If someone hasn’t already mentioned it, I wouldn’t be surprised if a neighbor called and reported it. Not nice, but it happens. Metro police are so spread out they don’t have time to slowly check tags in a neighborhood. Someone called them there.
Even if you’re right, it’s wild to me that Metro would bother coming out there for something so trivial, considering how many major infractions they don’t give a shit about.
The 2016 I saw last year was the oldest I’ve ever seen. It’s crazy people get away with it that long
Meanwhile, my truck was down since April, and just got it back up and running last week. Plates expired in May, but I have the registration up to date, just forgot to put the sticker on. I got pulled over while going for a 20 min test drive
Man I see them all the time not gonna lie I was one of them for a while but eventually I got pulled over and given a warning and paid the 80 dollars to get it updated
It's listed 'state of Tennessee Davidson county traffic court' we live in HOA but have been for 12 years and parked in the same spot for all 12 years. Maybe I haven't realized new hoa rules. Thanks for replying!
you might have a new Board of Directors that is being "proactive" about expired registrations. In the HOA at my former home, the Board would walk the property and report expired tags to Codes.
Lotsa retired people on HOA boards with nothing else to do but stick their noses in other people's business, IME.
Jerks.
There was one person who complained so much about everything they put her on the board. She would walk the entire property every morning and every night taking notes.
She resigned, eventually, because she said she didn't have time to be on the board..... because the board didn't have ENOUGH meetings.
SOOOOO glad to be in a home without an HOA. Not a mistake I will make again!
Your HOA CR&R for sure has a statement that goes something along the lines of 'no dilapidated vehicles' and your HOA board is using that in a broad sense because it does cover out of date plates.
Sounds like an officer wanted to be a dick. Typical.
How long ago did the tags expire? (I'm just curious. My own tags expired while my car was in the shop and I have to go renew them Monday. They expired in April.)
Over 90 days :( I tried to quickly renew online this morning and now I'll also be going in person to renew this Monday. Yikes all around but I know it's my fault.
Don't go Monday -- it's the first of the month and there will be lotsa people renewing then. Wait until Thursday or Friday and go first thing in the morning if you can. We try to go in the middle of the month; at the beginning or end of a month registration renewal tends to get crowded.
Go to the Madison Location I’ve never had a problem at the beginning of the month there. you will be in an out in no time ! Better than the downtown location for sure! Also they give you a 90 day grace period before they pull you over . But for the future if you get the tags renewed the same month before they expire you can do it online or at the self service kiosk :)
Not a lawyer but I think you can fight that. It’s not illegal to have expired tags. It’s illegal to operate a vehicle with expired tags. So he unlawfully wrote you a ticket.
That seems like codes and not traffic. OP says the ticket requires them to go to traffic court.
ETA: From another post looks like they were actually parked on the street which means yeah, no case.
Makes sense. Because it was on the street. If was in your driveway a neighbor might report it property standards. The police do occasionally check license plates on cars parked on streets looking for abandoned stolen cars.
I received a letter one day saying something about the unregistered car in my driveway. I went outside and turned the car around so you couldnt see the license plate from the street and haven't heard from them since.
Sounds like a neighbor wants your car out of the street. Particularly if you aren't actually driving it and it's just sitting there. You may have clarified that and I just didn't see it. But yeah....someone wants your car out of the street.
Haha feels so crazy because from what I think all our neighbors get along with us! We bring in their mail on their vacations and everything. But there's now a new neighbor as a few months ago maybe I'll need to bring a muffin basket 😭
That's a nice gesture but there could be a reason that you aren't aware of. Are you blocking someone from being able to back out of their own driveway in large vehicles? Are you taking up so much of the road that it's no longer wide enough for two passing vehicles? Can the trash pickup people get to everyone's cans?
It's so odd to explain but if you take a circle and cut it in half , I park on the right half and our house is in the left half. We feel lucky because there no house/s behind my parked car just empty land. Our neighbors overflow cars / guests park next to me too. Mail and trash can swing in just fine!
IMO a cop was probably just driving thru your neighborhood and happen to notice your tags. If it was a neighbor that called this in, a codes officer would have likely been the one came out instead.
Some HOA communities have rules in their governing documents about abandoned vehicles. If you haven’t been driving it, someone noticed it’s been sitting. Since it was parked on a public street, the HOA can’t have it towed so they got around that with expired tags.
It seems odd that they could ticket you if you weren't on a public street because maybe you were just storing an old car and it wasn't on the road.
All that said my kids didn't put the registration ticket on the plates when I gave it to them last June, April rolls around and son parked 21st Ave and gets a ticket for expired tags. I went to the Green Hills County Clerk's office and they were super helpful and nice. I then emailed the registration to the Dept of Transportation who was even nicer, I screwed up my paperwork, the called me, they followed up with me to make sure I submitted in time and got it all taken care of. We actually have really good customer service in Davidson County even for miserable things like getting your car registered and parking tickets.
