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Old 08-27-2020, 04:04 PM   #1
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Avoid Admitting You are a Full-time "Nomad"

Notes for those planning on "living much of the year" in an RV

Rule #1 is, never advertise that you live in your vehicle full time.

As far as official bureaucracies are concerned, you're just on an extended trip, say a few months at a time at most

Call it "a sabbatical" if you like, and **of course** you have a permanent residential address (see legal / domicile address issues*) that you "regularly" return to.

Obviously adjust the story for your own circumstances, and avoid outright blatant lying, insurance payouts can be denied if they suspect fraudulent intent.

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Old 08-27-2020, 04:10 PM   #2
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There is no need to also have a stick & brick home in order to bear witness to the fact you are not living in your vehicle full time.

For all kinds of legal / bureaucratic purposes, even fulltime nomads must keep a stable residential address **somewhere** that functions as your "legal domicile".

Tax purposes, voting registration, consistency in insurance and other financial / credit reporting databases, health insurance, government benefits issues etc etc.

Feel free to ask specific questions or to discuss issues here, but since most of the foundational info is pretty well covered in my

"How to find insurance for your state" post, start off by reading that here

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f18/howto-find-insurance-for-your-state-28907-post352616.html

and the convo can then be continued in either thread, as you like.
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Old 08-27-2020, 04:14 PM   #3
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Good advice right there John...
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:47 PM   #4
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Having a friend or relative where you can have a “lease on a room” and/or pay a utility bill, use as the address on your DL and For official business. Maybe even go as far as making regular check payments from “home” for something like a monthly cable bill
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Old 08-27-2020, 08:06 PM   #5
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Going that far is IMO overly cautious, not strictly needed.

I'd say just use a mail forwarding service for a domicile address, but now that's out with the database cleaning / blacklisting services they use.

The fact is, the law / rules **require** us to be legally domiciled somewhere

the bureaucracies are the ones out of touch with reality

so just having a functional solution to that issue, does not imply anything deceptive much less illegal.

OTOH bills in your name there do support getting the "Real ID" DL etc, so if you don't use banks / CCs etc, that is a valid reason. . .
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Old 08-27-2020, 08:13 PM   #6
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Pay renters insurance for the domicile through the insurance company that also insures your bus ;)
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Old 08-27-2020, 11:49 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by john61ct View Post
The fact is, the law / rules **require** us to be legally domiciled somewhere

I have heard this mentioned in heresay a few times. I have not seen the written law. Do you have a link to the laws?
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Old 08-28-2020, 12:16 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Native View Post
I have heard this mentioned in heresay a few times. I have not seen the written law. Do you have a link to the laws?
i would like to see that link also. im planning on using my daughters home as mine
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Old 08-28-2020, 07:27 AM   #9
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This is real interesting. I’m not planning on being a full timer maybe ever, but it’s good food for thought. I think part of the answer to this is “who’s asking?”

In the process of researching other matters, I have read where I am, if a homeless person states an address to the authorities they are not a vagrant. It apparently doesn’t matter if it’s their true address because the burden of proof is on the authorities who don’t have the time to wade through all the criteria to determine the truth. I for instance, lived as a sublettor with a verbal contract for several years, used the place as my mailing address, never had a bill in my name there or any proof that I held legal claim to reside there, but there I was.

But a business or corporation might have more stringent criteria and more “sensitive” systems in place to make the determination. One very simple example of this is USPS change of address. If you do a change of address, some entities are electronically notified of your move and automatically update their records.

It seems to me that key instruments used for determination of residency would be lease/deed, mailing address financial institutions have, address on your DL.

Then you need to prove how much time you spend there.
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Old 08-28-2020, 08:22 AM   #10
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I have heard this mentioned in heresay a few times. I have not seen the written law. Do you have a link to the laws?
I don't think you'll find it 'overtly' written into law.

"Being homeless is not a crime" (skatebording is not a crime -- but you can't do it here...)

Usually being 'vagrant' (which IS a crime in most places) also involves not having a certain amount of money on your person, or to your name.

So being homeless is not a crime BUT, try and fill out an employment form without having an address and see if you EVER get a job...
Try getting vehicle insurance without an address...

And the list of complications goes on and on...

It's more that american society doesn't respect the notion of being a nomad...

I remember as a kid growing up outside Knoxville, TN. the last of the squatters on the Tenn. river were being displaced... They weren't directly outlawed -- no law was passed saying you couldn't live in a floating shack on the river but as access to and from the river front got reduced there were less and less welcome places to tie off your floating shack and come ashore...

Indirectly, subsistence living in most forms has been made illegal in this country -- it just is what it is...
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Old 08-28-2020, 08:51 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Native View Post
I have heard this mentioned in heresay a few times. I have not seen the written law. Do you have a link to the laws?
Well, you need a driver's license to drive a bus and that needs an address. Gotta pay the tax man too, insurance company (health and vehicle), credit card company, etc. I think that's where the legal domicile factor comes into play.
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Old 08-28-2020, 09:55 AM   #12
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any false info on a dl or vehicle registration is falsifying a official document punishable by law. any misrepresentation on a insurance policy will void that policy when you need it but in the meantime they will allow you to make payments even if they know you lied
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Old 08-28-2020, 11:02 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by mmoore6856 View Post
any false info on a dl or vehicle registration is falsifying a official document punishable by law. any misrepresentation on a insurance policy will void that policy when you need it but in the meantime they will allow you to make payments even if they know you lied
lol

The other week I was remembering when the middle and high school principles used to threaten us with “this will go on your” - “Permanent Record”. I was thinking if their was any truth to this I want to request mine and read it. So I started looking into it.

