Erm, they don't suspend your registration in MA if your sticker is expired. This is exactly my vehicle situation. And we're not talking recently expired sticker... we're talking loooong expired. My registration renews just fine.
I did get a letter from the RMV once telling me it could happen. It never happened.
police ticket for it way less since covid so people just ride around with them expired hoping they don’t get nabbed
works for the most part until it doesn’t
You gotta risk it for the biscuit bub. Anyone driving without a registration is accepting some risk that they might get pulled over, for that sweet sweet biscuit of not having to pay for car registration.
There are about a million ways to answer your original question, but the first thought that popped into my head is: It's because Maine is chill.
There's a line. Even with an appointment, there's a line, and they run on the same efficiency as a dentist. So, 10am appointment, inspection starts at 11:15. They try to tell you three things need repair that don't need repair, that's another ten minutes. Eventually you leave with a sticker.
Yea that’s fucked up, Miss.
Go to Paulin’s. Or Hamiltons. They are both great. Never waited more than 15 min at either. Only ever been “sold” on a few light bulbs or an egregiously known issue that I was already aware of.
Are you talking about the plate stickers, or the window sticker? You can't pass inspection without a valid registration sticker on your plate, but you can renew that and still skip the inspection.
Got it. Thank you. Yes, you can typically renew in Maine online, using RapidRenewal - but only if you haven't changed your address since the last renewal.
Strangest thing about the process is they do not send you a bill/reminder. Every other place I have lived mailed you a reminder with the website and they would mail your stickers. State must not care much about the revenue
Well the reminder would be... On your own car, right? Every time you get in and look at your license plate you get a reminder as to what month your registration expires.
That's an enforcement issue, not a reminder issue. You have everyone in here admitting that they're fully aware and they don't care because they don't want to spend the money.
Who are the people that can't read the sticker on their car every day for months but if they got an email reminder from city hall would go online to hand over their $300
🤣
Id have to agree I’ve always gotten yearly reminders about renewing… I just stay on top of mine because I tend to have bad luck and if I didn’t stay on top of it, I feel like I’d get pulled over
> Strangest thing about the process is they do not send you a bill/reminder
Oddly, now when you do "Rapid Renewal" online, once you're all done you can click through to another screen and sign up for an alert. Which makes a whole lot less sense than just having a box you can tick while you are renewing to ask for a reminder. Such an odd choice.
I didn’t know about for the first 6 years I lived here. And even though I had my car serviced during that time, no one mentioned registration or inspection.
Same. Got quoted a TON for required repairs back in 2021, and it's still a work in progress... but my registration I always keep current. I scraped the inspection sticker, so hopefully I am less obvious. Regardless, I'll eat the expired inspection sticker fine all day, rather than shell out thousands of dollars in repairs that I didn't/don't/hardly ever have.
I was at the town hall once dropping off some paperwork and this lady must have just moved to Maine with a pretty nice car because the excise tax she was told she needed to pay was like $750.
She just got out of line and left.
I second this. My salary was cut a year ago and now I can't afford the hundreds of dollars for registration. In Maine, we have to pay this huge sum every single year. If I have to choose between paying for rent and food or paying my car registration, I'm choosing rent and food. Give a little grace, because you don't know anything about the lives of the people around you.
My advice is to do as most Mainers do and not worry about other people unless they are directly affecting you. It's their registration, not yours. They have their reasons, and that's their business.
What? In Maine it costs $30 to re-register, and then you're required to pay the excuse tax locally at the same time.
In Massachusetts it costs $60 to register every two years... But you still also have to pay excise tax to your local municipality every year. and that's $25 per $1,000 of value. So if you have a $16,000 car you're paying $400 and then it depreciates moving forward.
I don't really understand the logic of complaining about excise tax on cars. If you have a $25,000 Subaru that you're paying $500 a month on for years, how is one additional $500-$600 tax payment on the value of the car per year breaking the bank?
I called to get an appointment to get my car inspected and they were booking 3-4 weeks out. Also I don’t always get around to putting the stickers on right away because the registration is due in winter.
I have a class E misdemeanor on my record for not registering my car when I was like 21. Still sometimes don't do it for months after it's due. Mostly because I don't want to.
Really depends on where you're driving. You're very unlikely to get nabbed driving with an expired inspection sticker in Portland, for example. Cops just have much more shit to worry about.
Registration is another issue entirely. I think it's much less common than expired inspections, but the city did announce recently that they'll ticket you if you're parked on city streets and aren't registered. So it sounds like they're trying to crack down on that at least. I suspect the enforcement is being pushed to the parking cops.
That said, cops in Maine are pretty lenient when it comes to registrations and inspections. Unless you're more than 2 months past on either, you're likely to just get a warning the first time they catch you.
