If my car fails its MOT…

can I still drive it until the expiry of the current certificate?

Obviously I will not do so if it's unsafe to do so for me or other road users so let's assume it failed on "driver's view of the road" because I failed to top up the washer bottle. If I fill the washer bottle but can't reschedule a test 'til the day before it expires, am I OK to drive it in the interim?

If possible I'd like to keep this to facts rather than opinion – I have an opinion (which may or may not be the same as yours) but it's fact that are important with something like this.

Yes, you can still drive your car until your current MOT expires, regardless of how many tests you have had in the interim. Although not sure the position if the MOT man says its unsafe to drive.

nope. Once it becomes unsafe for road use, even if its not had a fresh MOT done it is illegal. That said, driving with a problem you don't know about is one thing, if the problem is documented then its probably even more of an issue!

Why you need an MOT certificate
It is generally an offence to use on a public road, a vehicle of testable age that doesn’t have a current test certificate, except when:

•taking it to a test station for an MOT test booked in advance
•bringing it away from a test station after it has failed the MOT test, to a place of repair
•taking it to a place, by previous arrangement, where problems that caused the vehicle to fail its MOT test, can be repaired
•bringing it away from a place where the problems with the vehicle have been repaired
Even in the above circumstances you may still be prosecuted for driving an unroadworthy vehicle if it doesn’t comply with various regulations affecting its construction and use. Your car insurance may also be invalid.

The police can ask to see an MOT certificate for a vehicle that needs to have one. They also have access to the computerised records of MOT test results and can tell if the MOT certificate for your vehicle has expired.

It is your responsibility as the vehicle owner to ensure that the due MOT test is carried out in time. You can use the peel off reminder sticker on the front of the certificate and put it in a place where you’ll be reminded of the expiry date. A place like the sun visor or the back of the tax disc holder facing inside the vehicle.

The penalty for driving a vehicle on the road with an expired MOT certificate is a fixed penalty notice from the police, currently £60, or a court fine up to a maximum of a £1,000.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Mot/DG_4022108

So, from the bold bit if you fail an MOT but the previous certificate hasn't expired, you could be asking for trouble, especially if you had a crash where insurance got involved.

Once it's failed you can only drive it when taking it to be re-tested. Also, insurance wouldn't cover a car with a failed MOT.

I would say it's roadworthy, and chances are you'll get away with it. However, there are lots of MOT stations offering decent service these days – one local to me lets you make appointments online, and does MOTs between 6am and 11pm.

I'd go for the earliest retest you can get. Odd offences like driving with no MOT, no insurance etc. can make a massive difference to insurance premiums – often more than drink driving charges.

So basically all you can do it drive it away from the test centre to a place of repair and drive it back to the test centre.

tiger_roach – Member
Once it's failed you can only drive it when taking it to be re-tested. Also, insurance wouldn't cover a car with a failed MOT.

And driving without insurance is an offence, is it not.

So basically all you can do it drive it away from the test centre to a place of repair and drive it back to the test centre.

As I understand it, an MOT cert cannot be invalidated, so even though there's an MOT failure sheet, so long as the car is roadworthy, and an old cert is still in date, you should be within the law.

However, I am not a lawyer, so last time my car failed an MOT, I fixed it the same day (Saturday), drove it on Sunday, and got it retested on 6am Monday, even though I had another week or so on the old certificate. My view was that I was pretty unlikely to run into any police on a Sunday, and the car was roadworthy as I'd fixed it. But I wasn't keen to take any more chances than that!

I'd have thought that if it's failed an MOT, but you have done the remedial work to fix those issues, and it's still got time on a valid MOT, then the car would technically be roadworthy… would it not?

I reckon that you can drive it from an MOT perspective (eg because it's not expired) but that in effect you can still be done exactly the same if you failed on something that made the car unroadworthy. Just as you can be done without failing an MOT if your brakes don't work (and somehow they noticed)

cynic-al – Member

tiger_roach – Member
Once it's failed you can only drive it when taking it to be re-tested. Also, insurance wouldn't cover a car with a failed MOT.

And driving without insurance is an offence, is it not.

