Genuinely forgot to renew MOT & car involved in accident. Help!

vikingaero

Only a handful of insurers explicitly state that the car is required to be MOT'd in their policy documents and even then you could successfully argue that having a MOT was irrelevant if the vehicle was 100% roadworthy before an accident.

Thank God the posters who "know" arrived on here before the ones that say it automatically invalidates your insurance.

spangles30

Flea, I am not making any typos, but may be expressing myself unclearly. Apologies. I bought the car June 2009 in good faith (the seller is a private dealer who I bought previous cars from). This is the first time I had ever bought a newer car, and not receive an MOT certificate because the seller (confused himself, I believe) had picked it up from an auction (I think) and did not get an MOT certificate himself.
I renewed the road tax later in the year online and it went through OK, so in I presumed that it didn't need me to get the MOT.
Over the last 2 days since my accident I have found out that the car was due an MOT May 2008, and presumably got one (by who and from where I do not know), which would have resulted in the MOT expiring May 2009.

The benefit of hindsight is one thing: I am deeply sorry that I genuinedly forgot about getting the MOT renewed and that I somehow got the renewal date mixed up with my previous car (1st week of September). The irony is that I HAD booked the car an MOT for the first week of Sep and did this a few days prior to the accident. Obviously this means nothing, but I am hoping that for the police it will at least show intent. I know I have unwittingly been driving illegally with no MOT, and I even had a full service done April 2009.

I know I have been stupid in forgetting and I am not trying to get out of that. I am just wondering what the possible outcome will be. I am devastated about the crash as my children were in the car at the time and they are still very shocked.

vikingaero

Spangles,

I think you need to calm down. Chillax. Let's try and put your mind at rest:

(1) The penalty for no MOT is a £60 fine and NO points as it is a non-endorseable offence.

(2) The accident seems not to be your fault.

(3) Your Insurers may request sight of the MOT, especially if the vehicle is written off, but until then wait for them to request it. If they do request it then the worst case scenario is that the payout for the vehicle may be reduced by a small %. If this happens then you could argue your case to the Ombudsman, but that is some time away.

(4) The Police may or may not inform your Insurers. Wait until something happens.

If I were in your boots I wouldn't be too concerned about no MOT at this stage.

bigmacca81625

ok, there are 2 things that could happen here

first of all, you should go down to ANY MOT garage, and for a small fee you should be able to get a print out of the original, or atleast find where it was tested to get one so you know when it ran out.

second, punishment wise, if your car didnt have an mot you can get a fine, not sure of the amount, if this invalidates your insurance(depends on comapny/policy) then you could be in further trouble.

If your ok by insurance then the biggest trouble you could get in, isnt driving without an MOT, its if they police say that your car wasn't in a fit condition to be on the road! i.e. it wouldn't normally pass an MOT, you can then be done for driving without due care, and also have the blame pointed at you for the accident

liam8282

Where did you get the full service done?

Surely any garage will have looked at the service book, date of the vehicle etc and told you it needed an MOT, if only for the reason that they wanted the work.

As mentioned before, you will probably get a fine for having no MOT, but your insurance should be ok. You would be better off just having a quick read of the t&c's in your insurance policy.

dacouch

bigmacca81625 wrote: »

ok, there are 2 things that could happen here



If your ok by insurance then the biggest trouble you could get in, isnt driving without an MOT, its if they police say that your car wasn't in a fit condition to be on the road! i.e. it wouldn't normally pass an MOT, you can then be done for driving without due care, and also have the blame pointed at you for the accident

This is simply not true, if you have an accident that is not your fault then irrespective of whether you have an mot or even working brakes then it is the other drivers fault. The only exceptions to this are if the fault with your car caused the accident, the other possibility is if the fault to your car caused further damage to your car in the accident then the other Insurers may reduce the amount they pay you to take into account the additional damage

chalkie99

This is the bit I don't understand from your original post:

I also booked an MOT for next week. Then my car got hit

Why would you book an MOT without checking when it was due?

Does sound a little to me as though you knew it was out of date and took a chance by continuing to drive it.

bigmacca81625

as I say, it would depend on the circumstances in the accident, as we dont fully know the details, the minute a solicitor finds out the car wasn't mot'd then they may look at the accident again, was someone turning, did the indicators work etc...

its only officially not your fault providing your car is in good working order as proved by a valid mot certificate

dacouch

Having a valid MOT does not affect whether an accident is deemed to be at fault, what influences whether an accident is at fault or not are the circumstances of the accident.

An MOT certificate confirms that on the day the car was inspected by an MOT station that it complied with the MOT requirements, it could develop a fault with the indicators on the way home from the MOT station.

If the OP did not have an Insurance policy in place it would also not influence whether they were deemed at fault or not.

HigherIQ

h t t p://w w w.motinfo.gov.uk/html/home.html
If you have the V5C documentation, you can check your past MOTs via this government website. (You'll have to copy/paste and remove spaces to use link)

Not sure if you will have the V5C document though. Otherwise vikingaero's advice seems good advice