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Use of relative's address


BJR

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Greetings.  I realize this is probably part of regular threads, and that Escapees offers the mail forwarding service, etc., however I'm wondering if someone who has lived in Texas all of their lives, already has all of the boxes checked for Domicile (Doctor's, vehicle registrations, etc.) can use a relative's address (son/daughter) as their "legal" address to full time in an RV.  Thanks in advance! 

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3 minutes ago, BJR said:

Greetings.  I realize this is probably part of regular threads, and that Escapees offers the mail forwarding service, etc., however I'm wondering if someone who has lived in Texas all of their lives, already has all of the boxes checked for Domicile (Doctor's, vehicle registrations, etc.) can use a relative's address (son/daughter) as their "legal" address to full time in an RV.  Thanks in advance! 

Forgot to add...son/daughter are also in Texas.  Thanks!

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We had lived in Texas for 5 years before retiring, but I really didn't want to make my daughter responsible for receiving our mail and forwarding it, plus her husband was still in graduate school and they moved and changed apartments every 18 months or so.   And yes, they were (still are) in Texas. 

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
2002 Alpine 36 MDDS (Figment II), 2018 Ford C-Max HYBRID
Blog: http://www.barbanddave.net
SPK# 90761 FMCA #F337834

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4 minutes ago, Barbaraok said:

We had lived in Texas for 5 years before retiring, but I really didn't want to make my daughter responsible for receiving our mail and forwarding it, plus her husband was still in graduate school and they moved and changed apartments every 18 months or so.   And yes, they were (still are) in Texas. 

Thank you.  So you are saying it is "legal" to do so if you son/daughter is wiling?

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8 minutes ago, GR "Scott" Cundiff said:

Escapees actually suggests (with cautions) that some people might want to use a relative for handling their mail. https://www.escapees.com/how-rvers-get-their-mail-guide/

Wow! They listed things to consider I never thought about. Make me glad we decided not to go the friends/family mail handling route.

Linda

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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2 hours ago, BJR said:

 So you are saying it is "legal" to do so if you son/daughter is wiling?

There is no legal issue with where you get your mail. In your case there really isn't any domicile issue since you already live in TX as do the people whose address you are considering using. Where there might be a slight chance of an issue would be your registering to vote and possibly some issue with your insurance, although I doubt that either would come up. If you wish to be sure, talk with your insurance agent about the address issue. In the 20+ years that I have been part of Escapees, I have never heard of anyone having a legal issue with using someone who is a legal resident of the state that they have always been a resident of.

Like Barb, we had been living in TX before we went on the road, in our case 11 years and we did have a son who was living not that far from where we lived, but we too chose to use the Escapee address service for many reasons. Our son moved 4 times in the 12 years that we were on the road, while our address never changed. There are many other reasons that we were happy with our Escapee address and for those reasons we have kept the Escapee address even though we are no longer on the road as we just have our on a temporary forward to the Escapee service when we travel for several months each year. For the small cost of the service it has been very much worth it for what we get in services.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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6 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

There is no legal issue with where you get your mail. In your case there really isn't any domicile issue since you already live in TX as do the people whose address you are considering using. Where there might be a slight chance of an issue would be your registering to vote and possibly some issue with your insurance, although I doubt that either would come up. If you wish to be sure, talk with your insurance agent about the address issue. In the 20+ years that I have been part of Escapees, I have never heard of anyone having a legal issue with using someone who is a legal resident of the state that they have always been a resident of.

Like Barb, we had been living in TX before we went on the road, in our case 11 years and we did have a son who was living not that far from where we lived, but we too chose to use the Escapee address service for many reasons. Our son moved 4 times in the 12 years that we were on the road, while our address never changed. There are many other reasons that we were happy with our Escapee address and for those reasons we have kept the Escapee address even though we are no longer on the road as we just have our on a temporary forward to the Escapee service when we travel for several months each year. For the small cost of the service it has been very much worth it for what we get in services.

Thank you.  Appreciate the excellent information.  I am sure Escapee's service is as excellent as everyone makes it seem.  I am just not sure why I would "move" to Livingston/Polk County and have to establish new relationships with doctors, etc. simply to have a more and potentially "permanent" address.  

Also, I am assuming making a change of address to a relative's address allows Vehicle registrations, Driver's License address, etc to be tied to that address without concern, correct?

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We have been Livingston, TX "residents" for 8.5 years and still have all of our Doctors and providers in Houston, TX.  No problems form any of them.  Whan on the road and we need medical care, we look for a highly rated walk-in/urgent care clinic in the area.

There are thousands Livingston Escapees with the Livingston address as their residence of domicile and use Doctors back home for their annual medical needs.

Ken

Amateur radio operator, 2023 Cougar 22MLS, 2022 F150 Lariat 4x4 Off Road, Sport trim <br />Travel with 1 miniature schnauzer, 1 standard schnauzer and one African Gray parrot

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We did the same as Ken. Domicile is mostly a state issue and while I suppose there could be some county issue, I have yet to hear of one. You would need to move your vehicle registration, driver's license and all insurance to the new address but we did all of that with just an address change form. We then notified all of our mail contacts of our new mailing address but continued to do all of our financial business in the same place, visited the same doctors and dentist, it was business as usual. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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16 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

We did the same as Ken. Domicile is mostly a state issue and while I suppose there could be some county issue, I have yet to hear of one. You would need to move your vehicle registration, driver's license and all insurance to the new address but we did all of that with just an address change form. We then notified all of our mail contacts of our new mailing address but continued to do all of our financial business in the same place, visited the same doctors and dentist, it was business as usual. 

