Driving A Car Without Tax And Mot

[dcc 855]

I want to buy a car, it has no tax/mot.

 

I want to drive it from where it is purchased to a mot station where I live.

 

I have looked and cant find a limit on the distance to which the mot can be booked, ie, within 20 miles.

 

Anyone know more on this?

 

Thanks

[BusEngineer 7]

As far as im aware there isnt a limit

 

I remember a feature in Fast Ford where they picked up an XR2 in central London and drove it back to the Scottish border for MOT

[2-Pugs 57]

I did this once as well. Its a grey area though, as I don't think the law specifies a distance, but it might say something like 'a reasonable distance', which of course is open to interpretation. I do recall reading somewhere that you shouldn't drive more than 35 miles in this situation, but I cannot remember where I read that

 

The argument they may use if you are unlucky enough to get cauaght is that you could/should take it to an MoT station near the seller.

 

And they may see it as an excuse for using an unroadworthy car on the road.

 

Risky, if it's more than a few miles I would get it picked up by a transporter company or hire a trailer. After all if you are in an accident that is your fault, you could be in deep s*&t.

Edited March 8, 2010 by 2-Pugs

[M@tt 77]

dont think insurance would be valid would it on a car with no MOT or tax??

[shalmaneser 26]

I want to buy a car, it has no tax/mot.

 

I want to drive it from where it is purchased to a mot station where I live.

 

I have looked and cant find a limit on the distance to which the mot can be booked, ie, within 20 miles.

 

Anyone know more on this?

 

Thanks

 

I don't think there is a specific distance. However, I hope you're good at excuses if you get pulled over 100 miles away from your test station....

[2-Pugs 57]

dont think insurance would be valid would it on a car with no MOT or tax??

 

No, you're quite right. You're effectively driving uninsured I think. Well, policy wording usually states something along the lines of 'the car must kept maintained in roadworthy condition', which is just another way of saying it should have an MoT.

 

Although quite how that works when you are legitematley driving your car for an MoT when the old one has expired, I am not sure.

[welshpug 1,657]

dont think insurance would be valid would it on a car with no MOT or tax??

 

 

can't see why that would invalidate them? especially when its often stated you must be insured to drive to an MOT station even if the MOT has expired.

Edited March 8, 2010 by welshpug

[Baz 421]

Did it on saturday, 25 or so miles.

 

Then did it again today...

[Baz 421]

It's perfectly fine and insured to drive the car with no tax or mot to an mot station, the only time you can do so!

 

Thought that was common knowledge!!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Years ago I did this quite a bit, in fact I once drove a car over 150 miles with no tax. However these days with the ANPR cop cars roaming about all over I don't risk it, especially as I now live in quite a built up area.

[dcc 855]

interesting views on this. The insurance one is quite a funny one i guess, maybe some companies dont want you to drive without mot/tax, and some might let you? policy dependant

 

Tom, thats interesting about the ANPR copcars! but if they pull you and all it good with the mot booking, then surely all is well?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Up to you to take the risk, personally I can do without the possible grief, so for a few quid to get it transported it is worth it.

[Cameron 16]

I've driven mine up to Norfolk and back for an "MOT" on quite a few occasions now, drove right through an ANPR trap on my way up too and didn't have any problems. That's not to say I wasn't s*itting my pants though!

[johno_78 2]

It's perfectly fine and insured to drive the car with no tax or mot to an mot station, the only time you can do so!

 

Thought that was common knowledge!!

 

Agreed. If the car is insured and you have it booked in, which you can prove by having whoever stopped you to call the MOT station and verify, and as long as the vehicle is roadworthy, there are no issues with illegality at all.

 

The MOT station i use is 30 miles from my house and have driven several insured vehicles there with no MOT or tax and will continue to do so.