A few cars in my neighborhood in east Nashville who park on the street received tickets too. We don’t have an HOA and all the neighbors are nice and low key, I doubt someone called codes.
This is the first time it’s ever happened in the 7 years I’ve lived here. I wonder if they are just going through neighborhoods.
The exact same thing happened to me. I live in East and my old truck had been parked on the street with expired tags (which was my bad) for ages before I got ticketed. Mine came from NDOT enforcement, which has really ramped up their presence and, subsequently, their handing out of tickets. In my case, I renewed my tags before the due date on the ticket and then uploaded proof of renewal which caused me to only have to pay like $12 (as opposed to $70, which is how much the ticket was). Hope this helps!
Yes. It happened to me.
My only occasionally driven vehicle (few times per month) was parked on the street in front of my house and received 2 expired tags tickets in, I think, 3 weeks time. I was out of town when the first one happened, got back to town, and before I could address it, got another. I didn’t actually receive the second ticket, I just discovered that it had occurred when I went online to pay the first.
It is my own fault that I hadn’t noticed the sticker had expired and renewed it. But getting TWO tickets in such a short time for it seemed excessive given that the number of unaddressed moving vehicle violations that pose an actual safety concern.
I don’t live in an HOA, I have the new plate, my car is in good condition, and I don’t have any neighbor-enemies that I’m aware of. Even so, it seems likely that someone called it in for it to have been ticketed while parked TWICE in such a short time.
It was my fault, but I was still bummed.
Now I have calendar alerts in my phone to remind me to update my sticker.
Codes says your car must have up-to-date tags. We had a vehicle in our driveway that needed a new battery and we just had not made that a priority -- so Codes "invited" us to update the registration after a neighbor complained (yay neighbors!).
IME a car in your driveway, parking spot, or on the street that is ticketed for expired registration is the result of a neighbor complaining to Codes. It's not an HOA rule that cars must be registered; it's a Metro rule. But in the HOA where we used to live the Board would walk the property and note all expired cars and report them to Codes.
No my dad owns the home and we live at the end of the cul de sac where there's no where to build or thru traffic at all! My dad bought the house in 2010 I think.
You may be cited for it as some local ordinances address motor vehicles on private property must also be licensed or they can be considered derelict. If it was parked on a street, you can be cited for it as well. Check your local ordinances.
I live like DEEP in a neighborhood, in a cul de sac and almost always park my car in the driveway backwards. (Weird driveway angle/kids in the neighborhood/habit). AND I STILL got a ticket for expired tags.
Man people are bored with their own lives. While I was over here going to school full time, working part time and I had just planned a wedding and gotten married.
If your car was on the street, then yes. When police sweep neighborhoods, their dash cam reads plates and it flagged the officer than yours was expired.
I don’t know if an officer can enter private property (your driveway) to ticket you for expired plates.
But a public street, yes.
In short, Yes, that is what I heard years ago, that is why a lot of people parked the vehicles backward when their tags expired. But that is a dead giveaway to cops.
Question was it parked on the street ? Or on your property? Also is it the old plate that’s green or new ? If it was on the street then they had every right to ticket you because that is not part of your property and is illegal to park an unregistered vehicle on public roadways . If it was on your property then you should’ve gotten a letter from codes and not a ticket . As them entering your property without consent to snoop around is illegal. But the real question I have is why not just go get the car up to date? It’s not expensive and they don’t do emission testing anymore
If someone hasn’t already mentioned it, I wouldn’t be surprised if a neighbor called and reported it. Not nice, but it happens. Metro police are so spread out they don’t have time to slowly check tags in a neighborhood. Someone called them there.
Even if you’re right, it’s wild to me that Metro would bother coming out there for something so trivial, considering how many major infractions they don’t give a shit about.
Unfortunately, it's easy money for them
Meanwhile I saw multiple green plates driving around today
Saw a ‘19 the other day. It was wild
The 2016 I saw last year was the oldest I’ve ever seen. It’s crazy people get away with it that long Meanwhile, my truck was down since April, and just got it back up and running last week. Plates expired in May, but I have the registration up to date, just forgot to put the sticker on. I got pulled over while going for a 20 min test drive
‘16 is my current record this year too🤷♂️🤦♂️
Oh shit lol. That’s only 8 years.
Man I see them all the time not gonna lie I was one of them for a while but eventually I got pulled over and given a warning and paid the 80 dollars to get it updated
Is the ticket from Metro Police or your HOA? (Assuming you live in an HOA area.)
It's listed 'state of Tennessee Davidson county traffic court' we live in HOA but have been for 12 years and parked in the same spot for all 12 years. Maybe I haven't realized new hoa rules. Thanks for replying!
you might have a new Board of Directors that is being "proactive" about expired registrations. In the HOA at my former home, the Board would walk the property and report expired tags to Codes.
