UK MOT legalities

[Mottie]

I think there's some confusion here.
The op got a fail certificate from mot.
The gov.uk website still holds the old pass certificate and it's not been updated.
Unless you can see the last test and it's marked as a pass.

Ah, right. The existing pass certificate is valid until the expiry date and cannot be cancelled by a failure at any time. The OP will have to return to the station for a retest to get a fresh mot pass certificate (plus any unexpired time from the existing certificate if less than 30 days remain on it).

 

[ETAF]

Not now its all online , as the vehicle will be unsafe, as proof by the now online info and fault description in the DVLA Database
A couple of years ago , on the website , they said the old mot was void and you could not drive - that has now been updated
BUT if unsafe then you cannot use.

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-safe

You can take your vehicle away if:

• your current MOT certificate is still valid
• no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT

Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle that has failed its MOT because of a ‘dangerous’ problem.

 

[Mottie]

Not now its all online , as the vehicle will be unsafe,

The vehicle was unsafe the minute it had a 'dangerous' mot fail. Technically you are not allowed to drive it on the road but the station cannot physically prevent you from driving the car away and they are also under no obligation to repair the vehicle. In fact some mot stations do not carry our repairs. In that case you are supposed to get it trailered away. I’ve never heard of a mot station stopping a car from leaving or a customer calling up a tow truck.

 

[Keithmac]

It's a Dangerous Failure, technically if you were in an accident on the way home from the failed test the Police and Insurance would take a Dim view.

You can test a car a month minus one day before it's due and get the test "dated on" so you keep same anniversary.

To be honest brake pads under 1.5mm are absolutely shot, maybe take 10 minutes once a month to go through brakes/ tyres etc because that is way past any reasonable service limit..

If you fail a vehicle, repair then pass it's called a PRS by the way (Pass with Rectification).

 

[Lazzy]

Wing mirror on my van was a bit wobbly so was taped up to steady it. MOT guy put some fast drying glue
on it then he came over to me and told me it would have failed but it's ok now. No mention of it on
the certificate anyway. Nice chap.

 

[jj4091]

Wing mirror on my van was a bit wobbly so was taped up to steady it. MOT guy put some fast drying glue
on it then he came over to me and told me it would have failed but it's ok now. No mention of it on
the certificate anyway. Nice chap.

My local garage does that sort of thing for me, ie fix small faults without failing or charging. A bottle of wine next time I'm passing there seems like a fair exchange.

 

[Mottie]

That’s what got me into wine………

 

[Keithmac]

We will do minor repairs or adjustments, no need to be an a-hole just because you're an MOT tester!.

Unfortunately can't pass them all though.

 

[Lazzy]

Another time the MOT guy came through to me in the waiting area and said its passed ok apart from
a wiper blade is slightly split, said 'do you want us to fit some new ones on?
Funny that as I did look at them before hand as i always check for obvious faults for MOTs
and knowing they were replaced only a year ago and not done a great milage and was happy with them.
Yeah I know sunlight heat and cold help perish them, anyway said 'sure go ahead', think he said 12
quid.
Ok I thought, great if that's all that is wrong I'm relieved, phew!! Not gonna push my luck and argue
the toss with him and get on his wrong side. The one's I buy are half that amount. Anyway he comes back 2 mins later and said he 'hasn't got the right one's for it and has passed it put it down as an advisory or summat'. It did give me a chuckle.

 

[Avocet]

It's a knotty problem! I think, at the heart of it, there's more than one piece of legislation at work simultaneously.

Most MOT fails are contraventions of the Construction & Use Regs and the Road Vehicle Lighting Regs. So it is illegal to use a car, (whether it has an MOT or not) with a defect that falls foul of either of those regs.

Completely separately, it is illegal to use a car without a valid MOT (assuming it's not under 3 or over 40 years old, of course).

What I think happens, is this:

(a) if you fail an MOT for something that isn't "dangerous" before the expiry date of the old one, you still have a "valid MOT certificate" until the old one expires. You can still drive the car until the expiry of the old one.

(b) if you fail the MOT for something that is "dangerous" before the expiry date of the old one, you also still have a "valid MOT certificate" until the old one expires. However, if you drive the car until the expiry of the old one, you would be committing a separate offence under the C&U or Lighting regs (and maybe something under the Road Traffic Act too), but NOT under the MOT regulations, as the vehicle still holds a valid MOT certificate. This is bourne out by the fact that when you go online after failing for something "dangerous", your MOT still has the original expiry date.

