[edevinney]

A friend has a non-operating car with permanent antique plates. He let the insurance lapse while its in pieces and the state has gone after him for not maintaining I surance on a registered vehicle.

Its not clear how he could have avoided this other than to keep paying for insurance. If it had been annually registered he could let the registration expire and thus not be liable.

Complicating things, he let the notice slide and now the DMV is angry. That part may be harder to get past, but was there something he could have done to avoid the insurance mess?

[BlackTalon]

I would think the first step is to read the requirements in the VA Code.

It's not an 'insurance mess' -- it's a "you need to have it insured if it's registered becuase that is the law" requirement from the sound of it. There probably is a way to surrender the registration and plates. He'd need to go through registration again, inspection, etc. to make it active at some point.

[edevinney]

Oh, the mess is surely on his part.

The way to do it is this: https://transactions.dmv.virginia.go...ate_intro.aspx

[Patrick3000]

Originally Posted by edevinney

A friend has a non-operating car with permanent antique plates. He let the insurance lapse while its in pieces and the state has gone after him for not maintaining I surance on a registered vehicle.

Its not clear how he could have avoided this other than to keep paying for insurance. If it had been annually registered he could let the registration expire and thus not be liable.

Complicating things, he let the notice slide and now the DMV is angry. That part may be harder to get past, but was there something he could have done to avoid the insurance mess?

To answer your specific question.

What he could have done was to get classic car insurance for a couple of hundred dollars a year. Hagerty, State Farm, Grundy all offer agreed value insurance and it is cheap. This would have avoided the hassle and covered the car plus any spare parts laying around during restoration.

For example, if your wheels were on your carport and got stolen, insurance would have replaced them.

Just saying, to soon

[86911TLCAB]

I had something similar and deactivated my plates. That seemed to satisfy everyone.