Can you legally drive after mot failure

lisyloo

This question may appear a bit daft initially, but it is possible for a car to fail the mot on something that does not make it unroadworthy.
So for example if the area around one of the rear seatbelt attachment is badly rusted then whilst it may be dangerous to drive with rear passengers it would not be dangerous with no one using the rear seatbelt.

So legally if an old mot is still current and the car fails then can you legally still drive it (I'd only be thinking of a scrapyard).
I totally accept 100% that you cannot and should not drive an in roadworthy vehicle.

prowla

Well, you can drive it to a garage for a repeat MOT test...

I wonder what happens if you take out the back seats?

ChumLee

Yes the old mot is still valid.

Quentin

Your MOT is valid until it's expiry date irrespective of any failures prior to that date

Lomast

As said the new MOT does not 'expire' the old one as long as its still in date so as long as the vehicle is roadworthy then its perfectly legal to drive

lisyloo

Thanks guys.
At least I know I can legally drive to a scrapyard if whatever caused the car to fail does not render the car unroadworthy.
MOT tommorrow on my 17 year old car. Fingers crossed.

ChumLee

lisyloo wrote: »

Thanks guys.
At least I know I can legally drive to a scrapyard if whatever caused the car to fail does not render the car unroadworthy.
MOT tommorrow on my 17 year old car. Fingers crossed.

You can still be prosecuted for any defects it fails on if stopped. That includes unused seat belts.

lisyloo

You can still be prosecuted for any defects it fails on if stopped. That includes unused seat belts.

Thanks for the warning. I'll try to remember to let you know what happens.

Joe_Horner

If it's only one side that's rusted, it's only in the prescribed area for the belt (ie: not suspension as well), and there's a centre lap belt fitted then remove the seat belt from the rusted side and get a pass

lisyloo

It really was a theorectical question :-)
I don't think I have an issue with the rear seat belts.

Just wanted to know if a failed MOT voids anything and it looks like a new failure does not affect the validity of the old MOT or necesarily the actual roadworthiness of the vehicle.
I'm not going to do anything daft but I need to know what my options are when the scrapyards say "can you drive it to us".

lisyloo

It PASSED !!!!!

Thanks for the info though, I'll know where I stand in future.
Was expecting a difficult decision there.