​​​​​​​Questions about establishing domicile and mail forwarding in Florida - Escapees vs St. Brendan’s Isle

[Skycrath]

I wasn’t exactly sure which topic to post this under, so I apologize if it’s in the wrong place and please feel free to move it. I am totally new to this community and RV living, so thanks in advance for your patience. 

I’m leaving apartment life and heading off in an RV full-time. My apartment lease expires at the end of April, so it’s getting down to the wire. A lot of last minute things have come up and I’ve only got a month to resolve them. I could find somewhere to stay temporarily for a month is necessary, but I really don’t’ want to do that. Believe it or not I’ve been preparing for move for the last 6 months, but I guess I didn’t get into as much detail on some things as I should have, hindsight is always 20-20. I totally thought I had my domicile choice in the bag, but last minute conflicting information has made me question things. I need to get this sorted out as quickly as possible so I would appreciate any advice. I would really love to hear from people who have recently used Escapees or St. Brendan’s Isle to establish Florida domicile and mail forwarding.  

So, here’s some background on my situation that will hopefully help you to help me:

• solo female travelers in her 40s
• totally new to RV life – but I have done solo business and personal travel for many years, so am completely comfortable with that aspect
• very excited for RV life – tired of apartment living and have never found a place I liked enough to buy a home, love travelling and meeting new people
• current FL resident (for the past five years) with FL DL and car registration – although I will be getting rid of my FL car once I get the RV, it’s on it’s last legs and would not even be reliable as a TOAD
• need mail forwarding service and to establish domicile – want a professional service, do not want to use family or friends for my address
• new 2019 Class C RV 24-26ft (NOT PURCHASED YET) – I’ve decided on a small Class C and won’t be towing anything (no TOAD, at least not for the first year), I have NOT purchased the RV yet since I thought it might best to establish my domicile before buying and registering the vehicle (let me know if you feel differently and why)
• I have qualified for a loan but signed anything yet – I’m getting the loan on my own (and not through RV the dealership), but again I wasn’t sure if I should officially establish the loan at my current apartment address or the new address that I will be using for my RV domicile (or if that even matters), I’ll probably have to re-apply anyway since it’s been over a month, I may get a slightly different rate but at least I already know I qualify for the general loan amount I need

After speaking at length today to representatives at both Escapees and St. Brendan’s Isle and extensively searching the FL DMV website, I’ve gotten some conflicting information with regards to my DL and RV registration in Florida. I thought being a current FL resident would makes things a little easier but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore (and now that I’m rethinking things South Dakota would actually be cheaper, the RV insurance would be about half the price and sales tax on an RV purchase is 2.5% less than in Florida). 

But let’s focus on my Florida questions, because that still might be easier in the short term since I’m already a resident. Both Escapees and St. Brendan’s Isle has the same basic mail forwarding services, so are comparable in that regard. The big negative I saw with Escapees is that I’m going to wind up with two address – which I didn’t realize until I read the fine print. My physical address for FL, registration and insurance will be in FL, but I will have a mailing address in Texas for everything else (credit cards, banks statements, friends, family, magazines). The issue with Escapees would be the same if I decided to domicile in SD. Of all the times I’ve looked at the Escapees website in the past 6 months, I didn’t know about the two different addresses until today. This seems like it could wind up being a lot of of trouble, so anyone who has experience with this please let me know. Did having two address lead to any confusion with your credit card or bank accounts? I’m also now sure which I address I should use for my lienholder, rates may be different in FL vs Texas, although they might require my domicile state which would be Florida. And it also seems like it would lead to some double-forwarding fees, the mail that goes to FL address will automatically be forwarded to the Texas address as part of the Escapees contract, which will then have to be forwarded to me where ever I might be at the time. I’m not sure why Escapees does things this way, it seems to make things more complicated. But maybe that’s just because I have no experience with this so it seems overwhelming. 

The issue that came up with St. Brendan’s Isle is one I’m really confused about, so I hope I can explain it in a way that makes sense. I would have just one physical address for both my domicile and mail forwarding, which seems like it would be easier than Escapees in that regard. But they said there would be this weird thing with my driver’s license (which I think would be the case whether you are a current or new FL resident). They said my registration would have their physical address and my specific box number, but that my drivers license would have my RV registration number instead of my specific box number. Basically that you are required to inform the FL DMV you are a full-time RVer and they will make this specific change the address field on your DL. So my RV registration address would say “411 Walnut Street, Box 5678” but my DL would say “411 Walnut Street, RV #ABCD”. Does anyone know if this is true? Escapees didn’t saw anything about this, they said both DL and registration would have use the physical FL address they assigned to me. I couldn’t find anything about this on the FL DMV website either. Could this be because Escapees uses the address of an RV resort park and St. Brendan’s Isle uses a commercial address? Can anyone who uses St. Brendan’s Isle please let me know how the address info appears on your DL vs registration? 

