Having a car with proper registration and updated tags is a legal requirement that one must adhere to. There are different registration criteria for various kinds of vehicles. This may vary from private vehicles to public transport vehicles. Proper registration means that you have paid all the required taxes.
For you to prove that you have indeed adhered to the traffic laws of your area you must have various tags in your car to show that you are law-abiding. This will make your life very easy when passing various traffic police checkpoints.
You must be aware of the vehicle tags that require annual renewal and keep updating your outdated tags. Annual renewal of car tags also depends on the model and age of the vehicle on the public road, but what happens if you drive with expired tags?
Driving a car without proper registration tags is an offense punishable by law. It might be a minor offense depending on if you have registration that expired, or if you simply don’t have the vehicle registered. You may be punished by paying them twice the amount required for a particular tag. In some cases during the car registration, some people are issued with a temporary certificate that may allow them to drive with expired tags for a short while before renewal.
However, this does not make you immune from clashing with the highway authorities. You can still be arrested and charged in court for a traffic violation, this also depends on the traffic regulations of your area. Generally, if you are privileged to drive with expired tags, you should not take advantage of this and drive your car in this condition for more than five to six months. This may lead to your vehicle being impounded or a hefty fine being given to you.
If in case you are ticketed to drive with expired tags and you don't make it within the stipulated time, then you need to report this to the relevant authorities and attempt to correct the situation as quickly as possible. If you take too many chances with this, your driving license may be suspended. You don't want to be in this situation. Always read the traffic rules and the vehicle codes to be on the safe side of the law.
As stated above, the law may permit you to drive your car for a short while with some expired tags. However, for you to keep enjoying this privilege and still keep your driving record clean, it is important not to wait too long before you rectify this. In case you are apprehended when you have made an application to correct the mistake, then you may escape punishment by providing the receipts for the tag renewal.
Sometimes you may be tempted to drive even if your car tags have expired. And as much as this may be tempting, the consequences may be too much to bear. It is considered as negligence if you operate a vehicle with expired tags. The law requires you to display the tags as required by the vehicle codes to show that your car is current and can be operated on the public roads. If your car has no current tags and by any chance is found on the public road, you will have only yourself to blame. This will be a big signal that you have purposefully ignored the laws of the road.
What happens when you drive with expired tags and the police finally pull you over? Well, for starters, you never know what kind of cop will be the one to pull you over, and you can quickly end up in more trouble than just the expired tags, as they may make your life more miserable by adding extra charges such as the use of mobile phone charges.
Being on the road with a car that has expired tags creates the most unnecessary attention from the police. They may decide to give you a citation which will surely inconvenience you as the citation will come at a heavy price.
The subsequent stop by other officers may inflict more pain on you. Once you receive a citation for the expired tags you may get more citations for things like worn-out tires, dysfunctional lights, and so on as the officers will become stricter with you. This can quickly spiral into expensive traffic tickets and a general paranoia behind the wheel, which does not make for a safe driver.
You can easily go broke when you accumulate too many fines on the road due to expired tags. If you happen to drive for a long journey with expired tags on your car, you will not only be tempting fate but getting yourself into a deep mess. Once you have been given a citation and a fine by one police officer they will be on higher alert to make sure you updated your tags. If they see that you still haven’t done so they will issue tickets or citations for anything they can, which can become unbearably expensive very fast.
This is one good reason among many that you should just abide by the traffic rules and vehicle codes. You may be lucky to escape on your best day, but you cannot get away with this for long. Don't take chances with your finances. And most importantly, you don’t want to make the road any more unsafe than it already is.
In the event that you have already suffered the worst from this and have incurred heavy tickets and potentially even points on your license you may want to enroll in a defensive driving school to help take some of the points away. You can contact Best Driving School today to learn more about defensive driving courses and how they can be used to help your insurance bill!