Can I drive my car with a failed MOT?

funnymonkey

Good evening.
I was wondering if I can drive my car to and from work etc with a failed mot (but still not expired from last year) As I understand this is legal providing that there are no dangerous defects reported and the car is submitted to either a partial retest after the repairs have been rectified within 10 days.
Can anyone please  confirm if this is true or not?
Thank you

paul_c123

Its not just "dangerous" but "major" items too; or anything else which makes it unroadworthy. But the fact its failed an MoT alone, is not enough to prevent you legally. Its whether its roadworthy or not.

daveyjp

What did it fail for?  A blown brake light bulb isn't as much a problem as failures for tyres being like F1 slicks or no brake force.

35har1old

daveyjp said:

What did it fail for?  A blown brake light bulb isn't as much a problem as failures for tyres being like F1 slicks or no brake force.

You could sort tyres on the way home

badmemory

I was under the impression that driving a car that would fail an MOT is a no.

35har1old

paul_c123 said:

Its not just "dangerous" but "major" items too; or anything else which makes it unroadworthy. But the fact its failed an MoT alone, is not enough to prevent you legally. Its whether its roadworthy or not.

£2500 fine might points on licence
It's is illegal to drive without a vaild MOT unless you are driving to MOT appointment 
In regards to the old MOT certificate once you have attended the MOT and have been issue a failure notice it invalidates the previous certificate 
If it is not illegal why would ever MOT a car

TadleyBaggie

gov.uk says:

Driving a vehicle that’s failed

You can take your vehicle away if:

• your current MOT is still valid
• no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT

Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

facade

badmemory said:

I was under the impression that driving a car that would fail an MOT is a no.

Driving an unroadworthy vehicle is an offence. (which obviously would fail an MOT)

Driving a vehicle that does not have a valid MOT is an offence.

The two things are independent of each other.

A subsequent MOT failure does not invalidate a current MOT, so the OP cannot be prosecuted for not having a valid MOT.

If the vehicle currently has a defect that makes it unroadworthy and one of those Policemen that you see on "Motorway Cops" on CH5 stops it, then they will go over it looking for defects and will find an obvious one, then they can prevent it being driven under section 69 of the RTA. (I'm not sure how that works at the roadside, as you'd drive it as soon as they go, but section 69 doesn't provide for seizure)

They will also gleefully ring your insurer to tell them it is unroadworthy (or has modifications like eyebrows on the headlights or a sun strip on the windscreen) and ask if it is insured, when the insurer says no- we don't cover unroadworthy/modified vehicles they will then seize it under section 165 of the RTA. (and it will cost a fortune to get back, as your insurance won't cover it for release)

They could of course do this at any time! (as they do on TV)

There are various tales that the ANPR in a traffic car will show an alert if an MOT failure has been logged- no reason why it couldn't but I'm not sure that it does.

If the defect has been fixed then the vehicle is fine to drive on the old MOT.

paul_c123

35har1old said:

paul_c123 said:

Its not just "dangerous" but "major" items too; or anything else which makes it unroadworthy. But the fact its failed an MoT alone, is not enough to prevent you legally. Its whether its roadworthy or not.

£2500 fine might points on licence
It's is illegal to drive without a vaild MOT unless you are driving to MOT appointment 
In regards to the old MOT certificate once you have attended the MOT and have been issue a failure notice it invalidates the previous certificate 
If it is not illegal why would ever MOT a car

Re-read the OP - the OP explains that last year's MoT is still valid. What you've written is only true if that were not the case.

You've invented the bit about an MoT failure immediately invalidating a current MoT. In fact, it is not a "failure", it is a "refusal to issue a test certificate".

prowla

From https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test :

Driving a vehicle that’s failed

You can take your vehicle away if:

• your current MOT is still valid
• no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT

Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

The "minimum standards" links are a bit wooly though...

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-safe

TooManyPoints

In regards to the old MOT certificate once you have attended the MOT and have been issue a failure notice it invalidates the previous certificate 

Can you cite the legislation for that?

If it is not illegal why would ever MOT a car

Because eventually the "old" MoT will expire.

...when the insurer says no- we don't cover unroadworthy/modified vehicles... 

They will be telling lies. Section 148 of the RTA:

148. Avoidance of certain exceptions to policies 

(1)Where a policy …purports to restrict—

(a)the insurance of the persons insured by the policy, by reference to any of the matters mentioned in subsection (2) below shall, as respects such liabilities as are required to be covered by a policy under section 145 of this Act, be of no effect.

(2)Those matters are—

(a)the age or physical or mental condition of persons driving the vehicle,

(b)the condition of the vehicle, [my emphasis]

....etc. up to about (h)

In plain English, this means an insurer cannot deny the cover that is required by the Road Traffic Act on the basis of the condition of the vehicle. 

Any traffic police officer should know this. If he doesn’t and seizes the vehicle under s165, that seizure would be unlawful.