What exactly happens if there's no tax, insurance, or MOT on a vehicle?

Aretnap

Conrad3000 said:

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

Serious question to OP: how does this affect your day-to-day life?

Surely the DVLA have everything stored on their systems and a vehicle without an MOT would automatically be flagged?

DVLA agents can and do drive round in ANPR equipped vehicles which ping if they spot an untaxed car, allowing it to be clamped and eventually removed. However the DVLA have no power to enforce use if cars without MOT - that's a police matter.

Police road patrol units also have ANPR which will pick up cats without MOT, but they are all patrolling main roads, not driving round housing estates in the off chance that they find a parked car which is a few days late for us MOT.

Aretnap

eschaton said:

Conrad3000 said:

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

Serious question to OP: how does this affect your day-to-day life?

Surely the DVLA have everything stored on their systems and a vehicle without an MOT would automatically be flagged?

And the car in question is taking up valuable space in the street. It's taxed and insured but no MOT. It's been parked up for about 2 months now.

If it’s taxed and insured then it has as much right as any other car to be parked on the street. 

It would be an issue if it was being driven but it’s not. 

Pedantically speaking, no it doesn't. The offence is "using" a vehicle without an MOT on a public road, not "driving" it, and in the past courts have interpreted "using" broadly enough to include keeping a vehicle which is parked on the road. However in practice the police are not going to do very much about it unless the OP is a close friend of the Chief Constable.

It's also illegal to "abandon" a car on a public road and the council have a duty to remove abandoned vehicles. However there is no one size fits all determinant of whether a vehicle should be regarded as abandoned. The council will use a number of criteria including tax, insurance, MOT, condition and the amount of time it has been left there without being moved. 

If it bothers the OP his best move is to report it to the council as abandoned - stressing the length of time it has been sitting there and any signs that it is in poor condition (deflated tyres etc). They might remove it or they might not - the worst they can do is say "come back when the tax expires".

Car_54

eschaton said:

Conrad3000 said:

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

Serious question to OP: how does this affect your day-to-day life?

Surely the DVLA have everything stored on their systems and a vehicle without an MOT would automatically be flagged?

And the car in question is taking up valuable space in the street. It's taxed and insured but no MOT. It's been parked up for about 2 months now.

If it’s taxed and insured then it has as much right as any other car to be parked on the street. 

It would be an issue if it was being driven but it’s not. 

No, it is an offence to USE such a vehicle, and "use" includes being parked. But, as above, it is a trivial offence and no-one is hoing to do anything about it.

paul_c123

Conrad3000 said:

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

Serious question to OP: how does this affect your day-to-day life?

Surely the DVLA have everything stored on their systems and a vehicle without an MOT would automatically be flagged?

And the car in question is taking up valuable space in the street. It's taxed and insured but no MOT. It's been parked up for about 2 months now.

The owner must have taxed and insured it since your original post. Maybe its booked in for its MoT today too.

LightFlare

paul_c123 said:

Conrad3000 said:

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

Serious question to OP: how does this affect your day-to-day life?

Surely the DVLA have everything stored on their systems and a vehicle without an MOT would automatically be flagged?

And the car in question is taking up valuable space in the street. It's taxed and insured but no MOT. It's been parked up for about 2 months now.

The owner must have taxed and insured it since your original post. Maybe its booked in for its MoT today too.

I’m sure this has been discussed before - can you tax a vehicle that doesn’t have a current MOT ?

(I dont recall the answer - hence the question)

facade

paul_c123 said:

DVLA can and do clamp untaxed vehicles but I don't know if they actively search for them or just rely on reports.

They employ contractors who cruise around quiet* estates clamping untaxed vehicles parked on the road.

I regularly see clamped cars around the second week of the month.

Either they pay up, or the contractors remove them, because they are gone after a couple of days.

*I doubt if they cruise round the more notorious estates!

TooManyPoints

The owner must have taxed and insured it since your original post.

I don't think so. Whilst the thread's title is this:

What exactly happens if there's no tax, insurance, or MOT on a vehicle?

The only mention of the particular vehicle in question was this:

"Because there's a car in my area with no MOT for a few weeks now."

paul_c123

TooManyPoints said:

The owner must have taxed and insured it since your original post.

I don't think so. Whilst the thread's title is this:

What exactly happens if there's no tax, insurance, or MOT on a vehicle?

The only mention of the particular vehicle in question was this:

"Because there's a car in my area with no MOT for a few weeks now."

The other possibility, is the OP sensationalised their original post (title) claiming also that the car had no tax or insurance. Given that (perhaps) it is not even possible to tax a car with no MoT, this would seem a plausible scenario.

Any argument which relies on dishonesty is, in my eyes, a bad one.

Arunmor

LightFlare said:

I’m sure this has been discussed before - can you tax a vehicle that doesn’t have a current MOT ?

(I dont recall the answer - hence the question)

No, I had an MOT that expired at the end of the month which made taxing it difficult.  In the end I ran it on for a couple of days so that I could tax it before the MOT.

Nowadays I get the MOT done as soon as I am allowed ie within 30 days prior to the old one expiring.

facade

To answer the OP

No Tax: DVLA send out automatic fines.If you ignore them long enough they send you to Magistrate's Court, where you will be fined in your absence. Fail to pay that and Court will instigate recovery, (Send the Baliffs round etc. possibly going as far as imprisonment for wilful refusal to pay)

If the DVLA contractors spot it it will be clamped, if you don't pay the clamp fee  plus the tax (or a surety if it has no MOT, as you need one to tax it) it will be impounded, and crushed if you don't pay the removal fee and the tax/surety

No Insurance: The MIB & DVLA work together and you get a letter reminding you that all vehicles must be SORN, or insured- sort it NOW!. Fail to insure and DVLA send out an automatic £100 fine. Ignore that and they send you to Magistrate’s Court as above.  

Driving a car with no insurance covering you: if a Police car spots you, they stop you and seize the car (the keeper has to insure it and pay the impound fee or it is crushed) you get 6 points and a £300 fine.

No MOT: nothing, unless you drive it when the penalty is a fine, but no points, unless the vehicle is in a dangerous condition, when there are points & fines for different offences.

Everything except driving without insurance is enforced by post, so can be defeated by people simply not registering the vehicle to their real address.