Cooper signs bill requiring NC license plates to be replaced every seven years
Car and truck owners will need to turn in their North Carolina license plate and get a new one every seven years, under a bill signed into law Friday by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Up to now, the state has set no time limit for replacing a license plate; you could keep the one you were given as long as it held up. State law includes a provision that says it can order someone to give up a plate that “has become illegible or is in such a condition that the numbers thereon may not be readily distinguished.”
The bill signed into law Friday says simply, “All registration plates shall be replaced every seven years.” It applies to plates issued or renewed after June 30, 2020. If a plate is seven or more years old at renewal time, or will be within registration period, it will have to be replaced.
The Division of Motor Vehicles won’t charge for the replacement plates required by the new law, said spokeswoman Binta Cisse. Beyond that, the DMV is still developing a plan to implement the new requirement, Cisse said, so it’s not clear yet how the DMV will notify vehicle owners that it’s time to get a new plate or whether they’ll have to go to a license plate office to get a new one.
If you buy a new or used car from a dealer, usually the dealer will handle the paperwork and the plate will arrive in the mail. If you buy your car from an individual, you need to go to a license plate agency to get a plate.
There is not a separate fee for a license plate, unless it’s a duplicate for a lost or stolen plate ($20) or a specialty plate ($30). Otherwise, the plate comes with the vehicle registration fee.
Neither the DMV nor the state Department of Transportation requested the new time limit, Cisse said. The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Phil Shepard of Onslow County, was unavailable for comment Friday.
The seven-year requirement was not in the original version of House Bill 211 that Shepard introduced in February. It was added by the House rules committee in March, along with a provision that included detailed specifications for making the plates reflective.
The Senate transportation committee stripped out those details in June, restoring language that simply says the plates should be “treated with reflectorized materials” to make them easier to see at night.
But the requirement that the plates be replaced every seven years survived in the Senate and in the conference committee that produced the final version that went to Cooper. His office announced late Friday that he had signed the bill.
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Cooper signs bill requiring NC license plates to be replaced every seven years."