That is unfathomable to me
Lotsa retired people on HOA boards with nothing else to do but stick their noses in other people's business, IME. Jerks. There was one person who complained so much about everything they put her on the board. She would walk the entire property every morning and every night taking notes. She resigned, eventually, because she said she didn't have time to be on the board..... because the board didn't have ENOUGH meetings. SOOOOO glad to be in a home without an HOA. Not a mistake I will make again!
Your HOA CR&R for sure has a statement that goes something along the lines of 'no dilapidated vehicles' and your HOA board is using that in a broad sense because it does cover out of date plates.
I have seen "NDOT Enforcement" cars driving around with license plate scanners. Might be one of those.
Sounds like an officer wanted to be a dick. Typical. How long ago did the tags expire? (I'm just curious. My own tags expired while my car was in the shop and I have to go renew them Monday. They expired in April.)
Over 90 days :( I tried to quickly renew online this morning and now I'll also be going in person to renew this Monday. Yikes all around but I know it's my fault.
Don't go Monday -- it's the first of the month and there will be lotsa people renewing then. Wait until Thursday or Friday and go first thing in the morning if you can. We try to go in the middle of the month; at the beginning or end of a month registration renewal tends to get crowded.
Don't go on Thursday...it's the 4th of July. 😁
HA! Thank you! u/Kitkatinthealy, Tuesday July 9, go then!
🤣🤣 thank you thank you!
Find a kiosk. It takes 5 minutes, if that. Enter your plate number, add you card, get your sticker.
Those only work if you’re before the 90 day expiration mark. Otherwise you have to go in person.
They have them posted online. I think a lot of the public libraries have them in there buildings now.
When they ask make sure you say it has not been driven the whole time.
Ugh. Have fun.
I've done it before, it's not all that bad honestly
There’s a spot near the gulch where you can be in and out in under 30
Go to the Madison Location I’ve never had a problem at the beginning of the month there. you will be in an out in no time ! Better than the downtown location for sure! Also they give you a 90 day grace period before they pull you over . But for the future if you get the tags renewed the same month before they expire you can do it online or at the self service kiosk :)
Oh yeah, you have a neighbor who likes to use their time being nosy lol
Not a lawyer but I think you can fight that. It’s not illegal to have expired tags. It’s illegal to operate a vehicle with expired tags. So he unlawfully wrote you a ticket.
The Metro ordinance says unregistered motor vehicles must not be visible from the street. If this was the case, OP probably doesn't have a case.
That seems like codes and not traffic. OP says the ticket requires them to go to traffic court. ETA: From another post looks like they were actually parked on the street which means yeah, no case.
The officer could be running a tag reader.
Yes
Thank you
It's more of a codes violation than anything.
It was parked in a public space or your drive way?
The street of my house. My dad uses our driveway and I use the street
Makes sense. Because it was on the street. If was in your driveway a neighbor might report it property standards. The police do occasionally check license plates on cars parked on streets looking for abandoned stolen cars.
Suck. We live in a culd sac with just two other houses so there's not even thru traffic. Just parking in front 😅. Thank you!
I received a letter one day saying something about the unregistered car in my driveway. I went outside and turned the car around so you couldnt see the license plate from the street and haven't heard from them since.
Sounds like a neighbor wants your car out of the street. Particularly if you aren't actually driving it and it's just sitting there. You may have clarified that and I just didn't see it. But yeah....someone wants your car out of the street.
Haha feels so crazy because from what I think all our neighbors get along with us! We bring in their mail on their vacations and everything. But there's now a new neighbor as a few months ago maybe I'll need to bring a muffin basket 😭
That's a nice gesture but there could be a reason that you aren't aware of. Are you blocking someone from being able to back out of their own driveway in large vehicles? Are you taking up so much of the road that it's no longer wide enough for two passing vehicles? Can the trash pickup people get to everyone's cans?
It's so odd to explain but if you take a circle and cut it in half , I park on the right half and our house is in the left half. We feel lucky because there no house/s behind my parked car just empty land. Our neighbors overflow cars / guests park next to me too. Mail and trash can swing in just fine!
IMO a cop was probably just driving thru your neighborhood and happen to notice your tags. If it was a neighbor that called this in, a codes officer would have likely been the one came out instead.
Yes. If your car is on a public street and not in compliance with law/city code, yes.
Car cannot be on a public road without valid tags, moving or parked. If it was in your driveway or garage you would be good.
That is a property standards violation, the home owner would receive a letter stating that and also AA threat of fine for not cooperating.
Some HOA communities have rules in their governing documents about abandoned vehicles. If you haven’t been driving it, someone noticed it’s been sitting. Since it was parked on a public street, the HOA can’t have it towed so they got around that with expired tags.
