Early MOT

[dan101smith]

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

[oOTomOo]

If it failed an MOT it's deemed as 'not roadworthy'

It's an offense to drive a vehicle that is 'not roadworthy' if it has a valid MOT or not...

[MX7]

I believe that if you have it MoT'd 28, or less, days before the expiry date, your MoT is still valid even if it fails.

[Jobbo]

oOTomOo said:

If it failed an MOT it's deemed as 'not roadworthy'

It's an offense to drive a vehicle that is 'not roadworthy' if it has a valid MOT or not...

If you change your decat exhaust for a catalyst one, pass an MOT, then change it back, your car would probably fail but you're never going to be charged with it being unroadworthy. Various things are strictly MOT fails (according to the paperwork my car has failed in the past on an unopenable passenger door) but which aren't going to cause a problem.

[Gareth79]

dan101smith said:

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

Very very common question.

The answer is no, failing an MOT has no effect on an existing MOT.

The failures might make it illegal to drive on the road (or it might not) but that is irrelevant to the status of the MOT.

Edited by Gareth79 on Friday 22 October 16:06

[Zeek]

NeMiSiS said:

It says on your current MOT cert when the earliest date you can submit your vehicle.

You can MOT your car and get a new 12 month certificate any time you want to. The 'earliest' date on the cert is to maintain the MOT i.e they will issue it for up to 13 months.

[JR]

Gareth79 said:

dan101smith said:

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

Very very common question.

The answer is no, failing an MOT has no effect on an existing MOT.

It might be a common question but the answer is yes, your car has no MoT from the moment that it fails. It used to be that you had the remaining time on the old cert to sort out the problems but now that it's computerised, so to speak, as of about two tears ago the riles have changed. J

[Jobbo]

JR said:

Gareth79 said:

dan101smith said:

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

Very very common question.

The answer is no, failing an MOT has no effect on an existing MOT.

It might be a common question but the answer is yes, your car has no MoT from the moment that it fails. It used to be that you had the remaining time on the old cert to sort out the problems but now that it's computerised, so to speak, as of about two tears ago the riles have changed. J

You still have a current MOT certificate which you are able to produce if requested - I can't see how that is invalidated?

[JR]

Jobbo said:

JR said:

Gareth79 said:

dan101smith said:

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

Very very common question.

The answer is no, failing an MOT has no effect on an existing MOT.

It might be a common question but the answer is yes, your car has no MoT from the moment that it fails. It used to be that you had the remaining time on the old cert to sort out the problems but now that it's computerised, so to speak, as of about two tears ago the riles have changed. J

You still have a current MOT certificate which you are able to produce if requested - I can't see how that is invalidated?

That was the result of the test on your car at an earlier date. The current condition of your car has now been assessed and found to fail. This information is logged and the police will know that you don't have a current MoT. Of course the chances of getting stopped are small but if you were to be involved in an accident or other occurance then it could cause problems.

[GKP]

JR said:

That was the result of the test on your car at an earlier date. The current condition of your car has now been assessed and found to fail. This information is logged and the police will know that you don't have a current MoT. Of course the chances of getting stopped are small but if you were to be involved in an accident or other occurance then it could cause problems.

Utter, utter boswelox. Don't post stuff on the internet if you're just going to make it up as you go along.

[Jobbo]

The car does have a current MOT, and that was logged - nearly a year before! All the logging of a test fail before the expiry of the current MOT shows is that the car will be without a current MOT certificate at the expiry of the year.

[LC2]

The answer would appear to be that the car is unroadworthy until you have fixed the issue that caused the car to fail. Once you have fixed the issue, the old MOT is still valid until it expires.
At least, according the site linked here:
http://www.mottest.net/mot/mot-failure-question/

[Jobbo]

I don't think every item which is an MOT failure would necessarily make a vehicle unroadworthy, any more than an MOT shows that a car is roadworthy. It's a prescribed set of checks, that's all. If your passenger seatbelt doesn't work then is your car unroadworthy when you drive it on your own?

[E Ponym]

If the old MOT expires on 31st Dec and I have a test done on 1st of Dec then the new certificate lasts unttil 31st Dec next year.

But if I have it tested on 31st Nov then it only lasts until 31st Nov next year.

How fair is that?

[Fish981]

JR said:

Gareth79 said:

dan101smith said:

Chaps,

If you put your car in for an MOT before the expiry of your current certificate and it fails, do you then have until the certificate expiry or is it a failed car as of the day of the test?

Very very common question.

The answer is no, failing an MOT has no effect on an existing MOT.

It might be a common question but the answer is yes, your car has no MoT from the moment that it fails.

Hogwash. You're making stuff up.

[blondini]

GKP said:

JR said:

That was the result of the test on your car at an earlier date. The current condition of your car has now been assessed and found to fail. This information is logged and the police will know that you don't have a current MoT. Of course the chances of getting stopped are small but if you were to be involved in an accident or other occurance then it could cause problems.

Utter, utter boswelox. Don't post stuff on the internet if you're just going to make it up as you go along.

Took the words right out of my mouth GKP...

I was a little less circumspect with my invective after the 'Utter, utter' though.

[Jobbo]

E Ponym said:

If the old MOT expires on 31st Dec and I have a test done on 1st of Dec then the new certificate lasts unttil 31st Dec next year.

But if I have it tested on 31st Nov then it only lasts until 31st Nov next year.

How fair is that?

Perfectly fair - if you make up a non-existent date, when do you expect it to expire?

[TallPaul]

GKP said:

JR said:

That was the result of the test on your car at an earlier date. The current condition of your car has now been assessed and found to fail. This information is logged and the police will know that you don't have a current MoT. Of course the chances of getting stopped are small but if you were to be involved in an accident or other occurance then it could cause problems.

Utter, utter boswelox. Don't post stuff on the internet if you're just going to make it up as you go along.

I'm with GKP on this one, I'm afraid you're totally wrong Mr JR!
Notwithstanding the actual roadworthyness of the car, regardless of it passing or failing an MOT, there are only a few exceptional circumstances when a current MOT certificate will become void and failing another test is most certainly not one of them. In answer to the OP's original question, your original MOT will still be valid up to its expiry date, even if the car fails another test in the meantime.
You can take your car for a test any time you like.

[Hooli]

Jobbo said:

E Ponym said:

If the old MOT expires on 31st Dec and I have a test done on 1st of Dec then the new certificate lasts unttil 31st Dec next year.

But if I have it tested on 31st Nov then it only lasts until 31st Nov next year.

How fair is that?

Perfectly fair - if you make up a non-existent date, when do you expect it to expire?

So if I MOT a car on the 1st March in a leap year then considering they put the day before but a year hence as the expiry it won't expire for four years?

[otherman]

Hooli said:

So if I MOT a car on the 1st March in a leap year then considering they put the day before but a year hence as the expiry it won't expire for four years?

Exactly right I always do that. My current mot expires on 29th feb 2012.