Driving car home with expired MOT

[morsing]

Can someone enlighten me, my other car has been in the body shop for eight months after an accident, and during this period the MOT has expired. Am I allowed to drive it home?

Thanks

[Renny]

I don't think so. Would it not be better to get the bodyshop to take it for an MOT before it is returned, or if you are collecting it, book it in for an MOT on the way back home. That would be legal as you can drive to a pre-arranged MOT whilst the test has expired.

I presume the RFL is still valid?

[morsing]

RFL? Nothing else is not valid on it...

It won't pass the MOT till I swap the reversing lights and indicators but I'd like to check it over before sending it to an MOT anyway. I think the body shop charges £120 to deliver cars so maybe I should just do that...

Thanks

[MGF]

You can drive it home, or anywhere else, to carry out repairs for the MOT. Not sure if it needs to have failed the MOT for this to apply.

[Whur]

Any vehicle can only be driven on the public highway, whilst having no MOT, only if it's being driven to or from a pre-booked appointment at a MOT testing station. Other than that the vehicle isn't legally allowed on the a public highway. The only advice I can offer is to pre-book an MOT, take it to the testing station from the body shop, if you're sure of what it'll fail on, such as the lights. Replace them before taking it.

If it then fails you have time to drive it home do the necessary repairs and get it back. I'm not 100% sure of the timescale, however I think if you get the vehicle back to the same testing station within 7 days they only need test the failed items. After that time it requires another full MOT test. I'm going off memory on that though so would advise checking the details.

As for the tax being valid, it isn't required to take the vehicle for a MOT. Simply because if the vehicle has been off the road for some time, there is no possible way to get a valid tax disc without having a valid MOT certificate. Again as long as it's being driven too and from a pre-booked MOT test.

The insurance as always is required though!

[morsing]

It's 10 days for a re-test and only the MOT has expired. So what if you need repairs done for the MOT that the testing station can't do? I'm sure you're allowed to drive it to a garage as long as it's not in a dangerous condition.

Anyway, I'll ask to have the car delivered for £120. It's 50 miles away anyway, so going there, and back in two cars, will cost a lot anyway (it only does 12mpg...).

[GJD]

Any vehicle can only be driven on the public highway, whilst having no MOT, only if it's being driven to or from a pre-booked appointment at a MOT testing station.

I've never been certain precisely when and where I can drive without an MoT. I thought it was something like you say, but it's got me wondering...

If I take the car for an MoT at a place that only does MoTs - no servicing or repairs - and it fails, from what you say I can still drive it home. But unless it's failed on something I can fix myself on the drive, the next place I need to take it is not another MoT, it's a garage who can quote for repairing it, and they might not even do MoTs. Even if they did, I can't pre-book the MoT with them before they've done the work because we don't know how long it will take to fix the problem.

So I wonder whether I am allowed to drive a car with a failed MoT to a pre-booked appointment with a garage who are going to quote for fixing it (which is more like what MGF said). But maybe that's not allowed, and I have to get a recovery truck or some such to take it there

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Any vehicle can only be driven on the public highway, whilst having no MOT, only if it's being driven to or from a pre-booked appointment at a MOT testing station.

I've never been certain precisely when and where I can drive without an MoT. I thought it was something like you say, but it's got me wondering...

If I take the car for an MoT at a place that only does MoTs - no servicing or repairs - and it fails, from what you say I can still drive it home. But unless it's failed on something I can fix myself on the drive, the next place I need to take it is not another MoT, it's a garage who can quote for repairing it, and they might not even do MoTs. Even if they did, I can't pre-book the MoT with them before they've done the work because we don't know how long it will take to fix the problem.

So I wonder whether I am allowed to drive a car with a failed MoT to a pre-booked appointment with a garage who are going to quote for fixing it (which is more like what MGF said). But maybe that's not allowed, and I have to get a recovery truck or some such to take it there

You can do all of those things:

Why you need an MOT certificate

It is generally an offence to use on a public road, a vehicle of testable age that doesn’t have a current test certificate, except when:

• taking it to a test station for an MOT test booked in advance
• bringing it away from a test station after it has failed the MOT test, to a place of repair
• taking it to a place, by previous arrangement, where problems that caused the vehicle to fail its MOT test, can be repaired
• bringing it away from a place where the problems with the vehicle have been repaired

Even in the above circumstances you may still be prosecuted for driving an unroadworthy vehicle if it doesn’t comply with various regulations affecting its construction and use. Your car insurance may also be invalid.