I therefore don't believe that the MOT tester has any legal power to prevent you from driving the vehicle away, but if he was feeling vindictive, he could call the local "Plod" and tell him that vehicle, registration number ABC 123, has just left his station with (say) no brakes. If Plod could be bothered, when he caught you, he could do you for the breach of the C&U regs, but not for failing to have a valid MOT.

Note that the old "GV9" prohibition notice for a dangerous defect, is peculiar to commercial vehicles. There is no equivalent for cars.

 

[Mottie]

Consequently, a car can pass the MOT test and still be in contravention of the Construction and use regs!

Note that the old "GV9" prohibition notice for a dangerous defect, is peculiar to commercial vehicles. There is no equivalent for cars.

Sorry, but there is. Private cars can have a prohibition notice put on them and have to go to a testing station for the repair to be certified and stamped on the notice. It can then be cleared when you produce this at a police station. We had to keep our old MOT imprint stamp just for this. I’ve done a few of them in my time.

http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/repository/Cat of Defects April 08_rev_200608-cjd.pdf

 

[Avocet]

Consequently, a car can pass the MOT test and still be in contravention of the Construction and use regs!

Sorry, but there is. Private cars can have a prohibition notice put on them and have to go to a testing station for the repair to be certified and stamped on the notice. It can then be cleared when you produce this at a police station. We had to keep our old MOT imprint stamp just for this. I’ve done a few of them in my time.

http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/repository/Cat of Defects April 08_rev_200608-cjd.pdf

That's an interesting document, thanks! However, have you got a link to a current version, please? (That one is from April 2008, when DVSA were still calling themselves "VOSA")! My understanding differs from yours somewhat, because the prohibition of a commercial vehicle really does prevent it from travelling any further, whereas what you seem to be describing for passenger cars, is the "7 day wonder" ticket, where a copper pulls you for a defect and then you have 7 days to fix the fault and take the car to an MOT station to get the stamped certificate to take round to show Plod? At no time, is the vehicle prohibited from further use.

 

[Mottie]

That's an interesting document, thanks! However, have you got a link to a current version, please? (That one is from April 2008, when DVSA were still calling themselves "VOSA")! My understanding differs from yours somewhat, because the prohibition of a commercial vehicle really does prevent it from travelling any further, whereas what you seem to be describing for passenger cars, is the "7 day wonder" ticket, where a copper pulls you for a defect and then you have 7 days to fix the fault and take the car to an MOT station to get the stamped certificate to take round to show Plod? At no time, is the vehicle prohibited from further use.

I don’t think things have changed but if you look in the offences section there are different categories I, D and IN. I, in the event of a car means 'immediate' - can’t be used and must be trailered away, 'D' is delayed - the most common and one that gives the driver/owner x number of days to get it repaired and checked at a test station and IN which is not serious but just notified I think.

 

[Avocet]

I don’t think things have changed but if you look in the offences section there are different categories I, D and IN. I, in the event of a car means 'immediate' - can’t be used and must be trailered away, 'D' is delayed - the most common and one that gives the driver/owner x number of days to get it repaired and checked at a test station and IN which is not serious but just notified I think.

Let me make some enquiries with DfT. I deal with them in my "day job" a fair bit. There's no way a government executive agency would have a current document that was more than 10 years old - even if only for the name change! I've never heard of a passenger car being issued with a prohibition notice that prevents it from being driven any further. Something doesn't make sense here, and I've always wanted to get to the bottom of it!

 

[Mottie]

Let me make some enquiries with DfT. I deal with them in my "day job" a fair bit. There's no way a government executive agency would have a current document that was more than 10 years old - even if only for the name change! I've never heard of a passenger car being issued with a prohibition notice that prevents it from being driven any further. Something doesn't make sense here, and I've always wanted to get to the bottom of it!

From memory, the last mot refresher course I went on (some while back now as they were abandoned some time ago) dealt with this. If I can remember correctly, the example given was a practically new vehicle being given a timed prohibition for a smashed headlamp. We were told it could have to go through a full mot test at less than a year old to get the prohibition removed! Admittedly things may have changed since then but I can certainly remember checking odd items (handbrakes and exhaust systems) and stamping their prohibition notice with the official mot embossing stamp. A quick look online found this one on a Ford Escort although that was from a good few years back.