Mass. RMV Implementing Grace Period For Expired Stickers

And the headaches continue for vehicle owners with expired inspection stickers and small business owners of inspection stations. The Registry of Motor Vehicles in Massachusetts is allowing extra time due to the ongoing system outage that's happening across the nation.

According to a report by Western Mass News, the malware attack that caused the system to go down began on March 30 is now expected to last until Friday at the earliest.

Thankfully, the RMV did reach out to law enforcement and made them aware of the situation. To recap, a vendor for the RMV, Applus Technologies, has had its system shut down since Tuesday, March 30, when it spotted a malware attack. It has since been trying to correct the problem in order to relaunch operations.

Get our free mobile app

Applus has been working 24/7 to fix the problems but was unable to pinpoint when it would be back up and running, saying it could be "hours" or "days" before it would be resolved.

Colleen Ogilvie, Acting Registrar of Motor Vehicles, had this to say in a statement:

The RMV shares the frustrations and disappointment with the tremendous inconvenience Applus's outage is causing and recognizes the significant impacts on customers and business owners across the Commonwealth. The RMV is committed to its efforts to ensure Applus makes Massachusetts a priority in quickly and safely returning the inspection program to operation.

Basically, if your vehicle has an expired sticker from last month, you will be granted until April 30, 2021, to get an inspection.

Western Mass News also reports that if you have a vehicle newly purchased or registered on or after March 2021, you also have until April 30, 2021, to get an inspection sticker. And finally, extra time will also be granted for failed inspections and retests.