How to tax? MOTb not in time before tax expires

seatbeltnoob

Hi

My wife forgot to MOT her vehicle since it expired in August. her road tax is meant to be renewed by DD today but we received a letter saying that the car cannot be taxed unless there is a MOT on record.

I tried looking online but cannot find information on this.

We took the car in for MOT yesterday and had 5 fails. We knew windscreen was a fail (but not the ARB boots and the license plate lights).

Rushed around yesterday evening and got them all fixed and windscreen today.

Note: I know some people lay down heavy on users, so just for clarification, I decided to take the car to MOT anyway so I could get a list of things to fix, a sort of a to-do list of repairs as I was tight for time.

Also because it gives me a list of things to get done speicifically so I can now prebook mechanics and MOT and drive around without police stops leading to seizures.

Booked for re-test tomorrow morning.

My question is how do I get the road tax now, the road tax/mot status page says a MOT can take up to 4 days to update on the website.

I should get the car to pass MOT tomorrow morning.

seatbeltnoob

Is there some informal grace period for being out of tax. I know officially there isn't but do police have an informal grace period where they wont bother with a car just out of tax.

shaun_from_Africa

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

Is there some informal grace period for being out of tax. I know officially there isn't but do police have an informal grace period where they wont bother with a car just out of tax.

Even if the police did ignore a day or two the problem is that with the computerised system, if a vehicle isn't taxed or sorned it will probably get flagged up the moment the tax expires and hasn't been renewed.

BeenThroughItAll

There is, and never has been, any kind of grace period.


You can go to a Post Office. Simple.

glentoran99

youll be fine as long as you tax it ASAP, tax it at the post office after the MOT

glentoran99

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

There is, and never has been, any kind of grace period.


You can go to a Post Office. Simple.

Not true, there used to be 14 days, and was detailed on the dvla site

BeenThroughItAll

glentoran99 wrote: »

Not true, there used to be 14 days, and was detailed on the dvla site

No, that's simply not the case at all.


The 14 day period was not a grace period for not having tax. There was a rule that allowed you to purchase a new tax disc and have the tax run from the date of expiry of the previous disc if you did so within 14 days.


That did not make the 14day period a grace period - if you were untaxed in that period and using the vehicle on a road, you were committing an offence, simple as. The clue is in the term 'date of expiry' - the expiry was legally absolute and the car was immediately untaxed.

Car_54

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

Also because it gives me a list of things to get done speicifically so I can now prebook mechanics and MOT and drive around without police stops leading to seizures.

You can't "drive around". You can drive directly to a pre-booked MOT, that's all.

seatbeltnoob

Car_54 wrote: »

You can't "drive around". You can drive directly to a pre-booked MOT, that's all.

gosh, pedantic much.

Thanks all for advice. The car is now repaired and all issues have been sorted. Retest booked for tomorrow morning I will get the MOT done and then either go to the post office and MOT it or just keep it on a layby away from ANPR until its marked as MOTd on the website and quickly tax it.

glentoran99

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

No, that's simply not the case at all.


The 14 day period was not a grace period for not having tax. There was a rule that allowed you to purchase a new tax disc and have the tax run from the date of expiry of the previous disc if you did so within 14 days.


That did not make the 14day period a grace period - if you were untaxed in that period and using the vehicle on a road, you were committing an offence, simple as. The clue is in the term 'date of expiry' - the expiry was legally absolute and the car was immediately untaxed.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080108093107/http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_069671



"While your vehicle is off the road, you have 14 days in which to obtain a tax disc or make a SORN."


looks like a grace period to me...


If using the car. not to or from an MOT then you are correct, however a previous poster said it would be flagged immediately as having no tax as soon as it expired

seatbeltnoob

glentoran99 wrote: »

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080108093107/http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_069671



"While your vehicle is off the road, you have 14 days in which to obtain a tax disc or make a SORN."


looks like a grace period to me...


If using the car. not to or from an MOT then you are correct, however a previous poster said it would be flagged immediately as having no tax as soon as it expired

no that is not a grace period at all. This is saying you need to EITHER renew your tax disc or SORN it within 14 days of disc expiring. Key point is it is off the road.

Think it's more for their administrative issues before they start sending demands for payment through the post.

A grace period would allow to to go about your way as usual without tax for 14 days. Which is not the case.