In Limbo?

[Bobalou]

We are not full-time yet, but will be in less than a month. We are selling the house and leaving the Northeast. We’ll make our way to Texas and register domicile in Livingston. We expect to arrive in early November. Someone asked me a question today that I can’t answer. What am I for the several weeks that I am traveling between mid-September and early November? I have sold my house, so have no residence in CT. It will be 7-8 weeks until I am domiciled in Texas. So, I’m not a resident or domiciled anywhere for a few weeks. I told this person that I am not really worried about it as it’s my daughter who is buying the house, so I know I’m good with continuing to use our current address while we go through the transition. But the person who asked kept pressing me for an answer ... how can I vote HERE when I don’t own property HERE, and of course I can’t vote THERE as I’m not yet domiciled. I wonder how others would answer this question. What are we?

[Chad Heiser]

Your still a resident of CT until you physically change to Texas.  You will still have your CT drivers license, registration, insurance, etc.  With your daughter buying your home, you can even still use your old address for mail, etc.  Your friend is making a mountain out of a mole hill.  You are just a CT resident traveling until you physically change to TX.

[Twotoes]

Home ownership does not make a domicle. Many renters vote. You can continue to use your previous address until you officially change your address to TX since your daughter is buying your home. 

[LindaH]

As others have said, you will remain domiciled in CT until you make concrete steps to change your domicile to TX.  You do not have to own property in order to be domiciled in ANY state -- what about all the renters who own no property (house/land)?  Are they not domiciled in the state in which they live?  Of course they are.

As for voting, I would make sure you take whatever steps are necessary to vote in CT since you will arrive too late in TX to vote.  This means not actually changing your domicile to TX until after the election.

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, Bobalou said:

So, I’m not a resident or domiciled anywhere for a few weeks. I told this person that I am not really worried about it as it’s my daughter who is buying the house, so I know I’m good with continuing to use our current address while we go through the transition. But the person who asked kept pressing me for an answer ... how can I vote HERE when I don’t own property HERE, and of course I can’t vote THERE as I’m not yet domiciled. I wonder how others would answer this question. What are we?

As others have previously said, you remain a CT resident until you establish a new domicile somewhere else. While it is highly unlikely that it will become an issue, if you are concerned you can wait to change mailing addresses for your important things like insurance, until you actually arrive in TX. Since your house will be in the family, there should be no problems at all in doing things that way. 

[bigjim]

If you are in the mail service you will be the proud owner of a folder in the mail facility.  More like a renter I guess. And it will be legal.

[fpmtngal]

The voting question is an interesting one and might provide an different wrinkle.

I agree with the above, you are still a resident of CT until you change your domicile to Texas, when you get there.  Since I was real interested in divorcing California for tax reasons, I went directly to Texas once I left California (several weeks after the house closed), as I didn’t want any confusion about taxes - California law is a bit hazy for tax purposes, in one place it says your residency changes when you leave the state permanently, but in other places it says when you establish residency in another state.  I wanted the two close together.

I filed a permanent change of address with the post office a few days before I moved out of the house.  I think about 2 months later I got a notice from Kern County Voter Registration office saying that they had received notification that I had filed a chance of address and asked me to indicate whether by chance it was a temporary change rather than a permanent one, and indicating they would remove me from the voting roles.  So I would be cautious about giving the post office a permanent change of address notice.

Different states and all, but in your case, since your daughter is buying your house and can forward your mail, I wouldn’t tell the post office I was moving until after the election.  You can always fill out the permanent change of address for the post office and leave it with your daughter to drop off after the election.  And you can always have a mailing address that’s in a different state than where you domicile (think of all those people who have summer and winter homes), so you can notify some organizations about your mailing address changing.

Edited August 26, 2020 by fpmtngal

[Bobalou]

Thanks to all. Just clarifying that WE are not concerned. Even if my daughter was not buying the house, we would not be concerned. For some reason, this person was sort of backing us into a corner on the issue and we just didn’t have an answer. You are all right, and it never crossed my mind ... what about renters?? They are not property owners and yet still residents. LOL.  

[Bobalou]

As for voting, we have already requested absentee ballots. Unfortunately, CT is not going to start mailing those out until 10/2, which is a bit of a worry for us. What with all the stuff happening at the postal service, if mail is significantly delayed to TX, and then we need it forwarded to us wherever we are, and then we need to mail it back to CT ... we may be overnighting our ballots to CT. Worst case scenario, we’ll fly back to CT for a day to vote if we have to!! 

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, Bobalou said:

if mail is significantly delayed to TX, and then we need it forwarded to us wherever we are, and then we need to mail it back to CT ...

You could always let the ballots go to your kids and then they overnight them to you.

[Bobalou]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

You could always let the ballots go to your kids and then they overnight them to you.

That’s a great idea!