North Carolina blues

[Tmy8ster]

Question, I bought a bus recently in Maryland drive it down to Charlotte, NC with a 3 day registration from the buyer.

The bus is parked and will not move till the conversion is complete. Do I need to register or title the bus during renovations? Or call all of that wait till I complete the conversion?

 

[musigenesis]

Question, I bought a bus recently in Maryland drive it down to Charlotte, NC with a 3 day registration from the buyer.

The bus is parked and will not move till the conversion is complete. Do I need to register or title the bus during renovations? Or call all of that wait till I complete the conversion?

You don't have to title/register it right away. Personally, though, I would recommend doing it right away, since a) it can be a time-consuming pain in the ass (my process took more than 3 months before I could drive the bus legally), and b) it's probably best to drive your bus out on the road periodically (as opposed to just starting up the engine and maybe driving it around a parking lot).

 

[alpine44]

Question, I bought a bus recently in Maryland drive it down to Charlotte, NC with a 3 day registration from the buyer.

The bus is parked and will not move till the conversion is complete. Do I need to register or title the bus during renovations? Or call all of that wait till I complete the conversion?

If you do not drive the vehicle, both title and registration can wait. But as the previous poster mentioned, it has advantages to be able to drive during conversion.

If you want to register the bus as a 'house car' (NC lingo for RV), then you have to fill out and get notarized a MVR-51 form before registration. This form also describes the items you need to have installed in the bus to qualify as house car.

 

[cadillackid]

Some of this depends on municipal rules in the town or county.. some cities pass ordinances to curb the 6 vehicles in the yard type thing by requiring any vehicle visible to the street be registered and tagged.. you’ll have to look up your city code and see what it says. I could imagine the likes of fort mills or Davidson doing it

 

[Tmy8ster]

As always great information and thank you for passing along the MVR-51 form. I havent registered the bus, titled it or anything yet. I've been hard at work getting the conversion going. Right now its completely gutted with the subfloor in, getting ready to insulate, put in the AC, and start framing. With that said I dont think it will too long before I can check off 4 of the necessary items to convert it to a "house car".

One question I do have is what is my order of operations here? Do I go ahead and title it as a bus in my name, then get it re-titled as a house car? Or can I skip that part?

Nothing about this process sounds like fun, which is in part why I've been putting it off, but if I plan on ever driving this thing then I guess I better start getting this thing legal!

Thank you for the help navigating this process And perhaps saving me a few trips!!!

Thanks,

 

[alpine44]

As always great information and thank you for passing along the MVR-51 form. I havent registered the bus, titled it or anything yet. I've been hard at work getting the conversion going. Right now its completely gutted with the subfloor in, getting ready to insulate, put in the AC, and start framing. With that said I dont think it will too long before I can check off 4 of the necessary items to convert it to a "house car".

One question I do have is what is my order of operations here? Do I go ahead and title it as a bus in my name, then get it re-titled as a house car? Or can I skip that part?

Nothing about this process sounds like fun, which is in part why I've been putting it off, but if I plan on ever driving this thing then I guess I better start getting this thing legal!

Thank you for the help navigating this process And perhaps saving me a few trips!!!

Thanks,

When you mention "not yet titled" I assume you haven an out-of-state title or bill of sale but no NC title yet. You would save money if you get the NC title for a 'house car' right away. Every time you get a new NC title, they'll charge a fee and possibly taxes.

A title gets issued and billed for upon presentation of an out-of-state title or equivalent paperwork. The title is proof of ownership, not a permit to operate. In order to operate a vehicle on public roads it needs to be registered, which is where you get the tags from. Registration requires a title and proof of residence and insurance.

For vehicles that cannot be operated on public roads yet, they will send a DMV to your residence to verify and sign off the documents necessary for obtaining the correct title. With that paperwork, you can then get the NC "house car" title and registration as an RV. The bus would not have to be driven anywhere for that.

I did something similar in McDowell county for a Unimog I bought from the government with an SF-97 in lieu of title. Called the DMV and they sent an inspector to my residence. That did not cost anything and the inspector was very helpful and friendly. Then, I drove with another vehicle to the town office to get title and tags for the Mog with the forms that the inspector had issued in my driveway. He had a printer in his vehicle and also checked on his computer whether the vehicle had been reported as stolen somewhere.

So, call the DMV office and set up an appointment at your location once you have the house-car stuff installed. The paperwork from the inspector plus some money will get you the correct title. With the info on the new title you can then get insurance and with insurance ID card plus proof of residence and more money finally the registration and tags. This can be wrapped up in as little as a day if needed.