Schools did have records, usually they were internally referred to as “transcripts” they did have notes in them possibly even notes about discipline. The student files/ transcripts are usually deleted after graduation and not “permanent”. In general they are not obtainable by employers, police, church leaders, etc. Basically a file that had magic powers of exaggeration on young kids(who usually were not scared of impressed).

Disappointingly I was not able to review my high school “Permanent Record”.
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Old 08-28-2020, 08:27 PM   #14
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I have heard this mentioned in heresay a few times. I have not seen the written law. Do you have a link to the laws?
Only comes up "as law" when it serves the needs of the government, and it is common law reinforced by thousands of judicial decisions.

If you were a High Net Worth individual trying to escape the clutches of a high tax jurisdiction while still retaining IRL links there, you would be well advised to consult with specialist attorneys in advance.

At the other end, trying to travel extensively out of state while receiving benefits "back home" is also fraught.

Escapees has a useful orientation on the topic.

In practice, private service providers especially financial, will require a "residential" address

which usually should all be coordinated to match up with credit cards, bank accounts etc via credit reporting

and your DL - only allowed one at a time, and with the Fed mandated Real ID laws are all getting tightened up now after years of lax states allowed to procrastinate.

And the most relevant trend now is a whole new industry of data-mining AIs, their owners brokering the sale/rental access to the proliferation of thousands of digital databases,

combining private and government data, including real-time cell geolocation data with offline location data from license plate readers, facial recognition from CCW cameras, email browser / calls history etc etc

all increasingly cross-referenced and packaged for sale to whoever wants it.

So really no point in pretending to "actually live" somewhere you don't

but being aware of what the various databases want, feed a "general impression" to a casual AI lookup that makes you appear to be a normal wage slaving S&B dwelling citizen
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Old 09-02-2020, 03:45 PM   #15
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Escapees.com!
You will have a legal address.
You will have a place to go back to. (RV spot)
Mail service with mail forwarding.
Vote in that district
Etc etc etc.
Other option also exist.
My myself Escapees!
The Oldest and best and number one supporter and defenders for the RV’s especially us fulltimers.
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Old 09-02-2020, 05:07 PM   #16
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St Brendan's Isle also, but only offers Florida.

Used by a lot of full-timing nomad yotties, so they can often help with internal freight forwarding internationally.

And they actually have you file an affidavit with the local courts as to your legal domicile, voting rights there is supported by the county clerk / registrar, etc.

I believe they also keep your domicile address separate from the letterdrop / mail forwarding service's address

to help prevent blacklisting by the database cleaning services used by insurance etc companies.

Both services have lawyers helping to keep everything legit, so no need to feel anxious about flying under the radar.
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Old 09-02-2020, 06:19 PM   #17
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Correct that’s one also Brendan's isle.
The get domicile and forwarding.
However I went with escapees, I joined them in 2001!
Oh, 60 a year member ship.
Plus if you need their mail service. (Less than SBI)
And domicile help.
SBI was for me temporary, they were great
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Old 09-02-2020, 07:49 PM   #18
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Why do YOU need a legal domicile:

Your Village, Township, City, County, State and Federal Governments ALL WANT THEIR MONEY! They ALL want to know how to contact YOU to git "Their Money" and make sure they continue to git "Their Money" from YOU.

Therefore government wants YOU to make it easy for government to git "Their Money" and all the extra money they decide they might need in the future to pay for all their spending mistakes in the past.

All these government entities want YOU to tell em where YOU are located so the government knows where to come to git "Their Money" from YOU on a frequent and consistent basis!

Pretty simple.
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Old 09-02-2020, 09:37 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danjo View Post
This is real interesting. I’m not planning on being a full timer maybe ever, but it’s good food for thought. I think part of the answer to this is “who’s asking?”

In the process of researching other matters, I have read where I am, if a homeless person states an address to the authorities they are not a vagrant. It apparently doesn’t matter if it’s their true address because the burden of proof is on the authorities who don’t have the time to wade through all the criteria to determine the truth. I for instance, lived as a sublettor with a verbal contract for several years, used the place as my mailing address, never had a bill in my name there or any proof that I held legal claim to reside there, but there I was.

But a business or corporation might have more stringent criteria and more “sensitive” systems in place to make the determination. One very simple example of this is USPS change of address. If you do a change of address, some entities are electronically notified of your move and automatically update their records.

It seems to me that key instruments used for determination of residency would be lease/deed, mailing address financial institutions have, address on your DL.

Then you need to prove how much time you spend there.



I believe that the "authorities" are more than willing to assign you a legal address if you anger them.
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Old 09-02-2020, 10:06 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mmoore6856 View Post
any false info on a dl or vehicle registration is falsifying a official document punishable by law. any misrepresentation on a insurance policy will void that policy when you need it but in the meantime they will allow you to make payments even if they know you lied
Several states offer legal residence with having nothing more than a post office box. Florida is one of those. Some friends of ours did this years ago. They sold everything they owned in the snow belt. Went to Florida established the drop box as a residence. Bought license plates for the RV and truck. Got their Florida drivers license. They do not have to return to the state of Florida for ten years. This is perfectly legal. They do not have sick and brick house any place. The RV is home. Winters in AZ, Mexico, southern California, summer i Canada and Alaska. The best thing is Florida has no state income tax!! So you have a legal address that you only have to visit once every ten years....
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