How To Put Your Vehicle On a PNO Status

We get a lot of questions about suspending registration with the DMV. This is called ‘Planned Non Op Status’ or PNO . This will hopefully provide some answers on when and how to go about doing this.

***note that this is for the CA DMV only ***

If your car isn’t going to be on the road for a while and you want to completely cancel your insurance, you need to put the vehicle on a PNO status with the DMV.

If you do not do this, your insurance company will notify the DMV automatically of the cancelation and then the DMV will suspend your registration. After that you’ll have to pay a fee to reinstate your registration. Additionally, if you let you’re your registration lapse for more than a year, you can be held responsible for up to four years of back fees and associated late fees.

No fun. So what do you do?

Well if you are 60 days or less out from renewing your registration, you can use the registration renewal system on the DMV Website OR the registration renewal form you received by mail.

If it is longer than 60 days until renewal is due, you can use this online form here or print this form out and mail it to DMV.

Whether you are storing your car here or in your garage, follow these steps to ensure that you’re protected against punitive California DMV fees!