The police can ask to see an MOT certificate for a vehicle that needs to have one. They also have access to the computerised records of MOT test results and can tell if the MOT certificate for your vehicle has expired.

It is your responsibility as the vehicle owner to ensure that the due MOT test is carried out in time. You can use the peel off reminder sticker on the front of the certificate and put it in a place where you’ll be reminded of the expiry date. A place like the sun visor or the back of the tax disc holder facing inside the vehicle.

The penalty for driving a vehicle on the road with an expired MOT certificate is a fixed penalty notice from the police, currently £60, or a court fine up to a maximum of a £1,000.

[Whur]

As for driving to an appointment for a quote, I don't think you'd be covered, as you wouldn't be technically driving to somewhere you have an appointment for repairs. I believe that once you take it to a garage the vehicle would be required to stay there until the repairs are carried out.

The chain of events would need to be something like this.........

Collect the vehicle from body shop, drive to and appointment for a MOT test(Pass great, happy days, drive home and enjoy.) (Fail, the following would be required.) Either drive home and make an appointment at a recognised garage, or drive straight to a place for repairs. If you take the vehicle home, it would need to be parked off road until driven to a recognised garage where repairs would be undertaken(not given a quote), once repairs are done, either drive straight to a MOT testing station, or take home and make an appointment for the MOT.

In summary, if the vehicle fails the MOT test, it can be freely driven without appointment from the test station a reasonable distance to a place of your choice. Once repaired, as long as it's a recognised garage, it can be freely driven to either the test centre or home without an appointment. If however it was a mate that does repairs in his spare time, you would need to make an appointment at the test centre before taking the car.

However to drive to either a test centre or a recognised garage for repairs from home you would need to make an appointment before leaving home.

Just make sure you cover your back, if in doubt make an appointment.

Hope this clarifies a little more of what I said.

[GJD]

As for driving to an appointment for a quote, I don't think you'd be covered, as you wouldn't be technically driving to somewhere you have an appointment for repairs. I believe that once you take it to a garage the vehicle would be required to stay there until the repairs are carried out.

I thought that might be misunderstood after I posted...

I am sure a pre-arranged appointment with the repairer would be required (and Mr C-W's post suggests the same). But I'd still only be going there for a quote, because until I know the cost of the repair (which they can't quote me until they see the car) I can't decide whether it's worth paying for the repair or scrapping the car.

If I chose not to accept the quote, I wouldn't expect to be allowed to drive the car anywhere else (e.g. a different garage, back home or to a scrap yard). But I would be astounded if deciding at that point that I'd rather pay a tow truck to come and take the car to the scrappers would retrospectively make my driving to the repairer illegal.

[zadocbrown]

legality aside, we know what most people would do.

[morsing]

Ok, body shop has now offered to MOT it and will delivery to my address for £120.

[Renny]

Ok, body shop has now offered to MOT it and will delivery to my address for £120.

Problem solved

Are you going to share with us what it is that gets only 12mpg and has American lighting (I guess), and why was it in the body shop for so long?

Photos required

[morsing]

Ok, body shop has now offered to MOT it and will delivery to my address for £120.

Problem solved

Are you going to share with us what it is that gets only 12mpg and has American lighting (I guess), and why was it in the body shop for so long?

Photos required

Lorry scraped the side of it. The guy who's repaired it is one of the best but not known to be the quickest In his defence the body panels are apparently only pressed when there are enough orders in for them, so took over six months to get them. New door and wing and I've asked to have some other rust repaired and have a new bonnet.

Rear indicating is done by brake lights, the car ('70) is five years too new to be allowed red indicators. When I bought it, the reversing lights had been converted to amber indicators but they're so tiny, the size of a 50p coin, that no-one can see them. As it doesn't have side indicators, it caused some annoyance changing lanes on motorways.

[Renny]

Nice motor. Now all is clear (including the indicators LOL)