New car - MOT lapsed, questions - please help, really stressed.

Morganarla

Evenin' all :beer:

Really need some help. Apologies if I seem a bit clueless. But I am so very, very stressed about this and have no-one else to ask.

Recently drove to the airport. Current ancient car died a horrible-way-too-expensive-to-be-worth-repairing death minutes before rolling into the rented car parking space (through JustPark).

Had to catch flight to visit in-laws, car is still sat there. Spoke to a friends brother who buys and sells cars, he had a car suitable (I have an auto only licence so not easy to find cars). New car MOT has lapsed, spring was going to be replaced and new car MOT'd in time for when we get back.

Plan then was friends brother will come to where old car is still sat (probably seizing up), with new car on tow truck. Give me new car, take away old car on tow truck, I swap the car on the insurance, drive 200km from airport back home.

This is where the problems now start. We land back tomorrow lunch time, the new part has not arrived in time, new car is drivable but no tax or valid MOT.

I checked with my current insurer (Diamond) who said that if I book an MOT test, change the car over on the policy and then drive to the test centre then they will cover me until the time of the MOT. If it fails, the policy is immediately cancelled but reinstateable within 10 days without penalty.

So my questions are, based on the above:

- Can I book an MOT test near to my home (200km away from airport) for tomorrow afternoon, and drive new car to it, without tax (lapsed 26th June) and current MOT (lapsed 4th August)?

- It WILL fail the MOT. MOT centre is about 6km from my home. Will I be allowed to drive new car home to put on private land (I understand, without insurance, tax etc and at my own risk) or will test centre (Halfords) stop me from doing this?

- When part arrives with friends brother, is there any way of taxing and insuring the vehicle to be driven to another booked MOT which it should then pass? Current insurer has said they cannot offer this. This again would be another long drive back to where friends brother is.


I have literally no money to be able to put this car through MOT, repair and retest myself (ex is having to lend me money for this new car in the first place) or go through any other mechanic other than friends brother.

Help? Please? Let know if this doesn't make sense...

---lee---

You can't drive a car without insurance under any circumstances. It's an absolute offence.

You can't drive a car without car tax. Normally the best thing to do under these sort of circumstances would be to have a car collected from home by the garage doing the test. They would cover the tax with their trade plates and they would have insurance for it.

When MOT is lapsed, you can only drive to the nearest MOT centre. If the car fails, you would have to leave it at the garage to rectify faults.

Getting an unroadworth, untaxed, non-mot'd car delivered to you seems very complicated. Get it delivered to the place doing the repairs or your home.

If you have roadside cover, you could get your car recovered?

SailorSam

Sorry but it is a bit confusing.
If you're so sure your new car will fail the Mot. Why take it.
Can't you delay picking it up until it's past the test, or get it delivered to your house if you can keep it off the road.
You could still get the guy to meet you at the airport to take you and the old car home. Or even a friend with a tow rope. Or do you have break-down cover that could get you home.

arcon5

You can drive directly to and from a pre-booked MOT without a valid MOT or Tax. That's fine.

It either needs to be SORNed or taxed.

I don't understand the insurance point - just give the insurers the new vehicle details. They don't ask if it's taxed or has an MOT. So rather than trying to get insurance for day X&Y then A&B just transfer the insurance to the new vehicle and drive to and from the testing station in it.

If you know it will fail why are you taking it in the first place? Just wait for the part to arrive, fix it then take it to the test

arcon5

---lee--- wrote: »

You can't drive a car without insurance under any circumstances. It's an absolute offence.

You can't drive a car without car tax. Normally the best thing to do under these sort of circumstances would be to have a car collected from home by the garage doing the test. They would cover the tax with their trade plates and they would have insurance for it.

This is incorrect.

When MOT is lapsed, you can only drive to the nearest MOT centre. If the car fails, you would have to leave it at the garage to rectify faults.

The rules say nothing about the station having to be the "nearest" one.

Joe_Horner

arcon5 wrote: »

This is incorrect.



The rules say nothing about the station having to be the "nearest" one.

The rules also specifically say that you CAN drive it home again after a failed test and that you can then drive to a place where repairs are going to be made (by prior arrangement) to the failed items. They do not specify that the place for repairs must be a garage.

In both of the above cases (driving home and driving for repair) you might still be committing other offences depending on what it failed on but the police tend to use common sense on that and only worry about things that are clear safety issues (bald tyres, dodgy brakes etc) A broken spring may or may not fit that category depending on where it's broken and how well secured the remaining part is.

PasturesNew

While you can theoretically book the test and drive the car to the MoT test, the distance you propose to do this over is unreasonable, so you'd probably be pulled - and that's if you didn't have an issue.

e.g. what if you got a bit stuck in traffic, were dying for a wee and wanted to stop. You couldn't stop the car, not for a wee or anything else you're not "going straight to the MoT station".

It's too far to get away with it.

The number plate might get picked up by any road cameras/passing plods and plod will pull you - and they can be right 4rsey little jobsworths and so insist that what you're doing is wrong and take you back to their station and seize the car (whether they are right/wrong at that point is irrelevant as you'll be sitting in a police station without a car and just wishing they'd all s0d off and leave you alone).