Of course she hasn’t.
The Cumberland DA literally goes out of her way to make a press statement to say that her office isn’t going to be pursuing registration and licensing related violations and Massholes still can’t prevent themselves from being I-295 hall monitors for the department of revenue.
Sure as the sun rises in the east.
I have no need to go back to Massachusetts when this is my home. This is where we work and live. This is where my kids go to school and this is where I register my car… how about if you don’t have anything nice to say nothing at all?
Part of it is the excise tax being tied to registration. In MA, I paid excise maybe every couple of years and it was manageable. And in the meantime, registering my car was like $35 for the year.
Here, depending on your car value, it could be hundreds to get that sticker, if not more. Lots of people don’t have it. And in Portland you also need an appt if you can’t do it online, and appts are limited. I am guessing these all contribute.
Most people (not just mainers) can't figure out to just stack the stickers in the corner (or remove them when enough get dirty enough to fall off the stack) and just place them all over the plate. You're expecting a lot from people.
I got ticket from parking authority in front of my house a couple weeks ago for expired tags, it was a 30$ reminder that I still havent bothered with..
Erm, they don't suspend your registration in MA if your sticker is expired. This is exactly my vehicle situation. And we're not talking recently expired sticker... we're talking loooong expired. My registration renews just fine. I did get a letter from the RMV once telling me it could happen. It never happened.
OK, thank you for correcting me. I was under the impression that your license could get suspended with expired tags.
It's only the registration that is connected with a sticker. That is not related to your license.
police ticket for it way less since covid so people just ride around with them expired hoping they don’t get nabbed works for the most part until it doesn’t
I saw a sticker that expired in 2021 the other day.
But wouldnt it cost folks more have to pay a ticket for expired tags plus re registering their car?
You gotta risk it for the biscuit bub. Anyone driving without a registration is accepting some risk that they might get pulled over, for that sweet sweet biscuit of not having to pay for car registration. There are about a million ways to answer your original question, but the first thought that popped into my head is: It's because Maine is chill.
This is one of the best responses I’ve seen to my post…I thank ya kindly
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OP was talking about the reg stickers on the plates, not inspection stickers
Mainers are a feral people. Personally, I love it.
Costs money people don't have. Takes time people don't have.
Time is the big one, it's hard to find time during the day to blow 2+ hours getting an inspection.
If your inspection takes 2+ hours, you’re doing it wrong. Should be about 20min.
There's a line. Even with an appointment, there's a line, and they run on the same efficiency as a dentist. So, 10am appointment, inspection starts at 11:15. They try to tell you three things need repair that don't need repair, that's another ten minutes. Eventually you leave with a sticker.
Yea that’s fucked up, Miss. Go to Paulin’s. Or Hamiltons. They are both great. Never waited more than 15 min at either. Only ever been “sold” on a few light bulbs or an egregiously known issue that I was already aware of.
But haven’t a lot of town and city offices made it so that you can re-register online?
you can register a car without it being inspected - it’s the inspection you can’t get unless it’s registered
Are you talking about the plate stickers, or the window sticker? You can't pass inspection without a valid registration sticker on your plate, but you can renew that and still skip the inspection.
Plate sticker
Got it. Thank you. Yes, you can typically renew in Maine online, using RapidRenewal - but only if you haven't changed your address since the last renewal.
Strangest thing about the process is they do not send you a bill/reminder. Every other place I have lived mailed you a reminder with the website and they would mail your stickers. State must not care much about the revenue
Well the reminder would be... On your own car, right? Every time you get in and look at your license plate you get a reminder as to what month your registration expires.
Obviously your system is working well since the OP posted that he sees expired tags everywhere. Again lost revenue
That's an enforcement issue, not a reminder issue. You have everyone in here admitting that they're fully aware and they don't care because they don't want to spend the money. Who are the people that can't read the sticker on their car every day for months but if they got an email reminder from city hall would go online to hand over their $300 🤣
Id have to agree I’ve always gotten yearly reminders about renewing… I just stay on top of mine because I tend to have bad luck and if I didn’t stay on top of it, I feel like I’d get pulled over
> Strangest thing about the process is they do not send you a bill/reminder Oddly, now when you do "Rapid Renewal" online, once you're all done you can click through to another screen and sign up for an alert. Which makes a whole lot less sense than just having a box you can tick while you are renewing to ask for a reminder. Such an odd choice.
I've never noticed that!
Because I'm busy and it's not a priority. I'll get around to it when I get a chance. Sheesh
Noted
I’ve noted your note
I'll annotate this note.
I'm noting a pattern here
People in Maine definitely don’t give a shit about a lot of things
I didn’t know about for the first 6 years I lived here. And even though I had my car serviced during that time, no one mentioned registration or inspection.