[Cameron 16]

Right, here's something for all you sceptics.. straight from the horse's mouth:

 

Driving an untaxed vehicle to an MOT test:

You can drive your vehicle to and from a pre-arranged test at an MOT test station as long as you have adequate insurance cover in place for the use of that vehicle.

This is also for vehicles being driven to and from a pre-arranged test at a Vehicle Inspection Check (VIC) test station, an approved weight testing station and reduced pollution test.

 

Doesn't state anything about the distance to the MOT station, which means there is no rule against it. You could drive it from Land's end to Scotland if you wanted to, as long as you're insured and taking it to a pre-arranged appointment at an approved testing station.

[hexhamstu 9]

My housemate has a campervan he has left in spain, it has since ran out of MOT. He is planning to bring it back over so contacted the local police station to find out where he stood, they said if it was booked in for an MOT in Swansea he was fine driving it back from the ferry to here. Which is a fair distance, so I think you should be fine.

[Richie 32]

You'd think there would be a milage limit but theres not.

 

As people have said, you can quite legally drive an un mot'd and un tax'd car to an MOT appointment providing you are insured. I used one of those websites that insure you for like a day.

[large 33]

You'd think there would be a milage limit but theres not.

 

How can you put a distance on this, you could live in the north of Scotland and the local m.o.t. station could be 30 miles away.

 

Dan, how far are you planing to drive.

Edited March 9, 2010 by large

[dcc 855]

The car I was looking at was about 170 miles away. I have a trailer but the tow vehicle only does 8-11mpg! (5.7 v8 chevvy oooo ye ) so it would cost a fortune! train ticket/lift + mot + drive back = less than half the cost!

[large 33]

TBH thats taking the pi55. I would do it, but you may be running the risk of having the car taken off you if you meet a cop thats having a bad day. .

[screwloose 6]

A car without tax or MOT is still insured regardless of whether its heading for its MOT.

Insurance is NOT invalidated without tax or MOT. Your actual MOT has no bearing on your insurance. The terminology used in insurance terms is 'roadworthy' and an MOT is not evidence that a car is roadworthy.

There have been numerous cases where cars without MOTs have caused accidents have been proven 'roadworthy' and insurance pays out.

[Anthony 1,003]

As said, insurance is perfectly valid to drive a car without an MOT to the MOT station.

 

The only issue is that in the event of an accident/claim, a car without MOT is often valued less than a car with a valid MOT.

 

As for ANPR, I'm firmly of the opinion that it is nowhere near as effective as the police would like to make out. Certainly for about two years up until recently I was driving around in cars that were not listed on the insurance database, and hence flagged up on ANPR as uninsured - considering I do 2000 miles a month, the number of times that I was actually stopped was very low (once every 2-3 months tops) and in every case, it was a random passing traffic car that pulled me over, and never once one of the ANPR traps that you see at the roadside and on TV.

[GilesW 41]

You are also allowed to drive a vehical to and from a place of repair for an MOT.

Ie - NOT an MOT station, or where you are getting it MOT'd even. Again - you should book it in for this work too (and I would suggest being able to demonstrate on teh car the work you need having done).

 

 

And..... I've tested this and all the other scenarios in court over the years (when I was a 'naughty' youngster) and as Baz, Anthony and others have said, they are correct.

 

Indeed - the pug 205 I got the gf to drive from Bournemouth to Gatwick with no T&T. She was insured 3rd party on any other vehical (it was mine as I just bought it, and signed the log boook etc), and I had booked in a test local to me.

 

Unfortunately as I got a few miles away from home I had to call them and cancel the MOT as it became obvious the Pug would not pass.

[Garry 1]

I have read, and hasten to add on another forum, that you had to drive directly to the MOT station. ie no stopping along the way. The post I read was along the lines that a guy was caught as he stopped for fags!

[Richie 32]

I recently had to drive to an mot station without tax/mot and was a bit concerned as i had to stop for fuel.

 

I felt pretty reckless, living life on the edge is what its all about. brrap brrap and all that bollocks.