New Laws for Oklahoma Drivers Now in Effect

Starting this week, Oklahoma drivers will retain their license plates when they sell their vehicle and must always have an up-to-date certificate of registration available for verification purposes.

Passed in 2018, Senate Bill 1339 amends the Oklahoma License and Registration Act, effectively assigning plates to match an individual rather than a particular vehicle.

According to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, when drivers purchase a vehicle from a dealership, that car will still come with a paper dealer tag and there will be a 30 day window to register the car. Upon title and registration, drivers may either put their old tag on the new car or purchase a new tag from the OTC or a local tag agent.

Messina Moore, an employee at Broadway Tag Agency, said the law will change multiple aspects of the vehicle registration process.

“Another law that is changing is [that] we are going to start doing what is called ‘color capture,’ which means we are going to start recording the color of the vehicle and will start printing that on the titles and the registration,” Moore said.

This new feature on initial title registration applications will be a question about the primary color of the vehicle. The same question will appear on OkCARS (Convenient Auto Renewal System) once a vehicle is renewed and the color will be printed on the title.

“They are giving about 25 different options, so you wont have antique sage as an option, but you will have tan as an option,” Moore said.

According to Moore, the process varies depending on whether the vehicle was purchased through a dealership or an individual.

“If you buy a car from a dealership, the Oklahoma Tax Commission gives you 30 days to process your title before you get a penalty. That will not be changing,” Moore said. “However, let’s say you buy from an individual. You buy my car, I take my tag off of my car. You are now driving in a car without a plate. You can drive around with no tag on that for five days, as long as you have a notarized bill of sale or Oklahoma title.”

The Department of Public Safety requires that if you have a plate from your old car, you can only put it on the new car after you transfer ownership. The owner has five days to do so, and after that five days one can be ticketed.

Oklahoma joined 42 other states with similar legislation. Any Oklahoma drivers who need a copy of their vehicle registration can get one for $1 at any tag agency.

Brittany Platt, communications and administrative coordinator for Transportation and Parking Services at the University of Central Oklahoma, said students, faculty and staff should make sure they update the make and model information if they get a new vehicle, even though the plate is the same.

“Currently, when you order a permit and register a car, you are essentially linking a license plate to a permit. You can have multiple cars under the same permit and all we require is [that] you have a physical sticker permit on your car.”

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