Also, if you know of a different domicile/mail forwarding  service for Florida that uses only one address, please let me know. And thank you so much for reading this long post and for any help you can offer!

 

[Jim1521]

Skycrath, you are in the same exact situation as my wife and I.  We live in FL, just sold our condo (closing mid-May).  We will be going full-timing as of the day we close on the condo.  We plan on remaining FL residents and FL as our domicile.  I made an appointment with Loring & Associates (made contact with them through Escapees) for next week to get legal advice on how to proceed.

Will let you know what I learn, but would suggest you do the same.

Who are you using for financing and did you tell them you’ll be full-timing?  I’ve run into some places that won’t finance full-timers.

Jim

Edited March 30, 2019 by Jim1521

[SWharton]

Regarding financing, Alliant Credit Union is well attuned to RVers and full-timers.

We went through this process several years ago and became TX residents. You are both running very late in establishing a mail service. There will be a lot more addresses you need to change than you think.

I'm not sure about FL laws so won't comment on anything FL. 

Regarding the 2 addresses with Escapees. The only mail that would go to your FL address would be "govt" mail. DL and registration. All other mail will go to your TX address. This means that once a year you will get a piece of mail for registration, or less if you register for multiple years. Every 6 years or so you will get a new DL. This amount of mail is minor. Don't overwork this.

Steps we took prior to going full-time were: move as much as possible to auto-pay, change all addresses to our TX address(this takes a lot of your time), go to Livingston, TX and in a few hours had everything registered and a new DL. There were things we missed but in general, everything went smoothly.

From what I have read the one critical item for where to establish domicile is medical insurance. We are fine, we had Medicare and our company insurance as secondary.

You can't just look at sales tax and the other $$ items as to where to domicile, you need to look at the overall picture. 

An appt. with Loring can be very beneficial and they deal with RVers all the time.

You will enjoy this life once you get over the bumpy start.

 

 

[FL-JOE]

Alliant Credit Union will finance RVs for full timers up to $150,000.  Over that amount if you mention you are full time forget it because they probably will not.

Is there some reason you can not use a mail box express facility in your current general area?  Or, if you are planning on returning to a certain area of Florida each winter picking a mail box express store there.  If you have been a Florida resident for 5 years then you certainly have doctors in your current area.  Are you planning on keeping the same health care plan and doctors?  

Of course another option is using a relatives or close friends address.  We have a life long single friend of my DW's that moved into our area of Florida a year prior to us selling our home down here.  When we went full time we switched everything to her address.  Easy peasy…..

[Blues]

The "two addresses" thing with Escapees has always given me pause, so I'm with you on that.

If St. Brendan's Isle is telling you what the address will be on your driver's license if your mail service is with them, then I would believe them.  And as far as I know, SBI is the only mail forwarder that has to do that. 

Also, the Supervisor of Elections in Clay County (where SBI is) apparently has it in for them, and last year there were issues with voter registration of SBI customers--he was purging SBI voters, and I think refusing to register new ones.  If registering to vote is important to you, you might ask SBI what the current status is.  I'm not sure if it would matter that (I assume) you're already registered to vote in Florida--you'd think you wouldn't have a problem, but since voter registration is done on a county-by-county basis, you might.

The Good Sam Club has a mail forwarding service in Crestview (near Pensacola).  I know nothing about them except that they exist, and I'm not really a fan of Good Sam.  But from reading their website, it appears they don't do the jinky thing with automatic forwarding to a Texas address.  I don't know about the address for the driver's license--they don't say anything about that, but neither does SBI and we know they have to do it.

https://www.goodsammailservice.com/

You didn't mention health insurance, but if you need to buy an individual policy and are going to be traveling, you need a non-HMO plan with a nationwide network and those aren't available in Texas or South Dakota.  They are in Florida (Florida Blue EPO), and I know you can get one with an SBI address, and I assume you can with the Escapees address (or at least I've never heard anyone they're not offered in that county), but I don't know if Florida Blue offers EPO plans in the county where the Good Sam mail forwarding service is, but it's not hard to find out if you just enter the zip code at healthsherpa.com or healthcare.gov and look for plans.

 

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums. There is no need to apologize for anything. 

On 3/29/2019 at 6:21 PM, Skycrath said:

I totally thought I had my domicile choice in the bag, but last minute conflicting information has made me question things.

I suggest that you need to spend some time reading to understand the domicile issue since it really isn't just a matter of choosing where to pay your taxes. I suggest starting with the article "The Issue of Domicile." There are many others available but this should be very helpful.

