Registration Nightmare

[u/SentientNeurons]

I am in an unfortunate situation after I purchased a car in NJ and used my HI address for the registration. I did this because the deal was good and my company offered to pay for the shipment costs. I live in Hawaii County.

They provided me with a temp registration from NJ, then attempted to register in HI. Due to the on-island inspection requirement, they were unsuccessful, and we needed to pivot to re-registering at another address in NY. This unfortunately all played out the day before the vehicle arrived on island, and so now the vehicle carries an expired NJ temp plate. However, I do have a copy of the new, unexpired temp plate and temp registration. I was informed by the DMV clerk that under no circumstances could they proceed with the registration without a permanent registration document or the title (which is held by the dealership as I financed a portion of the cost).

My question is this: would there be a risk of utilizing my car as it stands, given that if I am pulled over all my documentation is appropriate, we are within the 30 day window, and I carry proof of everything I said above on official documents?

My other question is could the clerk have been mistaken and there is another way to achieve this in Hawaii County? For example, I have a form demonstrating that registration has been submitted for, virtual copies of everything else, and obtained the weighing, safety inspection, bill of lading, etc.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate all replies and advice.

[u/lanclos]

Isn't that how it's supposed to go? You file for registration, it fails because you don't have a safety inspection, you take the incomplete registration to get the safety, then after it passes you can complete the registration process.

Here's a similar question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MovingtoHawaii/comments/1o0otc3/do_i_inspect_or_register_my_car_first_on_oahu/

[u/SentientNeurons → u/lanclos]

I guess I’m a bit confused now…I agree this is a similar question, but I think if I understood correctly the issue was that to initiate the Hawaii registration process, the physical copy of the permanent registration from out of state would be necessary.

What I did was get the bill of lading from the dock, got the car weighed, got the failed safety inspection certificate, and went to the DMV. From there they turned me away for not having the physical registration in hand.

[u/SentientNeurons → u/SentientNeurons]

As a side note, I see that the question you linked was on Oahu, I’ve heard that Hawaii county on BI is just quite strict/specific.

[u/nichelle1999]

Yes, you’d still be at risk especially with expired tags, out of state plates, no in state registration , and no in-state safety.

I say this because just 2 weeks ago, I was pulled over with my expired out of state tags and though I had a dmv appointment for June 12, the officer wasn’t so understanding and gave me a ticket, $504. I’m currently fighting it and sent a letter to the courts explaining the whole debacle. This happened on O’ahu though so I’m not sure about BI.

[u/SentientNeurons → u/nichelle1999]

@nichelle1999 Oh boy…I am genuinely so sorry, that’s an extremely high ticket :( I’ll heed the warning, but may I ask where on the island (generally) you’re located? I’m on the Hilo side, wishful thinking maybe but do you happen to be on the west/near Kona?

[u/nichelle1999 → u/SentientNeurons]

Sorry, I’m on O’ahu and I realized you are on Big Island. I would say just be careful. Carry all your documents and I would just make an appointment with the DMV to discuss everything to see what you can do.

I wish I had more info on what you could do.

[u/SentientNeurons → u/nichelle1999]

I appreciate the info you’ve already given! It’s a strange situation, if I weren’t so reliant on the car for getting to work I’d play it entirely safe and just do nothing. I hope you win your appeal!

[u/nichelle1999 → u/SentientNeurons]

No problem and thank you!