Law and Government

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Insurance Strikeout

The insurance broker I spoke to in Assiniboia has been unable to find me coverage for living in my motorhome. I spoke with someone who commented on the blog about having similar difficulties and followed up as to what she did. She took up residency outside of Saskatchewan.

As long as the insurance issues are not dealt with, there is no point in moving forward with the residency transfer. I was going to remain mum about all of this, accustomed as I am to living off the radar. But the realisation that I’m actually coming ‘legitimate’ again, willing to live in one province for six months and traveling as a snowbird the rest of the year, has made me decide to go public. The only issue I’m having is that Saskatchewan insurers don’t want me to live in my motorhome. Why would I put myself into debt to get another residence when this one suits me just fine?

Since Saskatchewan has government-run insurance, I did the logical thing and contacted the government. We’ll see if that gets me anything.

If I don’t get resolution from that, the next step will be the media. I am going to have to be very open about my conundrum in order to protect myself.

Most irksome is that this is delaying my getting health coverage. It might not be clear to folks who have never changed provinces, but that’s the last step to establishing residency and you use your vehicle registration and new driver’s license as part of the proof that you can get health coverage in the new province. Because the two databases are linked, it is almost impossible to have health coverage in one province and a driver’s license in another, unless one of the provinces is Quebec since it doesn’t share information with other provinces (writing from experience…).

So until I get my vehicle insurance issues resolved, I’m stuck for health insurance. While I could use my Alberta health care for a real emergency here, it would raise a red flag.

Just another day in the Independent States of America. I may have to question just how badly I want to be at Haven. 🙁

I would like to clarify this post as the issue I’m facing isn’t clear. The problem is that insurance is run by the government in SK and they do not have an obvious product that fits my need. Therefore, they will not insure me. The issue isn’t whether or not I can live in a motorhome but rather I can live in it while being protected in the event of an accident, break in, fire, etc. If I was dealing with a private corporation, they should have more flexibility in creating a product for me. The government is not set up to think outside the box.

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Getting the Ball Rolling

Today was a town day, so I popped into an insurance company to talk about proper insurance for Miranda so I can get started on transferring residency to Saskatchewan.

Aviva doesn’t have an Elite product for Saskatchewan, so I’m at square one for finding a company willing to insure me for living full-time in the rig. The added difficult is that SK has mandatory basic government insurance, so you have to start there then go to a secondary insurer.

I presented myself as a snowbirder who lives in the motorhome and will be parking it during the summer but wanting to keep it street legal and insured properly in case I need to take it for an emergency.

The gal I spoke with made a few calls and got told that I can’t live in my motorhome if I want to be insured by them. I had brought copies of my insurance policies, so she took copies of them and said she would pass them around and try to find someone willing to cobble together an insurance package for me.

That settled (well, not) she said that I am facing ‘additional difficulty.’ She pulled out the list of documents I will need to provide to prove that I am a resident of Saskatchewan and I laughed. This is the first time THAT’S not going to be an issue!

Once I get confirmation that insurance is a go, I will go talk to Kal-Tire about getting my out of province inspections done. I would rather have had those done closer to departure date, but my Alberta insurance runs out at the end of the month, so it would make sense to get this buttoned up before then. If I can get SK insurance, they will NOT insure Miranda if the OOPI and plate transfer from AB haven’t been done.

If I cannot get SK insurance, then I’m going into stealth mode. But it’s been my experience that with money, absolutely anything is possible. We shall see.

My Albert insurance dropped a whopping $250 between both policies this year. Nice to know I didn’t get penalized for a not at fault accident!

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Need to Send a Fax?

Even in this day and age, you sometimes need to send faxes. When is that dinosaur of a technology going to die out? Maybe when the Canadian government finally concedes that it is no more ‘secure’ a way of transmitting confidential information than is email and allows banks to complete transactions by email? But I digress.

The odd time I need to send a fax, I use Got Free Fax. I’ve been using this service for years and it has never failed me. You can fax up to three pages absolutely free, with no ads on the cover page.

I prepare the fax in PDF format and upload it to the site, bypassing their stock cover page. I then get a page saying that the fax was uploaded and that I was sent a confirmation email that I need to respond to before the fax will be sent.

The email always lands instantly. Once I click on the link for it, I get to a page saying that my fax has been queued, that I can come back and check the status, and that they’ll send a confirmation once the fax is successfully sent.

Within minutes, I get an email saying the fax was queued and then the one saying it was successfully sent.

In the fax I sent Monday, I asked for a confirmation by email that my request was processed and was told I needed to call the bank, which I did yesterday. They said I needed to sign a form that could only be faxed to me. They refused to scan and email it, citing privacy laws.

But get this, they had NO problem calling my mother for her fax number and sending it to her. They did ask how I’d get the fax and I replied that my mother and I work together and have a secure method of transmitting documents. *snickers* We hung up and I called my mother to give her a heads up and that she would need to… scan and email the document to me. Why fight red tape when you can conquer it? 🙂

I got the email this morning in PDF format, so it was child’s play to remove the bank’s cover page, insert my own, type in the name of the city and province in which I was signing the document as well as the date, then finally paste in a scan of my initials (to put next to the clause modifying the contract) and one of my signature. I saved the PDF and faxed it off. Bureaucracy conquered!

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Matters of Residency

The big project for this summer is to try to become a resident of Saskatchewan based out of my property. This will help me be more legitimate in the eyes of federal, provincial, and international law. It will also give me the peace of mind that I will never have to change provinces again. The post office here could close, so I could have to change my address again, but that would be a small thing to deal with should the time come.

