Trials, Trials, and Resolution

So, as you may have seen in my first post, my family and I moved to South Carolina this past July/August. There are so many things that went great and a few things that haven’t. I know that’s part of life, but this issue has been a bane in my husband’s and my acclamation to our new community.

We had a leased car. My husband entered a lease agreement in 2022, and it’s been a great car… It’s not the Jeep he really wants, nor is it large enough to take the whole family camping with all the gear and kayaks. Still, it’s comfortable, reliable, and, honestly, the nicest vehicle we’ve ever owned.

When he started this lease, we had no plans to move. None. But life happens, and here we are in a completely new community, state, and laws. We closed on our house, moved in, forwarded our mail, and went to the DMV to get our driver’s licenses and license plates. We got our driver’s licenses, but we didn’t understand the requirements for applying for the tags.

You must pay property taxes in South Carolina to get your car tags. I read that on the “moving to South Carolina” articles I’d read online. Still, we were from Florida, where the only kind of taxes are real estate and sales taxes… so off we went to the DMV with our closing paperwork to show that we hadn’t lived in SC long enough to have a property tax bill.

Ya’ll, in South Carolina, you have an annual property tax on your CARS!!! Seriously, we had no idea what to prepare for. On the SC website for all of this, it simply says to pay your property taxes. It doesn’t say WHAT KIND!?!? I have a master’s degree and still didn’t even consider a vehicle property tax.

Needless to say, we were delayed until we could get to the county treasurer to get this done.

You’d think we would be over, wouldn’t you? NOPE! On the vehicle registration and title application, there’s a section requiring you to obtain a limited power of attorney letter to register a leased car. The leasee cannot get a tag in South Carolina without this paperwork.

My husband called the dealership where he leased the car, and they gave him a number for the company’s financial division. For 3 months, he called and asked them where this paperwork was… only to be asked to verify his address and that it would be in the mail. We wait. I have Informed Delivery with the USPS. I opened EVERY piece of mail. Nothing. He called again…, but still nothing; my hubs went to a dealership here in SC to see if they could help… no help. Call again… and still nothing.

Did you know that a leasing company can deny your request to move… with your car… to another state? We didn’t know that. I learned that from our auto insurance agent this past Friday.

We reached the point where he would be driving illegally if he didn’t have a SC tag on his car, so this past weekend, even though it wasn’t the fun car he wanted… or a bigger vehicle that would let us all go camping without taking both cars, he traded in the leased car to the local dealership and bought a new car.

I know it was a MASSIVE adulting, and he is my hero.

So, learn from our inexperience… when you want to move with the leased car, go to the dealership and get that paperwork before you move… or dump the lease. It’s not worth the headache and stress!

The REAL kicker in this whole ordeal? Guess what we received on Saturday (hubs bought the car on Friday)? The paperwork for registering the leased car.