Hope someone here can answer this for me.
Can I legally drive a car home from the garage where it has just passed an MOT but its listed as SORN? I know I can drive it away when the car is taxed but I'm not sure about SORN. The car is insured.
Thanks
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Yes you can legally drive an untaxed car to & from a garage to attain a MOT as long as that is all you do. Afterall you need an MOT slip to tax the car. Don't matter if it's SORN or not & you can prove to the police that is was going to & from a garage for the sole purpose of a test.
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I believe you will need to display a disc.
Try dvla www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/unlicensed.htm
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Hmmm, I've just searched through the DVLA website and found an article where it said you are legally allowed to drive a SORN'd vehicle to a pre-arranged MOT appointment .... but says nothing about driving it away again at the end :O(
To be honest I have driven my own car to and from the garage for an MOT whilst its untaxed and had no problems, but as this is my husbands car I would much prefer to do it all correctly ... be just my luck its the day they are out checking tax disks.
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You can drive it home again. Just make sure the garage has the MOT in its book, complete with Reg number, and there will no problem proving you were taking it to/from the MOT if the worst happens.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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yes you can legally drive it back,the sting in the tail is that if the car fails and you are driving back and you are stopped for non display of the tax disc you explain the situation to the officer and he proceeds to do you for an unroadworthy vehicle,moral is let garage do work and collect car when its passed with new mot in glove box
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That's true. But it would be equally true going to the (failed) MOT as returning - the only difference is you wouldn't know that until it had been tested. Driving an unroadworthy car is an offence, MOT or not.
But not all failures make a car unroadworthy.
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That's true. But it would be equally true going to the (failed) MOT as returning - the only difference is you wouldn't know that until it had been tested. Driving an unroadworthy car is an offence, MOT or not. But not all failures make a car unroadworthy.
Interesting point -- to follow on from this, is there any maximum distance to the MoT centre that applies? If not you could presumably book into a place 100's of miles way and drive a possibly unroadwothy car there --- but this would be legal provided a pre booked appointment is made! Must be insured though. Be interested to know if there is any maximum distance -- cos if not it seems crazy
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The exemption mentioned under the Act is "when a vehicle is SOLEY being used for the purposes of submitting/returning from a test"
This is a matter of fact and degree and does not preclude a driver stopping for petrol or a short stop on his way to the test.(Dept of Transport v Richards 1997).
It is the opinion of Wilkinson's Traffic Law that the use of the word 'soley' appears to prevent an impecunious holiday maker in London arranging his test in Penzance and going there on holiday with his family and thus exempting Excise licence.As far as I am aware no specific distance is stated at law or in case law.
dvd
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My friend was stopped once and claimed this exemption. The police checked with the garage, and established that he really had booked an MOT. He was collecting a car from 200 miles away, and had booked it in to his local repairer for an inspection and test. The test was not actually on the day he was stopped - he was dropping the car off on Sunday for testing during the week.
The exemption actually goes further than just the test itself. It includes driving to a repairer in order to have work carried out for a test. That might not be the actual tester, but could be, say, a specialist tuner or bodywork repairer.
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>>As far as I am aware no specific distance is stated at law or in case law>>
But if you pass dozens of MOT Centres on the way there and back, it would be somewhat surprising if it didn't arouse suspicion if it was solely for that purpose...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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my point was that taking the car to the test you wouldnt know if it was going to fail so you go with a clean sheet(assuming for reason the washer bottle works the tyres are blown up with air etc etc etc)however you have evidence in your car that the vehicle has a failure to the road traffic act on your return journey and most people being decent law abiding persons would show this to the authority that stopped them to show that it had indeed been for an mot,however you are then providing evidence to prove that your car fails the road traffic act,i should have also mentioned that you shouldnt be drunk when you go for the mot either .
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But if you pass dozens of MOT Centres on the way there and back, it would be somewhat surprising if it didn't arouse suspicion if it was solely for that purpose...:-)
No, not necessarily. There might be very good reasons for prefering your local tester. He might also be an independent repairer you have trusted over many years. There is no law that says you have to use any particular tester.
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