On 3/29/2019 at 6:21 PM, Skycrath said:

I wasn’t sure if I should officially establish the loan at my current apartment address or the new address that I will be using for my RV domicile

Be very careful on this issue and be sure to read the entire loan document before you sign anything as loans can be callable if you change your address. If that is the case it will be written somewhere in the loan document.

On 3/29/2019 at 6:21 PM, Skycrath said:

now that I’m rethinking things South Dakota would actually be cheaper,

Choosing your domicile based on the cheapest place can be poor planning. Have you considered the other legal aspects that are based on your place of domicile? Florida may well be your best and most valid choice but you should not make that decision based only on cost and convenience. Things like estate law, jury service, and a long list of other issues should be considered. 

[sandsys]

You might also have to decide how important voting is to you as SBI has recently been challenged as to whether or not it is a legal voting address. So far, the only mail service that has fought and won the battle is Escapees in Livingston, TX. South Dakota is currently under challenge as well.

Linda

[Skycrath]

On 3/29/2019 at 10:03 PM, Jim1521 said:

Thanks so much to everyone who replied!

 

[Twotoes]

It’s notjust your drivers liscense and registration mail that will go to FL and be forwarded to TX. Your vehicle insurance and health insurance will have the FL address too. You can do paperless statements for all your banking and credit card statements as well as cell phone statements and use TX as your billing address for other needs. 

[chindog]

5 hours ago, Blues said:

The Good Sam Club has a mail forwarding service in Crestview (near Pensacola).  I know nothing about them except that they exist, and I'm not really a fan of Good Sam.  But from reading their website, it appears they don't do the jinky thing with automatic forwarding to a Texas address.  I don't know about the address for the driver's license--they don't say anything about that, but neither does SBI and we know they have to do it.

I have my mail service with this company, MyRVMail.  But, this is NOT Good Sam's mailing service, although the mailing service does give a discount to Good Sam members.  I get a discount, too, but not through Good Sam.  MyRVMail has the same discount program with Passport America.

My drivers license and voting registration is in Crestview.  My address is 5753 Hwy 85 N, with a box number on the end of it.  Same as hundreds of other folks.  That's where my mail is sent, and is the address on my license.  However, for my voter registration, my address is listed as the county clerk's office address.

[Blues]

20 hours ago, chindog said:

My drivers license and voting registration is in Crestview.  My address is 5753 Hwy 85 N, with a box number on the end of it.  Same as hundreds of other folks.  That's where my mail is sent, and is the address on my license.  However, for my voter registration, my address is listed as the county clerk's office address.

That's interesting because SBI used a similar workaround for voter registration, and it worked until the Supervisor of Elections decided it didn't work.  The opinion from the Florida Department of State focused on the fact that the address used for voter registration was not a residential address, and in your case, the county clerk's office address clearly isn't a residential address. 

Also, I saw the OP's question posted in another forum, and one of the responses reminded me that I'd seen before where he said he got the address on his license to match his SBI mailing address by getting the license in a county away from SBI, where they didn't recognize the address as being nonconforming.  Just thought I'd add that for those following along.

[Dutch_12078]

As I recall from previous discussions, the Escapees Florida address at Sumter Oaks used for the mail service is accepted as a residential address because a number of people have year round leased (ERPU) sites and receive mail there at the same address.

[Jim1521]

I did my call with the Loring & Associates attorney on Friday.  Didn’t actually learn anything I didn’t already know, but it was good to get confirmation.

1.  We have lived in FL for the past 16 years.  Our plan is to remain FL residents.  Your domicile doesn’t change unless you change it - or you take an action that changes it.  We will not be registering to vote in another state.  We will not be changing our drivers licenses - except for mailing address.  In the case of SBI, your license plate number becomes your “apartment number” - only as far as FL DOT is concerned.  So if my license plate says ABC-123, then my address for my drivers license and vehicle registration only is 411 Walnut St #ABC-123.  Since you are already a FL resident (based on your initial post), as long as you don’t do anything to change that, you are still a FL resident, and thus FL is your legal domicile.

2.  You can use a mail forwarding service and it will not change your domicile.

 3.  The PBI number is strictly for receiving mail.  They are two different things.  One doesn’t have anything to do with the other.  The license plate keeps you legal with FL DOT.  The PBI number allows you to get your mail - using a mail forwarding service.

4. When you sign up with SBI, you need to fill out a form for the USPS and get it notarized.  It basically proves that you are you.  Once notarized, send it back to SBI and they will begin processing your mail.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Jim1521

[Mesous]

On 4/7/2019 at 10:01 PM, Jim1521 said:

I did my call with the Loring & Associates attorney on Friday.  Didn’t actually learn anything I didn’t already know, but it was good to get confirmation.

