I think I mentioned that Jett and I are becoming Florida residents. We have both been residents of MA for a LONG time – 48 years for me and Jett’s entire life.\u00a0 It is, like selling the house, another big life transition.\u00a0 We knew it would take some work – we need to establish a “permanent” Florida address, get FL driver licenses and insure all of our vehicles in FL.\u00a0 But we underestimated the task.\u00a0 It has been an adventure.<\/p>\n
Getting the address was the easy part.\u00a0 The Escapees club provides mailing addresses in Texas, Florida and South Dakota that may be used to establish residency in those state.\u00a0 They have worked out all the legal issues and have the support of the cities and counties in those locales.\u00a0 And why not?\u00a0 As a “permanent” resident of Bushnell, Florida, we will inflate their population and bring a larger share of federal and state revenues to the city and county.\u00a0 And we won’t use any public resources.\u00a0 Seems like a pretty sweet deal for them.<\/p>\n
But to establish residency we needed to provide 2 “proofs of address” – utility bills, tax bills, mortgage bills or similar (which, of course, we did not have)\u00a0– that proves we really “live” at that address.\u00a0 Even though everyone is aware that we don’t really<\/em> live there, we still need proof that it is a valid mailing address.\u00a0 Escapees provides a certificate which the county accepts as one proof.\u00a0 And, at the urging of Escapees, I had the Social Security Administration\u00a0mail me a letter at that address, which we could use as a second proof.<\/p>\n So, with these documents in hand, we found our way to the\u00a0Sumter County Tax Collector’s office on our Monday in Bushnell.\u00a0 In Florida, the county tax collector office doubles as a DMV office.\u00a0 Establishing residency, registering to vote and getting a Florida license is all done together.\u00a0 Very convenient.<\/p>\n As long as you can pass the driver vision test.<\/p>\n I had no problem, but Jett had left her glasses in the Yaris, which was still in Massachusetts.\u00a0 She failed the vision test miserably.\u00a0 And since we couldn’t get the vehicles registered without both of us having FL licenses, our big plan to get it all done in Bushnell was thwarted.<\/p>\n I did get all 3 vehicles – the truck, the car and the RV – insured that day.\u00a0 It was done very efficiently and conveniently online with Geico.\u00a0 I did have to call to work out the RV insurance details, but overall that went very smoothly.\u00a0 But because we couldn’t get the vehicles registered in Bushnell, we had to finish the STS with dual coverage.\u00a0 That was money that I didn’t enjoy spending.<\/p>\n Fast forward to Ft Myers.\u00a0 The Yaris arrived on Tuesday Nov 17 and on Wednesday we went down to the Lee county tax collector office to get Jett’s driver’s license.\u00a0 But she failed the eye test again (she has had poor eyesight since she had her cataract surgery two years ago – yes, cataract surgery is supposed to improve your eyesight but that was not the case for her). So we had to go to an optometrist on Thursday to get her eyesight certified as safe, then back to the DMV.\u00a0 She got her license.<\/p>\n Whew!<\/p>\n Back to the DMV on Thursday to\u00a0register the vehicles.\u00a0\u00a0 And was completely thwarted.\u00a0 I could not get ANY of the vehicles registered that day, for the following reasons:<\/p>\n Getting the lien cleared was a nightmare.\u00a0 I called the lienholder, who insisted that the documents I had in hand (which included a very strange “non-negotiable” MA title which no one seemed to know much about) were sufficient to get the vehicle registered in Florida – a position which the DMV had already refuted.\u00a0 Then I called the MA RMV who could at least explain the title (it was a “courtesy” document which was provided because the lienholder had, they said, never responded to their request for the title).\u00a0 Another very painful call to the lienholder finally resulted in them promising to clear the lien in the state database.<\/p>\n I was able to register the truck on Monday this week.\u00a0 Now, on Friday, the lien on the Yaris has been cleared and I think it can be registered.\u00a0 The RV title has not yet arrived.<\/p>\n We will try to get the Yaris registered before Jett leaves (she is going back to MA for 10 days), but the RV registration will have to wait until she returns.<\/p>\n Barring further impediments, we will be full-fledged FL residents before the end of 2015.<\/p>\n It has been an adventure. And not a fun one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think I mentioned that Jett and I are becoming Florida residents. We have both been residents of MA for a LONG time – 48 years for me and Jett’s entire life.\u00a0 It is, like selling the house, another big life transition.\u00a0 We knew it would take some work – we need to establish a … Continue reading \n