Hello folks

It's that old chestnut;

My tintop failed it's MOT test today, but the previous MOT certificate does not expire until next week, is it still legal to take it on the road?

thanks for looking

Regards

Geoff

Yes it is unless it failed and classed as dangerous fail

Cheers for that!

asked vosa this question last year,, their reply is below make of it what you can !!!


Dear Mr. Ward

Thank you for your email enquiry dated 21st January 2010, concerning the
above.

Once an MOT certificate has been issued, it is valid until the expiry date
stated on the certificate, as the certificate states that the vehicle met
the requirements at the time of test and is not a guarantee that the
vehicle will remain in a roadworthy condition for the life of the
certificate.

A vehicle owner has a legal responsibility to ensure that the vehicle is in
a roadworthy condition at all times when on the road.

If a vehicle fails a further MOT during the lifetime of the certificate,
then the original certificate remains valid. However, the failure would be
a notification that the vehicle is NOT in a roadworthy condition, and
therefore by driving it on the road you would in violation of your
responsibility above. The police have access to the MOT records, and would
be able to see that the vehicle had failed.

Where a vehicle with a current test certificate having failed its test and
subsequently repaired could be used on the road, whether booked in for
retest or not and provided it is roadworthy, it is up to the owner/user to
satisfy themselves that the vehicle is roadworthy otherwise they may be
liable to prosecution if it is not.

Please note that you can only take a vehicle in up to 1 calendar month
prior to the expiry date of the current certificate and retain the current
expiry date. If you are presenting a vehicle for MOT in January/February
when the expiry date is in May, the garage will only be able to issue a
certificate which expires 12 months less one day from the date of test.

I hope this information has assisted you with your enquiry, but if you have
any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,
Stephen
VOSA Contact Centre
Operations Directorate

bugger

Thanks for the reply.

Regards

Geoff

Not sure what's hard to understand about that. You have two obligations, one is to have a valid MOT the other is to drive a roadworthy vehicle. The two are entirely independent, and you were just as illegal driving to the MOT in the unroadworthy car as driving away with the fail certificate. The only difference is that you cease to be able to plead ignorance one you know it's failed.

There is an exception to the above, in that there are some MOT fail items that could be argued do not leave the vehicle unroadworthy. As always, that would be for the courts to decide!

^^^^^^ Gotta says he's 100% right both ethically and IMHO Legally.