1.  We have lived in FL for the past 16 years.  Our plan is to remain FL residents.  Your domicile doesn’t change unless you change it - or you take an action that changes it.  We will not be registering to vote in another state.  We will not be changing our drivers licenses - except for mailing address.  In the case of SBI, your license plate number becomes your “apartment number” - only as far as FL DOT is concerned.  So if my license plate says ABC-123, then my address for my drivers license and vehicle registration only is 411 Walnut St #ABC-123.  Since you are already a FL resident (based on your initial post), as long as you don’t do anything to change that, you are still a FL resident, and thus FL is your legal domicile.

2.  You can use a mail forwarding service and it will not change your domicile.

 3.  The PBI number is strictly for receiving mail.  They are two different things.  One doesn’t have anything to do with the other.  The license plate keeps you legal with FL DOT.  The PBI number allows you to get your mail - using a mail forwarding service.

4. When you sign up with SBI, you need to fill out a form for the USPS and get it notarized.  It basically proves that you are you.  Once notarized, send it back to SBI and they will begin processing your mail.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

We’re also residents of Florida and our house closes in May 2020 so we will be moving into our RV full time. Since many camping areas are not open to new campers, we’ll be staying in the area for a while. We plan to keep Florida as our “Home” even while traveling. I’m trying to decide if I should change my physical address to one of the mail services. I don’t want to use a friend’s  or family’s address. Wondering if I should change my physical address to the local campground and use that address to change all of my credit cards, vehicle registrations, insurance, etc. Then sign up for a mail service to have them forward all of my mail. I think I can do vehicle registrations and d/l online. Thoughts?

[sandsys]

5 hours ago, Mesous said:

Wondering if I should change my physical address to the local campground and use that address to change all of my credit cards, vehicle registrations, insurance, etc. Then sign up for a mail service to have them forward all of my mail.

Will the campground let you do that? Some will not accept mail for campers let alone forward any official documents sent to that address. Will a jury summons, for instance, get to you?

Linda

[Mesous]

I don’t know - I’m new to this. Just thinking out loud I guess. The campgrounds I’m heading to does accept mail - they said “make sure it’s in your name using our address”. I would only use it until my mail service kicked in then change everything to that address. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Mesous

[Kirk W]

5 minutes ago, Mesous said:

I would only use it until my mail service kicked in then change everything to that address. 

If you use a campground to register and insure vehicles you will need to find one that will forward an occasional item when you are not there, or make a different choice. Why not just wait to change the address on things until you get signed up for a mail service? Most of us make the choice of a mail service one of the first actions taken and get address changed made before we leave the stick house for the last time. If you do as you suggest you will need to make the address change again before you leave that campground. 

[filthy-beast]

2 hours ago, Mesous said:

I don’t know - I’m new to this. Just thinking out loud I guess. The campgrounds I’m heading to does accept mail - they said “make sure it’s in your name using our address”. I would only use it until my mail service kicked in then change everything to that address. 

I got our mail service setup already, even though we still have a S&B and won't be full timing until later this summer. Takes about a week to setup. We went with MyRVmail in Crestview. When I had our insurance agent run rates for the zip codes of Escapees, STB, and MyRVmail.  Best rates were in Crestview, worst were STB.

[Mesous]

Most of us make the choice of a mail service one of the first actions taken and get address changed made before we leave the stick house for the last time. 
 

Thanks for the info. Do you use the address provided by the mail service as your “home“ address?

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, Mesous said:

Do you use the address provided by the mail service as your “home“ address?

The ability to do that is one of the key reasons that FL, TX, and SD are the most popular states for fulltimer's domicile. Most states do not allow use of a mail service for vehicle registrations, driving licenses, voter registration, and a host of other things. All 3 of those states not only accept their use but also have no state income tax. 

[agesilaus]

We are Florida residents and while I haven't done it yet was planning to use SBI. But we are not selling our house or land here and will keep that for residency purposes. Both my wife and I can renew our DL right now, they allow early processing here, 10 months IIRC. So our DL won't expire for 6 years and we'll be in and out of the state anyway. My wife requires grandkid exposure at least several times a year and demands that she be here for Christmas season..

As for SBI I like the fact that they receive and process the mail right there. Shipping it off to Texas seems like it's asking for problems because of excess complexity.

[SWharton]

The only mail that goes to TX is the mail that requires a FL address, I would guess just your DL and registrations.

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, SWharton said:

The only mail that goes to TX is the mail that requires a FL address, I would guess just your DL and registrations.

And insurance? And voter registration which is one of the lists used for calling potential jurors.

Linda

[SWharton]

forgot voter id, insurance you can have a service address and a mailing address. Our insurance is paper-less.

[sandsys]

7 hours ago, SWharton said:

forgot voter id, insurance you can have a service address and a mailing address. Our insurance is paper-less.

Vehicle insurance, yes. Health insurance is a bit more challenging.

Linda