Here’s my story of what I believe to be license fees run amok within state bureaucracy. I received license renewal from Olympia for my 1971 Volkswagen camper, aka TRASW, whatever Olympia means by that.
I note that my fee has increased from $38.75 to $113.75. The $75 increase is because they have reclassified my classic VW as a motor home (Use code now MH)!
According to RCW46.04.305: ” ‘Motor Homes’ mean motor vehicles originally designed, reconstructed, or permanently altered to provide facilities for human habitation, which include lodging and cooking or sewage disposal, and is enclosed within a solid body shell with the vehicle, but excludes a camper or like unit constructed separately and affixed to a motor vehicle.”
Under these criteria my old VW would not qualify as a motor home, because it does not have cooking or sewage disposal. What it does have is a seat that folds down to make a bed; a sink with hand pump and a 5-gallon plastic tank below, no plumbing, no toilet, no kitchen, stove etc. However, the state, in an effort to up the fees on all vehicles, has added to the RCW the following:
“A motor home must have a permanently attached bed or sink or stove or any combination of the above” … so one of these things is all Olympia cares about. Any vehicle with a sink could qualify as a motor home. Indeed!
In sum, because my ‘71 VW van has a seat that is a fold-down bed, or because I have a sink with a drain to the street below, I now have motor home, though I have to cook, bathe and visit a toilet elsewhere.
I talked to Olympia, to the auditors office, to the State Patrol where I had to go for inspection (an additional $50), to have them verify that I was or was not a motor home. State Patrol scratched their heads (no fee charged) and sent me back to the auditors office, which then called Olympia again and returned the same conclusion. I paid the extra money.
Motor home indeed!
Michael Dahlstrom
Everett
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