Really appreciate the insights!  Question: Do you/Ken have to visit Livingston physically on a regular basis?  I'm trying to learn how it all works but guess I am a little confused based on what I've read.  Granted, it seems like most of what I've seen applies to someone establishing a domicile in Texas from another state.  I'm nowhere near Livingston nor go that way due to the fact I'm not retired.  Having to go there for inspections, etc would be difficult.  Sorry for the confusion...

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We generally manage to wander through Livingston once or twice a year.  Some years not.  As for inspection, if we are out of state, we register the RV and truck online and self-certify that we are out of state.  The registration stickers are mailed to my Livingston address.  Then you have 72 hours once you come back into Texas to get the inspection done.  We know a few folks that have not been back here for years.  

Did you read all of the information on the Escapees site on becoming a Texan and establishing Texas as your domicile?  But if you have no intention of ever coming to Texas, that may not fit you.  You might look at South Dakota.

Ken

Amateur radio operator, 2023 Cougar 22MLS, 2022 F150 Lariat 4x4 Off Road, Sport trim <br />Travel with 1 miniature schnauzer, 1 standard schnauzer and one African Gray parrot

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2 minutes ago, TXiceman said:

We generally manage to wander through Livingston once or twice a year.  Some years not.  As for inspection, if we are out of state, we register the RV and truck online and self-certify that we are out of state.  The registration stickers are mailed to my Livingston address.  Then you have 72 hours once you come back into Texas to get the inspection done.  We know a few folks that have not been back here for years.  

Did you read all of the information on the Escapees site on becoming a Texan and establishing Texas as your domicile?  But if you have no intention of ever coming to Texas, that may not fit you.  You might look at South Dakota.

Ken

Thanks.  I've read it.  I am a lifelong Texan living in Texas but going full time in a 5th Wheel.  Was simply wondering if we could use our son or daughter's home as our address instead of doing something like the Escapee mail service.

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10 hours ago, BJR said:

 Question: Do you/Ken have to visit Livingston physically on a regular basis?

We established Livingston Escapees as our address while living in Ft Worth about 3 months prior to our leaving for the road. We sent in a change of address for vehicle registrations, driver's licenses, our vehicle insurance, our heath plan, our financial institutions, credit cards, and all of our other business and personal contacts early in that 3 months so that by the time that we moved from the Ft Worth house all of our mail was going to the Escapee address. We also talked with our doctor and dentist and made sure that they had our new mailing address and explained what we were doing. At least once each year we would pass through the Ft Worth area for a few days to do our annual medical and dental checks and if needed any business that could not be done by internet of phone. We also arranged for all regular bills to be sent by email and all income to be by direct deposit. We didn't visit Livingston at all in the process of doing this and it was 3 years before we set foot on Rainbow's End or Polk Co. at all. While we made regular visits to the Ft Worth area both for business, medical, and to visit friends & family, in our 12 years of the Escapee address being our only address we were probably in Livingston no more than 5 or 6 times. In all of our time on the road our doctors, dentists, and all of our business contacts remained in the Ft Worth area. 

You are making this far more complicated than it actually is. Legally speaking, you could have your address anywhere in TX that you wish as your mailing address does not define where your domicile is. Domicile is a legal issue that is primarily one of the state that you live in and there is no single issue that defines it. If there were a court challenge they would look at all of your business contact locations, social ties, and pretty much anything that you do on a regular basis, but such issues are at a state level involving state law. I suppose a county might be offended that you are paying the road & bridge fee of your vehicle registration to Polk county when domiciled in another county, but since that is typically $10/year/vehicle I can't imagine them taking you to court over that. 

Edited by Kirk W

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

We established Livingston Escapees as our address while living in Ft Worth about 3 months prior to our leaving for the road. We sent in a change of address for vehicle registrations, driver's licenses, our vehicle insurance, our heath plan, our financial institutions, credit cards, and all of our other business and personal contacts early in that 3 months so that by the time that we moved from the Ft Worth house all of our mail was going to the Escapee address. We also talked with our doctor and dentist and made sure that they had our new mailing address and explained what we were doing. At least once each year we would pass through the Ft Worth area for a few days to do our annual medical and dental checks and if needed any business that could not be done by internet of phone. We also arranged for all regular bills to be sent by email and all income to be by direct deposit. We didn't visit Livingston at all in the process of doing this and it was 3 years before we set foot on Rainbow's End or Polk Co. at all. While we made regular visits to the Ft Worth area both for business, medical, and to visit friends & family, in our 12 years of the Escapee address being our only address we were probably in Livingston no more than 5 or 6 times. In all of our time on the road our doctors, dentists, and all of our business contacts remained in the Ft Worth area. 

You are making this far more complicated than it actually is. Legally speaking, you could have your address anywhere in TX that you wish as your mailing address does not define where your domicile is. Domicile is a legal issue that is primarily one of the state that you live in and there is no single issue that defines it. If there were a court challenge they would look at all of your business contact locations, social ties, and pretty much anything that you do on a regular basis, but such issues are at a state level involving state law. I suppose a county might be offended that you are paying the road & bridge fee of your vehicle registration to Polk county when domiciled in another county, but since that is typically $10/year/vehicle I can't imagine them taking you to court over that. 

Thank you.

 

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