forms to get a refund that I’m still waiting for. Haven’t heard a word since then.

Brandi

[paul65k]

CA seems to really "Need" money

We had moved to AZ almost 6 years previously and sold our last property in CA. They proceeded to withhold 3% of the sales price when we closed escrow and had to file a return to receive our $50K+ withholding. They proceeded to hold on to the $ for almost 6 months after filing the return asking for more and more information PROVING we actually didn't live in CA.

We did finally get our $ but it was 6 months of back and forth..... crazy that I spent most of my life in that beautiful place that has [ moderator edit]

[YC1]

We had a good mail service in Florida when we moved here almost ten years ago from Ca.

We have been using the UPS store as our legal address for quite some time and can have mail forwarded anytime and when in the area have access 24/7 to our mail box.

There is no DMV here, they are tax collectors or agents and you will be amazed at how efficient and professional they are.

Make an appointment and take your paperwork and insurance stuff to them of course.

Be prepared for a bit of a shock when they tell you what it cost! We were paying close to $1800 a year for our RV and at least $800 for our vehicle.

I think it was a little over $100 for the first year of the RV. You will get a bit of a bite the first registration go around. There was a charge for the plates, something to the tune of $600 for tags and plates. As the nice person helping us cringed and said an apologetic "sorry", we began chuckling and she asked what we were so amused by.

"Mam, you just have no idea" was our response. I think we pay about $90 a yr for the rv now.

Do note you cannot keep a registered vehicle here without insurance. Since we could afford to replace one of our used vehicles thought there was no need to keep insurance on it. Almost went to the slammer. What a surprise that was. Weird quirk in there system there for sure but the insurance was cheap enough. Something about the no fault nature of the beast.

When you sell a vehicle you keep the plate and can move it to a new one.

As for the weather. If you live in the middle areas of the state the humidity is intense. Yes hot as Calif in the central valley and you will drown in the Summer as it rains every afternoon. I mean it comes down in buckets and rains lightening.

Coming from Northern Ca we were used to the heat and spend the Summers in the AC most of the time but tried to escape as much as health and covid allows.

Traffic has become astonishingly heavy in the I4 corridor in the last ten years. It is like LA traffic at times for sure.

The state is beautiful and well run. Welcome to the neighborhood.

[Danny969]

I will add one more thing. Vehicle insurance rates vary widely depending on what Florida county you declare as your domicile. If you're going full-time use a mail forwarding company in a county with lowest rates. If you Google enough you can find a county by county list of vehicle insurance rate averages. We chose Good Sam Mail out of Okaloosa county because Okaloosa is on the lower end of insurance rates. We're paying $1100/year for our Class B.

[bigchick]

taxes can cause an issue. if you have an income stream that has california income taxes withheld you are going to have to change that. we had to file an extra year of california income tax returns in order to get the california state income tax that was withheld refunded. it was just a pain having to still deal with california tax returns even though we had been out of the state for awhile.

also watch any medical insurance you have in effect in california. once you move you should cancel it / transfer it to a policy in your new location. you don't want to have to use the california based insurance at a place that they consider 'out of network' where they pay a lot less.

[jeskibuff]

Originally Posted by paul65k

CA seems to really "Need" money

[Mod Edit]

I left NY 4 decades ago for many of the same reasons: high taxes, poor services, etc. Even after losing millions of residents they haven't learned anything and have only gotten worse.