# Interstate vehicle registration



## prawn_86 (1 February 2011)

Hi All,

last night i was pulled over by the cops. I have SA plates on my car, and live in NSW. I told them when asked, i had been living here for a year.

They then issued me with a $430 fine for driving unlicensed, which i didnt know about. They said that you have to get your license changed within 3 months of moving interstate. I didnt know, but i doubt that is a good enough defence.

They also said my car is now considered unregistered. As far as i can tell this is correct, but the car is registered to my father, who has said he wants it to go back to SA eventually. Does anyone know if this still means that i need to change it over to NSW rego? And should i be driving it in the mean-time?


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## Smurf1976 (1 February 2011)

I don't know what the law is in other states, but here in Tas there is a time limit (3 months I think) by which time a car broght in from interstate has to be registered here.

I'm not certain if it's possible to get an exemption if you're on a 4 month holiday or it's a work vehicle being used on a specific one-off project etc. But certainly you can't just register the car in Vic, SA or wherever and keep driving it in Tas forever and I'd assume the rule is the same in the other states too.


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## Macquack (1 February 2011)

In hindsight, as both your drivers license and car registration were South Australian, you should have just said you were up in NSW on holiday. How would the police know any better?

What a rort, $430 for being honest.


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## tech/a (1 February 2011)

Hope the car is OK will go through a roadworthy in NSW.
If not Truck it back to SA.
Will be OK here.


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## motorway (1 February 2011)

Hey Prawn

If it is your fathers car
and he lives in SA

Surely you were just borrowing it ?

Is there a viable SA address ?

You may well have lived in NSW for 12 mths
But has your Father ?

You answered honestly
But I don't see what it has to do with you.

In this day and age State Borders in things like 
Rego Transfer are a real pain

Ran into the problem recently.

I would not drive it as the situation is now..
Need to clear it up I think.

Motorway


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## prawn_86 (1 February 2011)

Macquack said:


> In hindsight, as both your drivers license and car registration were South Australian, you should have just said you were up in NSW on holiday. How would the police know any better?
> 
> What a rort, $430 for being honest.




Hindsight is wonderful isn't it 

And yeh you think a warning would suffice but apparently not



motorway said:


> If it is your fathers car
> and he lives in SA
> 
> Surely you were just borrowing it ?
> ...




I agree with all your points. And yes to all the above, my father is prepared to say that it is his car etc

I'm just wondering if they have now flagged the plates as unregistered. *Does anyone know if/how i can check this?*


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## motorway (1 February 2011)

prawn_86 said:


> Hindsight is wonderful isn't it
> 
> And yeh you think a warning would suffice but apparently not
> 
> ...




Check on the web site for SA rego
With NSW you can do a check on the RTA site I am pretty sure
So maybe

http://www.ezyreg.sa.gov.au/ezyreg/default.htm

Or you could ring them up
Or better get your father to ring them up and explain 

"There has been a mix up" etc.

He can say he intends to drive car back to SA etc and wants to make sure that it is OK.

Motorway


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## moXJO (1 February 2011)

prawn_86 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> last night i was pulled over by the cops. I have SA plates on my car, and live in NSW. I told them when asked, i had been living here for a year.
> 
> They then issued me with a $430 fine for driving unlicensed, ?




It's a little welcome to the 'F**k You' state  


Same thing happened to me except I told them I still worked in QLD and was up and back between the two states (which I was at the time). So I was let go.
 Is your fathers address on your license? 
Did you borrow the car to bring some furniture/clothes back? 
Has the car been back to SA within the three months? 
Bit late now though, not really worth dicking around for $430
The new highway patrol cars can scan multiple number plates at a time and will pick your plates up as being tagged. Something to keep in mind.


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## tigerboi (2 February 2011)

prawn mate dont pay the fine take it to court & you will beat it...you must plead not guilty but with a reason.us professional drivers get fined for silly spelling mistakes such as boggabilla instead of boggabri total tools nsw rta.good luck

if you have to transport the car back to s.a. ring my company kitco transport we do lots of
cars interstate.


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## inq (2 February 2011)

Heh, I drove my car with QLD plates in SA for two years, pulled for brethos a handful and cops never said anything. Furthermore was in a crash a year and a half ago, once again the police said nothing.

NSW fails.


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## prawn_86 (2 February 2011)

moXJO said:


> The new highway patrol cars can scan multiple number plates at a time and will pick your plates up as being tagged. Something to keep in mind.