What you could do would be to book it into a local MoT station close to the airport and book yourself into a cheap B&B for the night .... hoping it'll pass and you can drive it home the next day (depending what time your flight arrives, of course it could be possible to get it done and drive home on the same day).

Could the tow truck take the new car to the MoT station, where it can await the part, then come and get your old car and give you a lift to a local B&B?

Morganarla

To answer a few questions:

SailorSam wrote: »

Sorry but it is a bit confusing.
If you're so sure your new car will fail the Mot. Why take it.
Can't you delay picking it up until it's past the test, or get it delivered to your house if you can keep it off the road.
You could still get the guy to meet you at the airport to take you and the old car home. Or even a friend with a tow rope. Or do you have break-down cover that could get you home.

I am taking the car because I know nothing about cars and the mechanics of them, and I trust the guy selling this to me - after it has had the new spring, it will do me well for some time. This guy cannot take us and old car home due to location, just not feasible. Breakdown cover on old car is lapsed due to an error with the bank, my direct debit for the RAC didn't come and it lapsed down (didn't get any letters). Old car is honestly not worth salvaging. If it got towed home, I'd just be stuck with a broken undrivable car on my land that I can't remove. Better that this guy takes it.

arcon5 wrote: »

You can drive directly to and from a pre-booked MOT without a valid MOT or Tax. That's fine.

It either needs to be SORNed or taxed.

I don't understand the insurance point - just give the insurers the new vehicle details. They don't ask if it's taxed or has an MOT. So rather than trying to get insurance for day X&Y then A&B just transfer the insurance to the new vehicle and drive to and from the testing station in it.

If you know it will fail why are you taking it in the first place? Just wait for the part to arrive, fix it then take it to the test

Why am I taking the car - see above. I cannot wait for the part to arrive and then test it, because my ex and I need to get home from the airport TOMORROW. We both have responsibilities at home (200km away) plus work first thing Weds morning.

I read that if you drive a car without a valid MOT cert, any insurance you have on it is completely invalid, unless your insurance has agreed to cover you to go to the test centre to get it retested (which they have, now that I have told them the situation). I will tax the new car tomorrow.

arcon5 wrote: »

This is incorrect.



The rules say nothing about the station having to be the "nearest" one.

That was my main point, because by booking a test close to home (which I have done), my ex and I can then actually get home, rather than be completely stuck at the airport, carless, risking jobs and pets without pet sitters. So it def doesn't have to be the nearest one? It's booked and paid for so definitely 'pre-'booked'.

Morganarla

Joe_Horner wrote: »

The rules also specifically say that you CAN drive it home again after a failed test and that you can then drive to a place where repairs are going to be made (by prior arrangement) to the failed items. They do not specify that the place for repairs must be a garage.

In both of the above cases (driving home and driving for repair) you might still be committing other offences depending on what it failed on but the police tend to use common sense on that and only worry about things that are clear safety issues (bald tyres, dodgy brakes etc) A broken spring may or may not fit that category depending on where it's broken and how well secured the remaining part is.

Car is perfectly drivable at the moment and was being driven (with the spring issue) by the guy selling it to me until MOT ran out.

PasturesNew wrote: »

While you can theoretically book the test and drive the car to the MoT test, the distance you propose to do this over is unreasonable, so you'd probably be pulled - and that's if you didn't have an issue.

e.g. what if you got a bit stuck in traffic, were dying for a wee and wanted to stop. You couldn't stop the car, not for a wee or anything else you're not "going straight to the MoT station".

It's too far to get away with it.

The number plate might get picked up by any road cameras/passing plods and plod will pull you - and they can be right 4rsey little jobsworths and so insist that what you're doing is wrong and take you back to their station and seize the car (whether they are right/wrong at that point is irrelevant as you'll be sitting in a police station without a car and just wishing they'd all s0d off and leave you alone).

What you could do would be to book it into a local MoT station close to the airport and book yourself into a cheap B&B for the night .... hoping it'll pass and you can drive it home the next day (depending what time your flight arrives, of course it could be possible to get it done and drive home on the same day).

Could the tow truck take the new car to the MoT station, where it can await the part, then come and get your old car and give you a lift to a local B&B?

Car will not pass MOT without new spring. That's for sure.

Was planning to drive non-motorway way back to test centre.. And we will not stop. At all.

George_Michael

---lee--- wrote: »

You can't drive a car without insurance under any circumstances. It's an absolute offence.

Not strictly correct.
If you are driving a vehicle that is not owned by you and you are driving it for business purposes and you believed that there was insurance in place then you are not breaking the law if it turns out that the vehicle wasn't insured.

bsod

Over complicating things, forget the new car without an mot before you turn this into a help I've been stopped for driving with no tax/insurance/mot thread and had my car impounded or I've bought a lemon unseen and it's falling apart.

Use public transport, taxi or get a lift on the tow truck, all simpler, far more feasible and sensible than the current idea which opens up a massive can of worms, potential trouble, and expense.

If you can't afford to get a car through an mot, how can you afford to run one