Before beginning the residency change process, I need to make sure I can get my vehicles adequately insured here. A blog reader recently commented that Aviva does NOT offer the Elite full-timer policy in this province because Saskatchewan has government-run insurance.

So I need to sit down with an insurance adjuster here, present my existing coverage, and see if they can provide me with something comparable for the motorhome. I need coverage for contents (including anything in a shed) and liability, and I want it to be clear that I plan to be out of the country six months of the year so that we can get the surcharge built into the policy. Snowbirds appear to have some sort of official status here, but, of course, the website has no information on that.

The insurance premiums must also be payable in installments as there is no way I could afford to pay my policies in full (one of the many reason I could never move to BC).

Then, I need to make sure I can prove I am an SK residence. This is going to be WAY easier than it was in other provinces as I just need to prove I have an address here! Their list of what is acceptable does not include a property title, but does include a bank statement and a property tax assessment notice. If I get water hooked up, I can use a water bill.

Once I am comfortable that I will be able to get adequate insurance and my residency paperwork is in order, I need to get my insurance and driving abstracts from Alberta. I don’t want to take this step until I’m sure that I will be able to transfer residency to Saskatchewan in order not to tip off Alberta in case the residency change doesn’t go through.

The following step is to arrange for my out of province vehicle inspections.

Caroline and Charles told me to go to the Kal-Tire in Assiniboia as they were well treated there when they moved from Manitoba. The cost for the truck should be about $80, but I have no idea what it will be for Miranda. I have enough confidence in the Kal-Tire brand to believe that I won’t be ordered to have thousands of dollars worth of work down on each vehicle to get my certificate, but there’s always the concern that something could come up. Best case scenario, this is going to cost me a few hundred dollars.

The order of the next steps is a little fuzzy since I don’t understand exactly how insurance is going to work here, but a visit to SGI, the SK DMV, will be in order. I will bring my driver’s abstracts so that I can get a full license, having learned my lesson from Alberta.

Once my vehicles are registered in Saskatchewan and I have my driver’s license, getting health coverage should be a non-issue.

And then, I will be able to breathe a little easier and will feel more comfortable crossing the border.

Charles and Caroline suggested I share their PO box in Montana, which will save me from paying the full rental fee. I’d love to go there once every two months or so and get Amazon packages. There’s so little I can’t get through Amazon that it makes sense to use up my gift certificates every month and drive to Montana to get the items than it does to pay for them out of pocket up here. I mean, a lot of this stuff would be items I’d get in Moose Jaw, so I’d be making a long drive anyway.

I had thought to apply for a Nexus pass once I’m established here, but since Nexus travelers are treated like regular travelers in the non-Nexus lanes and there are no Nexus lanes in Saskatchewan, that seems like an unnecessary step that would give the governments even more information about me.

I’ve been feeling rather like an outlaw on the run for years, so it will be nice to have a veneer of legitimacy even though I will continue to live according to my rules.

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Visit From Dallas Code Enforcement

Wow, I went almost five full years without having The Law tell me to move along!

Let me tell the story before y’all get up in arms! 😀

I saw the code enforcement vehicle pull up this afternoon. I let the driver come out and show interest in the rig to make sure he was after me before going out to speak with him.

He was very polite and said that there have been changes to some city ordinances and that my motorhome is too big to be parked in a front yard in Dallas. That said, he’s cognizant of the fact that Dallas has no RV parks and that Walmarts only allow a night’s stay. So he usually let’s these violations go if the plate is from out of state and the person is obviously not staying long.

But a neighbour called and made a complaint! I can’t believe some people! How about going up to the very accessible motorhome (windows and door open during the day) and getting some intelligence on the person’s plans?

I told him that I had planned to leave this weekend or early in the week, but that I was packed and could be out and on the road within the hour. He gasped and said, “No, no! I don’t want to ruin your weekend! Just be gone by Tuesday night.”

My concern at this point was that Ms. Cinnamon was going to get a ticket. He said that if I hadn’t come out to speak to him, she would have likely received a hefty fine that she would have then had to contest. But since I was so agreeable, he could issue me a warning and essentially leave Ms. Cinnamon out of it.

So I’m now on record with the city of Dallas!

Ms. Cinnamon will disagree, but I do feel like I have overstayed in Dallas, so it’s good to have the fire lit under me even though I really did intend to leave this weekend. The only difference now is that I have actually figured out my next move.

Going west just isn’t going to happen. I don’t have the money for it. So I’m sticking with plan A and will be going northwest slooooowly. Weather can change very dramatically in a month!

Weather reports from Wichita are making me hopeful that spring has sprung there, so I feel comfortable heading in that direction. There is a rest area about 1.5 hours north of Dallas where I can stay for 24 hours. So I will leave Dallas late Sunday afternoon and arrive at the rest area for dinner.

Same thing Monday, except I’ll head to a Walmart just shy of OK City. Same thing Tuesday, only I’ll head to a casino in Shawnee to finish up the week as I should be able to stay a few nights.

Saturday or Sunday, I’ll head to Wichita. I’ll be on the street there, so I’ll really only have two or three nights. After that, it’s a long day to a city campground in Strombsburg NE that takes donations.

From there, I’ll be facing three days of hard driving (about 500KM per day) to get to my property. If the weather continues to clear up (the 14 day forecast for southern Saskatchewan is surprisingly encouraging), I may continue to inch my way northwest. Otherwise, I will looking for a four-day window of clear weather and just do a cannonball run.

The important thing by this point will be to get across the border. It won’t matter where. I just need to get there before the customs deadline. If I have to, I’ll go straight north into Manitoba. I would rather do the U.S. route for the gas savings, but if I end up shy of the property, I can just drop anchor where I am, catch my breath, earn some income, and then start working my way west for the seminar.