It seems odd that they could ticket you if you weren't on a public street because maybe you were just storing an old car and it wasn't on the road. All that said my kids didn't put the registration ticket on the plates when I gave it to them last June, April rolls around and son parked 21st Ave and gets a ticket for expired tags. I went to the Green Hills County Clerk's office and they were super helpful and nice. I then emailed the registration to the Dept of Transportation who was even nicer, I screwed up my paperwork, the called me, they followed up with me to make sure I submitted in time and got it all taken care of. We actually have really good customer service in Davidson County even for miserable things like getting your car registered and parking tickets.
A few cars in my neighborhood in east Nashville who park on the street received tickets too. We don’t have an HOA and all the neighbors are nice and low key, I doubt someone called codes. This is the first time it’s ever happened in the 7 years I’ve lived here. I wonder if they are just going through neighborhoods.
The exact same thing happened to me. I live in East and my old truck had been parked on the street with expired tags (which was my bad) for ages before I got ticketed. Mine came from NDOT enforcement, which has really ramped up their presence and, subsequently, their handing out of tickets. In my case, I renewed my tags before the due date on the ticket and then uploaded proof of renewal which caused me to only have to pay like $12 (as opposed to $70, which is how much the ticket was). Hope this helps!
Can you? Yes. Are you super unlucky that it was actually enforced? Yes.
Sucks. I see people driving golf carts and UTVs without tags all the time.
Yes. It happened to me. My only occasionally driven vehicle (few times per month) was parked on the street in front of my house and received 2 expired tags tickets in, I think, 3 weeks time. I was out of town when the first one happened, got back to town, and before I could address it, got another. I didn’t actually receive the second ticket, I just discovered that it had occurred when I went online to pay the first. It is my own fault that I hadn’t noticed the sticker had expired and renewed it. But getting TWO tickets in such a short time for it seemed excessive given that the number of unaddressed moving vehicle violations that pose an actual safety concern. I don’t live in an HOA, I have the new plate, my car is in good condition, and I don’t have any neighbor-enemies that I’m aware of. Even so, it seems likely that someone called it in for it to have been ticketed while parked TWICE in such a short time. It was my fault, but I was still bummed. Now I have calendar alerts in my phone to remind me to update my sticker.
Codes says your car must have up-to-date tags. We had a vehicle in our driveway that needed a new battery and we just had not made that a priority -- so Codes "invited" us to update the registration after a neighbor complained (yay neighbors!). IME a car in your driveway, parking spot, or on the street that is ticketed for expired registration is the result of a neighbor complaining to Codes. It's not an HOA rule that cars must be registered; it's a Metro rule. But in the HOA where we used to live the Board would walk the property and note all expired cars and report them to Codes.
I have gotten one while driving. So guess parked they could. Maybe since they did away with emissions testing they are doing this?
They have to make up that money somehow.
If it's parked on the street, yes you can be ticketed. If it's parked in your driveway on private property, no you cannot be ticketed.
We live at the very end of the cul de sac so it hardly feels like a real street to park on. Sucks so much!
Weird question. Do you rent? Are they building houses on your street?
No my dad owns the home and we live at the end of the cul de sac where there's no where to build or thru traffic at all! My dad bought the house in 2010 I think.
You may be cited for it as some local ordinances address motor vehicles on private property must also be licensed or they can be considered derelict. If it was parked on a street, you can be cited for it as well. Check your local ordinances.
I live like DEEP in a neighborhood, in a cul de sac and almost always park my car in the driveway backwards. (Weird driveway angle/kids in the neighborhood/habit). AND I STILL got a ticket for expired tags. Man people are bored with their own lives. While I was over here going to school full time, working part time and I had just planned a wedding and gotten married.
Someone may have been tired of seeing a car just sitting there unfortunately. You got this tho!! Maybe they can waive if you show proof of renewal!
Thank you!!
30 days in county.
If your car was on the street, then yes. When police sweep neighborhoods, their dash cam reads plates and it flagged the officer than yours was expired. I don’t know if an officer can enter private property (your driveway) to ticket you for expired plates. But a public street, yes.
In short, Yes, that is what I heard years ago, that is why a lot of people parked the vehicles backward when their tags expired. But that is a dead giveaway to cops.
If it’s not in your driveway, yes.
Question was it parked on the street ? Or on your property? Also is it the old plate that’s green or new ? If it was on the street then they had every right to ticket you because that is not part of your property and is illegal to park an unregistered vehicle on public roadways . If it was on your property then you should’ve gotten a letter from codes and not a ticket . As them entering your property without consent to snoop around is illegal. But the real question I have is why not just go get the car up to date? It’s not expensive and they don’t do emission testing anymore
It's a moving violation it's not illegal to own but illegal to be caught driving it.
No