TIFU by forgetting to renew my vehicle registration

As I went to the mailbox to check my mail on Thursday afternoon, I noticed a warning sticker on the windshield of my car. It said my car would be towed away in a few days because I did not have valid tags. I had never received a warning sticker before and didn’t know what it was all about – I was parked in my paid covered space, and didn’t remember breaking any parking laws. So, with some anger, I called the number on the sticker. It went like this:

• Me: Is this a tow place?
• Operator: Yes, how can I help you?
• Me: Why do I have a sticker on my car? I am parking on my covered space that I pay for every month.
• Operator: Sir -
• Me: In fact, I have been parking in this space for over a year.
• Operator: Sir. Can you read what the sticker says?
• Me: Of course, it says I don’t have valid tags. The apartment complex that I park at, don’t need any tags as far as I remember.
• Operator: Sir, it means your vehicle registration tags. Are you sure they are valid?
• Me: Ummm, let me check. Oh. You’re right. It says it expired September.
• Opertator: There you go.
• Me: Thanks.

It’s the 1st of December and my vehicle registration tags had been invalid since the end of September. How could I have missed this driving every day?? Oh, well. Normally, I would have gotten a renewal notice in the mail a few weeks before the registration expired, but I hadn’t received it. I had moved in the past year, and maybe the DMV didn’t have my correct address on file. In any case, I was panicking now.

I quickly googled what my options were. Understandably, you are not supposed to drive with expired registration and you will get a citation if you are pulled over. But, I have to drive every day. So, I needed to sort this out asap. I could renew my registration online, but I hadn’t completed the inspection either. Bummer. I was in the middle of my workday, so nothing could be done that day. I gave heads up to my team that I would need some time the next day to sort out my mess. That’s one nice thing about working remotely: you have the flexibility to get small errands done.

The next day, I excused myself and headed over to a car shop nearby and they did the inspection in less than 10 minutes; I was actually the first customer in that day. Maybe, I could get it all done in less than an hour. The drive to the DMV was around 15 minutes and when I got there, there were no lines. It just might be my lucky day! I headed over to the help desk and told I was there for a vehicle registration. The man at the desk just shook his head, as if he’d heard this the tenth time that day, and passed to me a paper. It’s a common mistake newbies make: you don’t renew your vehicle registration at the DMV; you have to go to your tax office.

So, after a few minutes of googling, I found a tax office 10 minutes away towards Denton. I jumped on my car, which has this bright red sticker on the windshield, and drove with an anxious feeling I might be pulled over. Anyways, the tax office was not crowded either. I printed a token and waited in line. After 10 minutes, I went to the counter and handed my license and insurance. The lady at the desk looked up my file, and asked if I still lived at the address in Irving. “No.”, I said, “My current address is on my license.” She let me know that I was at the wrong tax office. I had to go to one of the tax offices in Dallas. It’s another common mistake newbies make. You don’t just renew your vehicle registration at any tax office; you have to go to your county’s tax office.

The closest tax office in Dallas was all the way across town and would take me at least 40 minutes. Well, it was actually just 15 minutes away from my home, but I was in the wrong location. If I had done my research properly and planned ahead, I would have been back to work in less than an hour. At this point, I could either go back home and come back on Monday, or try and hurry to get it done right now. Mondays are very busy and I had come this far anyways. So, I put the address in my GPS and drove again.

I finally came to the right place, and in less than 10 minutes, I had my registration renewed. The lady at the desk was very helpful and updated my address. Although, I had to pay a few extra bucks to use my credit card (they prefer cash or cheque), I didn’t have to pay any fines! It was a triumphant feeling walking out the door with the new tags in hand.

It took me two hours driving and wasting time in lines to learn one important lesson: do your research ahead of time.

TLDR; Found vehicle registration expired with a warning from a towing company, wasted 2 hours trying to find the right place to pay for the registration.