Registration and Titling of our Fifth Wheel

In the USA you are given “title” for your vehicle to prove ownership and registration from what I understand is your “tags” so the dealer will FedEx the paperwork to you which needs to be signed and witnessed by a Public Notary. A public notary is similar to a JP just internationally recognised, they are usually lawyers with 15 years experience or more. Shop around as they charge per signature witnessed. This can be $70 for the first witnessed signature to $199 for 3? I got all 3 done for $80. One of the forms is a “power of attorney” so the dealer can provide you with 30 day tags. In Australia the dealer just registers the vehicle no problems, no power of attorney needed. This was another trap, we had to give power of attorney to the dealer first (30 day tags) and then again to my brother in law so he could register it in both our names in his home state of Ohio, another $30 for the public notary. As the 30 days tags had run out we then had to pay a “penalty” of $30 to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Ohio.
Tags are self explanatory in that if gives you 30 days of registration. This seems to be the norm in the USA and makes sense as people often travel across states to purchase vehicles and then register them in their home state.

Well all was going just great until….
My brother in law attempted to register our trailer in Ohio and even with power of attorney it was impossible. Since 9/11 everything has changed but in short because the US does not have identity cards they use among other things a SSN or Social Security Number and of course non residents don’t have one. About 2005 an act was introduced called the “real ID” act. In an effort to stop identity fraud the various states have committed to tightening up ID requirements. So in short you can buy a vehicle in the USA, as in have title, you can insure a vehicle in the USA but you cannot register a vehicle in the USA without a SSN, with exception to a couple of states but rest assured they will come in to line with the rest very soon. So another visit to the notary public to assign full ownership to my brother in law and with some luck and no further red tape we will have our trailer on the road.

So unless you have a trusted relative or friend or you start an LLC any long term vehicle travel/ownership in the US it seems is all but impossible unless it’s a hire car.

Don’t forget stamp duty it can be different for each state but most states are about 7%, that is unless you start a LLC in a non tax state in this instance no sales tax.

Remember you will need to store you vehicle till you get there. Check storage and security, I stored at Holman Motors as they have good rates, $50 per month, not covered but they do have a nightwatchman on site, another option is to buy a cover which costs about $500-00.

So when it comes time to purchase our truck the only solution is to buy it and just title it to my brother in law.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane