Driving after MOT failure

funnymonkey

I was understanding that you couldn't drive your car after an MOT failure apart from to and from the garage to get repairs done.
Just phoned my garage and they say that the car can be driven in the event of a failure providing the original MOT from last year hasn't expired.
Obviously I wouldn't drive my car if it it something major but if only minor faults whilst waiting for the garage to order parts enabling me to get to work.
Tried Google and getting conflicting answers.
Thank you

molerat

If your car fails the MOT today you were likely driving a "not roadworthy" car yesterday.

As long as the current MOT is still in date you can drive the car but, the same as at any time between MOTs, you could be prosecuted for having an unroadworthy car if stopped and checked which could also happen driving out of the garage after passing an MOT. I believe MOT failure does not show up on the police vehicle checks, just the presence of a current MOT.

tifo

molerat said:

you could be prosecuted for having an unroadworthy car if stopped and checked which could also happen driving out of the garage after passing an MOT.

Don't understand this. If you're stopped driving out of an MOT centre after it has passed an MOT, hasn't it just been assessed as roadworthy by a licensed MOT centre? Unless you mean that it could be stopped driving out of an MOT centre but not deemed unroadworthy?

Car_54

tifo said:

molerat said:

you could be prosecuted for having an unroadworthy car if stopped and checked which could also happen driving out of the garage after passing an MOT.

Don't understand this. If you're stopped driving out of an MOT centre after it has passed an MOT, hasn't it just been assessed as roadworthy by a licensed MOT centre? Unless you mean that it could be stopped driving out of an MOT centre but not deemed unroadworthy?

Two possibilities. (1) Something has failed after being checked, or (2) the tester missed something.

Brie

If the car has just passed the MOT then you will have something to show that fact even if the system hasn't been updated.  So nothing to worry about.  Updates to the police systems as with tax renewals (which for many of us go hand in hand, or is that just our household?) take 2 or 3 days.  Failures I understand get reported to DVLA but again will take some time to filter through even when submitted online.
 
The worse issue as I understand it is that if you are knowingly driving a car that is not roadworthy then you have no insurance.  So do be sure you don't get in an accident.  

daivid

It's a grey area that could do with sorting. As others have said should you be in an accident in a car that you know is not roadworthy you could be in real trouble, and whilst it is true you are responsible at all times for the roadworthiness of your vehicle when you've had the fault presented in black and white it's likely to be taken more seriously than an issue you may not have known about. Personally I'd keep driving to the absolute minimum until the issue has been resolved and get the retest done ASAP.

Aretnap

Brie said:

The worse issue as I understand it is that if you are knowingly driving a car that is not roadworthy then you have no insurance.  

Yes and no.

Most insurance policies have a term requiring the vehicle to be roadworthy. However due to the Insurance Act 2015 the insurer could only use that as grounds to reject a claim if the defect actually caused the accident, or at least significantly contributed to it. So if your car, say, had no working headlights, your insurer could reject a claim for an accident you caused by driving into something in the dark, but not for an accident that happened in daylight.

Meanwhile the Road Traffic Act specifically prevents insurers from making the legal minimum cover dependant on the condition of your vehicle, so whatever your policy said you could not be convicted of driving without insurance on the basis of your car being unroadworthy.

In practice use a bit of common sense. If the car fails because one of the rear seatbelts is worn then keep driving it and just don't use that seat - you are possibly committing an obscure construction and use offence by driving with a defective seatbelt but your chances of getting into any trouble because of it are negligible. If it failed because it has four bald tyres and brake pads worn down to the rivets don't drive it, and breathe a huge sigh of relief that nothing happened on the way too the test centre.

sevenhills

The penalty for no MOT is only a fixed £100 and the likelihood of you being stopped is 0.00001