Possible MOT Scam

NuffinisFree

Hello Nice people out there,

My friend has an issue with her MOT for her car and thought some kind people out there might be able to give me some advice that I can pass onto her.

She brought her first car just under a year ago for little under a grand, wasn’t anything amazing, just a little car that she hope she would have for a year or 2.

Its had its issues over the months which have been fixed however something else was wrong with it so she asked a local garage to have a quick look at it and tell her if it was worth fixing, MOTing or if she would be better selling it/scrapping it.

Now the guy who she gave it to, to have a look at it has carried out a full MOT and failed it.

My questions are:
1) can she still drive it under its old MOT which doesn’t end till the beginning of March?

2) Legally where does she stand on refusal as the guy carried out the MOT without her knowledge and well before the month its due, i.e. MOT runs out first week in March and technically you can’t do a MOT before the first of Feb.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

colino

First of all, it has a valid MOT so it is legal to drive. However, if the garage had found anything serious (it hasn't or they would have said so) would your friend still be happy to drive around in an unroadworthy car?
The last point about it not being able to be MOT'd is just plain wrong. You can put your car in for an MOT everyday of the year if you want to.

DCFC79

Why not take it for a second opinion eg maybe a council run mot centre or an indie mot centre

mikey72

You have a valid MOT until the old one expires.
Have he given her the full printout of the MOT, and advisory sheet?
What did it fail for?

Stigy

Sounds more like a lapse in communication, than a possible scam. Your friend can still drive the car as the MoT is still valid.

victor2

As already said, it can be used legally on the strength of the current MOT.
The advantage of having a new MOT within a month of the expiry of the current one is that the new one (if it passes) will run from the expiry date of the current one.
She does need to look at what it failed on though and consider how unsafe that makes the car. Does it have something easily rectified like illegal tyres?

NuffinisFree

thanks for the advice everyone,

its failed on stuff like tyres, lights and some corrison. they gave her a quote of over £450 to get it fixed. might be better to get it scrapped and called it experience

Stigy

NuffinisFree wrote: »

thanks for the advice everyone,

its failed on stuff like tyres, lights and some corrison. they gave her a quote of over £450 to get it fixed. might be better to get it scrapped and called it experience

Depends on what the car is, although to fail on something such as corrsion, I would imagine it's fairly old. Or a Ford and not very old.

tripled

1) Although the old MOT is still valid, if the car isn't roadworthy and is involved in an accident there could be complications. Also if the tyres aren't legal these might be spotted by a copper on a routine stop which could lead to a fine.

2) I don't fully understand what you mean, but you can MOT a car whenever you like. I could take my car for an MOT every month if I wanted to.

Stigy

tripled wrote: »

1) Although the old MOT is still valid, if the car isn't roadworthy and is involved in an accident there could be complications. Also if the tyres aren't legal these might be spotted by a copper on a routine stop which could lead to a fine.

2) I don't fully understand what you mean, but you can MOT a car whenever you like. I could take my car for an MOT every month if I wanted to.

I think the OP means that the current MoT will only be taken in to account if MoT no more than a month before its expiry date. Otherwise the new MoT will expire a month earlier than it would if done a month later....

Viper_7

If there are problems with the lights or tyres deemed sufficient enough to be an MOT failure then it should not be driven on the road, regardless that it currently still has a valid MOT.

Fix the problems BEFORE taking it back on the road. Putting her own life and others at risk.
both are simple to address with normal maintenance, not just waiting till the next MOT.

Vipes