Privacy Glass / Window Tinting Laws

VH

Does anyone know the definition of the law in relation to Privacy Glass and Window Tinting?

I'm currently looking at buying a car, I'm viewing one which has privacy glass in all the windows except the front windscreen. Is privacy glass / window tinting still legal? Don't want to be getting a pull!

Also, I know it's difficult to see into a vehicle which has privacy glass. Is it also difficult to see out (I presume not, otherwise you'd be hitting things quite often!)?

Doppleganger

Checkout this link, tinting the front windows (b-pilar forward) is a very grey area.
http://www.pentagonglasstech.com/news_legal_update.asp

Baz-Bee

The police currently have some discretion but they tend to come down hard on tinted windows from the B pillar forward (that is the drivers and front passenger side windows and the windscreen). Not sure what the 2004 amendment says but I am sure will not make things any darker?

If the windows are too tinted (less than 75% light transmision I believe is often used for the windscreen and 70% for front side windows as defined in the 1986 Regs) the poilce can stop you using the vehicle with immediate effect by placing a prohibition notice on it. A year or so ago Greater Manchester Police stopped a car with ahusband, wife and young children in it because of the tinted windows. They said they were too dark and they car could not be used until the front windows and windsreen were replaced. It was a weekend and the only way the family could get home (a good many 100 or so miles away) with their car was to pay for it to be taken with them on a breakdown truck.

Suggest you speak with your local police and/or the AA, RAC or similar as to how they currently interpret the law.

And do not forget to speak to your insurers also. They will want to know if you do this and may load your premium or even decline to carry the risk. So I would speak with them prior to doing anything at all.