Yes, hence why i am wondering if i should drive it



tigerboi said:


> prawn mate dont pay the fine take it to court & you will beat it...you must plead not guilty but with a reason.us professional drivers get fined for silly spelling mistakes such as boggabilla instead of boggabri total tools nsw rta.good luck
> 
> if you have to transport the car back to s.a. ring my company kitco transport we do lots of cars interstate.




Its almost too much hassle. I would have to take a day off to lodge the claim, go to court etc. I make more money on a good day than the fine is worth. I know its a principle thing, but i am going to get it reffered just to **** them and waste more of thier time so i dont have to pay it as soon.

Re car transport, its not worth my while. Its a 17yo car (still in good nick) but has 340k km's on the meter so is probably due to die at some point. This is why i haven't changed the rego as im not sure how long i will have it for.



inq said:


> NSW fails.




Sure does.


So i have called both the RTA and the SA Transport division and they have both said that my plates can't be flagged if its across different states (personally im not sure about this), but as i have not been issued with an infringement for an unlicensed vehicle, then i can still drive it so long as i am 'returning' it back to SA. 

So looks like I should be fine to drive it, and if i get pulled over again say it is my fathers and that i am returning it to SA.


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## awg (2 February 2011)

prawn_86 said:


> Its almost too much hassle. I would have to take a day off to lodge the claim, go to court etc. I make more money on a good day than the fine is worth. I know its a principle thing, but i am going to get it reffered just to **** them and waste more of thier time so i dont have to pay it as soon.




My advice (not stock-related) is dont go to court, but make a submmission in writing.

Otherwise you may waste all day.

I submitted a letter detailing the circumstances that led me to be driving unreg 
( which also meant automatically unisured)..... so fine was $456 x 2....have they changed that?

anyway, fine was halved, which was a good result.

In your case you may be able to acheive an even better outcome

I sent mine submission via registered mail, but when I rang to check, they had misplaced it!

The court situation is not fun, and filled with assorted whining lawbreakers, urinaters, wife-beaters. 

The court staff generally reflect this outlook.

spent some time hanging round the court for work

(the last time I was called for Jury duty, the staff stuffed the jury pool around so much, that a near rebellion broke out amongst us...when the sheriff tried to shut us up, he was jeered, shouted at and abused by all of us, he was such a smartass)

because NSW has no $, the police seem to be on a major cash-raising exercise of late


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## prawn_86 (2 February 2011)

awg said:


> My advice (not stock-related) is dont go to court, but make a submmission in writing.
> 
> Otherwise you may waste all day.
> 
> ...




Yes i am planning to ask for a review but doubt i will take it to court.

I was only fined for driving unlicensed, no infringment issued for unregistered. As far as i can tell they cant issue an unregistered infringement, as it is registered to my father in SA.

I spoke to the police today also and they said i have 3 months to change the plates to NSW once i have a NSW drivers license (so it actually isn't unregistered as it has SA, but again i dont see how if i am pulled over again i cant just say that the car is my fathers and he is here visiting and will drive it back to SA.


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## starwars_guy456 (2 February 2011)

prawn_86 said:


> Yes i am planning to ask for a review but doubt i will take it to court.
> 
> I was only fined for driving unlicensed, no infringment issued for unregistered. As far as i can tell they cant issue an unregistered infringement, as it is registered to my father in SA.
> 
> I spoke to the police today also and they said i have 3 months to change the plates to NSW once i have a NSW drivers license (so it actually isn't unregistered as it has SA, but again i dont see how if i am pulled over again i cant just say that the car is my fathers and he is here visiting and will drive it back to SA.




I can see the police/government point of view as to why they would require a car to be registered to the jurisidiction once it's been three months. 

In Victoria we had a compulsory third party insurance (the Transport Accident Commission), which would pay funds out to victims of road accidents, irrespective of who was at fault. Driving a car unregistered in that jurisdiction, I imagine, would exclude anyone involved in an accident with that car to claim. Alternatively, the South Australian equivalent wouldn't want to pay out either...?

Sorry but I don't really have anything to help you with your questions prawn.

-Ed


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## tigerboi (2 February 2011)

my professional advice...take it to court but then again if $430 is chicken feed to you
then whats the drama? pay it &  cop it sweet...tb


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## prawn_86 (2 February 2011)

tigerboi said:


> then whats the drama? pay it &  cop it sweet...tb




Its not the fine im complaining about (although a warning would have been nice). Im just wondering if i can still drive my car on the SA plates.

As far as i can tell, from all research i have done, I can.


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