HBell, yes, registration is a must for all the tenants. But if you bought a property and got a pink book, I assume that the police will get informed about your residency.
The thing is, very few landlords are aware of this requirement. And what's even worse, the police tries to benefit from the whole situation, even when the procedure is done in time. When I rented a flat as a first tenant just like yourself, my landlord tried to get a registration for me, which is supposed to be done within 24 hours. They told him to wait for 3 days and still nobody bothered to get the registration done! I still need this temporary registration certificate. My guess is, police do cheat on people for stealing high fines.
George... sorry, man... Looks like you got into a huge and expensive trouble