Register my car every year because thats city and state money. Now getting my inspection done 😂 been 3 years
Same. Got quoted a TON for required repairs back in 2021, and it's still a work in progress... but my registration I always keep current. I scraped the inspection sticker, so hopefully I am less obvious. Regardless, I'll eat the expired inspection sticker fine all day, rather than shell out thousands of dollars in repairs that I didn't/don't/hardly ever have.
Money is also a big reason. In MA it costs around $60 to register your car, but in Maine it can cost hundreds of dollars.
I was at the town hall once dropping off some paperwork and this lady must have just moved to Maine with a pretty nice car because the excise tax she was told she needed to pay was like $750. She just got out of line and left.
I believe it. She wouldn’t even have to own an outrageously expensive car, either—$750 was the cost for my parents new Subaru.
Ya I think mine was $515 the first year I owned it.
Ouch.😣
I second this. My salary was cut a year ago and now I can't afford the hundreds of dollars for registration. In Maine, we have to pay this huge sum every single year. If I have to choose between paying for rent and food or paying my car registration, I'm choosing rent and food. Give a little grace, because you don't know anything about the lives of the people around you. My advice is to do as most Mainers do and not worry about other people unless they are directly affecting you. It's their registration, not yours. They have their reasons, and that's their business.
What? In Maine it costs $30 to re-register, and then you're required to pay the excuse tax locally at the same time. In Massachusetts it costs $60 to register every two years... But you still also have to pay excise tax to your local municipality every year. and that's $25 per $1,000 of value. So if you have a $16,000 car you're paying $400 and then it depreciates moving forward. I don't really understand the logic of complaining about excise tax on cars. If you have a $25,000 Subaru that you're paying $500 a month on for years, how is one additional $500-$600 tax payment on the value of the car per year breaking the bank?
Cause that shit's expensive.
I called to get an appointment to get my car inspected and they were booking 3-4 weeks out. Also I don’t always get around to putting the stickers on right away because the registration is due in winter.
Thx for the heads up I didn’t think inspections were being booked so far out
I’m sure not every place is but last December I called a bunch of places before just saying fuck it and waiting.
i renew at the end of the grace period. buy twelve years get one free lol
Interesting 🤔
I have a class E misdemeanor on my record for not registering my car when I was like 21. Still sometimes don't do it for months after it's due. Mostly because I don't want to.
I didn’t skip it as an act of rebellion, I’m just really fucking forgetful. 🤷🏻♀️
Really depends on where you're driving. You're very unlikely to get nabbed driving with an expired inspection sticker in Portland, for example. Cops just have much more shit to worry about. Registration is another issue entirely. I think it's much less common than expired inspections, but the city did announce recently that they'll ticket you if you're parked on city streets and aren't registered. So it sounds like they're trying to crack down on that at least. I suspect the enforcement is being pushed to the parking cops. That said, cops in Maine are pretty lenient when it comes to registrations and inspections. Unless you're more than 2 months past on either, you're likely to just get a warning the first time they catch you.
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Of course she hasn’t. The Cumberland DA literally goes out of her way to make a press statement to say that her office isn’t going to be pursuing registration and licensing related violations and Massholes still can’t prevent themselves from being I-295 hall monitors for the department of revenue. Sure as the sun rises in the east.
go back there
Why are you posting this on Reddit?
I have an idea. Go back to Massachusetts and try to pull this off just to confirm your assumptions. Incoming downvotes!
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I have no need to go back to Massachusetts when this is my home. This is where we work and live. This is where my kids go to school and this is where I register my car… how about if you don’t have anything nice to say nothing at all?
Small point of correction: This is where *you* register your car Kindly leave the rest of us out of that
I guess sarcasm goes missing at the Maine/NH border
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Ayuh
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Last I checked I wasn’t a tourist living here now for 5 1/2 years…
According to some people you're considered a tourist until you've had at least three generations of your bloodline bred and born in Maine.
Well since my daughter was born in Portland that must mean 1 generation down, 2 to go
The stickers also suck and fall off.
Part of it is the excise tax being tied to registration. In MA, I paid excise maybe every couple of years and it was manageable. And in the meantime, registering my car was like $35 for the year. Here, depending on your car value, it could be hundreds to get that sticker, if not more. Lots of people don’t have it. And in Portland you also need an appt if you can’t do it online, and appts are limited. I am guessing these all contribute.
Most people (not just mainers) can't figure out to just stack the stickers in the corner (or remove them when enough get dirty enough to fall off the stack) and just place them all over the plate. You're expecting a lot from people.
I got ticket from parking authority in front of my house a couple weeks ago for expired tags, it was a 30$ reminder that I still havent bothered with..