Report expired paper tags

[striker55]

Propper plates tells me the car is insured and inspected. Wouldn't want someone hitting my car that isn't insured.

[mrvmax]

They are waiving license registration now due to Covid:
https://www.txdmv.gov/covid-19
In my area there are abandoned vehicles with temp plates or registration stickers months to years over due. I’ve got a few vehicles in my neighborhood that just sit unused In the street since the owners think it’s ok to abandon them in place. It makes the neighborhood look bad and dies affect real estate values. You don’t want people like that living all around you when you’re trying to sell your house.

[LTUME1978]

I am with the OP. Where does this stop. I can understand being a week or two over but this is anything but that. Today it is paper plates next year it is something a little worse and it just keeps sliding. We do all pay for this. Those that play by the rules pay for those that don't. When there are fewer of us that play by the rules than those that don't, those of us that do will start to experience bad things until it gets completely out of hand. And that is where we are going now. Very sad.

[parabelum]

So she has expired plates for a year, then eventually gets new plates, then she totals her car, now she’s got a new car with expired paper plates again, and her sister also drives with expired plates for couple of years? There seems to be way too much time spent watching other folks, no offense. I tend to be more libertarian and stick to minding my business personally. Have you tried to be a good neighbor and see if she’s going through a rough patch, screwed up family issues, maybe lend a helping hand?
Sorry, I’m just not seeing the point.
I say that because few years back I had a neighbor who had grass 3 foot tall, his front porch looked like it is abandoned house, it was frustrating. Ugly sight in a otherwise nice neighborhood. I talked to the man however just to see if there is anything I could do, mow? Turns out he was laid off right after his dad died and just fell apart emotionally and financially. We talked. After I left I no longer felt upset because of the eyesore front porch/yard but blessed with what I have. Just saying, there’s often more than meets the eye.

[Rafe]

I guess it might depend on where you live. My SUV registration expired last September, and I never got the renewal sticker; evidently lost in the mail (or more likely somebody else on my street got it and File 13ed it...don't get me started on the USPS and community "cluster" mailboxes). Was still waiting on the replacement sticker when the calendar flipped over to November, and at one point I drove through Jersey Village on West Road. After I got home and checked, turned out that piece of road was in Jersey Village for all of about 700 yards.

Got pulled over by a JVPD SUV. Very professional PD encounter. He told me my expired registration had been spotted when I crossed under 290. I showed him my online payment receipt and told him about waiting for the new sticker. Never commented about my LTC that I handed him with the DL and insurance. All good. Just a "Get that sticker on there as soon as you get it." I thanked him for his service, he told me to be safe.

Hit Google when I got home because, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how he could have seen my tiny front windshield sticker driving through the busy but at-posted-speeds intersection with 290 where West Road is a 6-lane boulevard.

Sure enough: https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/cyfa ... 496188.php. Jersey Village had joined other communities like Katy and Memorial Villages in adding Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). Just that quickly, my plate info had been photographed, uploaded, computer matched, and info sent out to the on-patrols. The LEO didn't say that he'd spotted my sticker, just that the expired registration had been spotted.

I guess it could be a different story with paper plates, but big brother is watching closer and closer in urban areas, and I don't know how anyone would be able to get away with an expired registration for very long. If you get a warning on stop one, I'm sure stop two would be a ticket unless you can provide some proof that the registration is in the works.

[jason812]

It's just another tax by the man. Damn the man.

[Scott B.]

I love the vehicles where you can see the months, or years, worth of tape residue from every time they secure a new version of their homemade tag. I make every effort to avoid those vehicles in traffic. Paper plates and crime go hand in hand. Supposedly the state was going to overhaul the paper plate thing, make it harder to fake, etc. What ever happened to that effort?

[E10]

It's just another tax by the man. Damn the man.

"...government of the people, by the people, and for the people..." WE are "the man."

Those driving with expired or no tags aren't paying the taxes that we law-abiding people are paying. Freeloaders and scofflaws. I even maintain a license plate on the little utility trailer I use maybe six times a year.

[Chaparral]

Propped plates tells me the car is insured and inspected. Wouldn't want someone hitting my car that isn't insured.

About 1 in 7 drivers in the Houston area is uninsured, so there is more than just your neighbor to worry about. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what uninsured motorist insurance is for.

[philip964]

So if murderers are released from jail with no bond in Houston,

how does a society treat non violent administrative violations of law?

[mojo84]

Other than revenge or spite, what would be your motivation for reporting your neighbor?

[jason812]

It's just another tax by the man. Damn the man.

"...government of the people, by the people, and for the people..." WE are "the man."

Those driving with expired or no tags aren't paying the taxes that we law-abiding people are paying. Freeloaders and scofflaws. I even maintain a license plate on the little utility trailer I use maybe six times a year.

We are not the man. If we were, we wouldn't pay all the taxes we do. We wouldn't have been sold a property tax increase cap as a reduction if we were the man. The government has morphed into an entity whose sole purpose is to take your money, give it to someone else, and control you more and more as time goes on.

What are car registration taxes paying for? Roads? I thought that's why the government makes more money off a gallon of gas than the evil oil companies. Why do you have to register a car every year? Just to pay the government some more of your money is why.

You should register your car one time. When you sell it, you keep the plates and that would force the new owner to register it to get plates. You shouldn't pay taxes every year on an item you paid for once.

I could care less about the woman not registering her car. But I would bet she's on food stamps, welfare, and eats better than I do. That's what aggravates me.

[srothstein]

She isn't hurting anyone, so why bother

I disagree on her not hurting anyone. I happen to agree that registration serves no purpose except that car registration is a tax. Included in it are several other possible taxes, such as a county road and bridge tax. The government is dependent on taxes. They set a budget based on what they expect to collect in taxes. If they know that there are (picking a number) 100,000 cars in a county, the state knows it can collect some amount based on that and the county and other taxes can also expect a certain amount. Each person driving without proper registration means the government did not collect as much as they expected to. That means they increase the registration fee to account for it and the next year, all of us who do register our vehicles pay a slightly higher tax when we do.

I think the government is bloated and could do with less taxes, but that is my opinion. I also know that the government doesn't agree with me and plans its budgets and will raise taxes to meet that budget.

By driving without proper registration she is hurting all of us that do pay our registration tax. And, in my experience, when they are playing games with tags, there is always something else going on. I have caught car thieves based on fake registration, as well as drugs and other things. And, again in my experience, they will almost never have insurance on the car without proper registration.

But now for a possible explanation of why you don't see the police do anything. It is not generally illegal to have a car parked on the street with expired or no registration. There are some places with ordinances about using the street for storage, but that is all they can do with a parked car. To do something meaningful, they need to catch the person driving. Then, if it is just a real expired tag, she gets a ticket. You would never see that. If the paper tag is a forgery or someone altered it, then it goes up in level to a higher misdemeanor or even felony, depending on the exact circumstances.

I think the officers will make a note of the car and its location and try to keep an eye out for it driving. If it helps, there are several police groups I am still in on Facebook where the officers post pictures of things like this so everyone knows to keep an eye out, especially if they saw it was a felony type forgery.

[jb2012]

Just straight up, this is obnoxious and none of your business. It obviously boils down to you not liking your neighbor. Metal plates are no indication of valid insurance, and neither are expired paper plates. Mind your own.

[striker55]

October in a few days, still driving with expired plates. How do they get away with it?