You don't get done for driving without insurance if you are done for driving without a valid MOT. It happened to a friend of mine back in the mists of time at uni…

I think that's because you still technically have insurance even if you are driving without an MOT, it's just that the insurance company might not pay out to you, but I believe they will pay out on 3rd party claims.

Because all MOTs are now completed 'online' (the tester has to log in to DVLA, VOSA etc) as soon as your car fails it's MOT the appropriate authorities know that it has failed. If the police are doing their roadside checks your car will flag up as no MOT and therefore no insurance. Although you are permitted to drive your car to and from a place of test.

At the end of the day an MOT is a test of roadworthiness and if it fails then it is not roadworthy and therefore unsuitable for use on the road, whether the vehicle still has a current MOT or not.

My 2p worth…

Nope the current certificate is valid so the car has an MOT even if it's failed for a new MOT. So the car is legal as far as MOT is concerned and so inssurance is valid. The bit from directgov website says

It is generally an offence to use on a public road, a vehicle of testable age that doesn’t have a current test certificate, except when:

It's academic now – I can't get it tested until two days before it expires anyway.

Admirable is correct. an issued MOT cert CANNOT be revoked even by the Transport Secretary.

The requirment is to have a valid MOT cert for cars over 3 years old. The issue of a subsequent cert (or failure) within the life of a valid cert does not invalidate the original cert.

Clearly, if the retest highlights safety shortcomings, you'd be a bit of a plnker to drive a vehicle in that condition and, I'm certain the retest failure could be used as evidence if needed. However, the retest does not invalidate the original test pass (which incidently is only valid at the time of the pass and does not 'guarantee' roadworthiness outside of the test procedure).

The old, in date, MOT certificate means you aren't comitting an offence of driving without a valid MOT, so you don't have to worry about that one.

As others have said, if there a defect of some kind, you might commit one of the myriad of construction and use offences that only traffic policemen really understand 🙂

If it's something like your example of the washer bottle, or you've replaced crap wiper blades, then crack on.

A lot of people are missing the point here.
The original question made it clear that the previous test certificate hadn't expired, so even if it fails a test, it is still covered by a valid certificate.

As for whether it is legal to still drive the car after the failure, you have the option to have the car repaired and retested at the place where it failed, or to take it away for repair and return it for retest.
If it wasn't legal to drive the car, you wouldn't have that option.

or, the MOT is a test for roadworthiness. as my MOT tester friend states to me, an MOT is an evaluation of roadworthiness on the day of the test only. if your car fails a test subsequent to the issue of a pass, it has been found to be unroadworthy on the day of that test. you may be able to drive it, but as there is a record of the car having failed the MOT i imagine that things could go badly wrong for you if invoved in an accident, particularly where the failure mode was directly related to the nature of that accident.
although if stopped you may be able to saitisfy a traffic officer that you are entitled to be on the highway…

…particularly where the failure mode was directly related to the nature of that accident.

I'd say that's the deciding factor.

Cracked windscreen, split wiper blade, no fog light, passenger seat belt frayed – drive it home, fix it, take it back.

Bald tyre, brake pads down to the metal – best leave it there for them to fix, or trailer it home.

Mine failed a couple of weeks ago, the garage said I had 10 working days in which to get it retested. This took it past the actual end of the current MOT but they said that it didn't matter, I still had my 10 days grace.

Having said that mine wasn't unroadworthy as such so that might be different..

Mine failed a couple of weeks ago, the garage said I had 10 working days in which to get it retested. This took it past the actual end of the current MOT but they said that it didn't matter, I still had my 10 days grace.

10 days to get it retested – doesn't mean you could have driven it on the road after the current valid MOT had expired. In fact it has nothing at all to do with whether you're allowed to carry on driving it legally, just how long they'll allow before charging you for another test.

Well it failed. Garage man says it's safe to drive. MOT runs out on Tuesday and it's going back in on Monday for the work so I'll be using it over the weekend.

Got a ticket on the motorway for an expired MOT.
Was surprised I was allowed to drive away.
Seems insurance is not invaliadated by no MOT, police said so.
An roadworthy car with a valid MOT will invalidate the insurance

Mine failed on Tues – brakes pulling to one side. Garage couldn't work out what was wrong with the brakes, so I took it back the next day expecting a bill for a seized calliper. Got a phone call the next day, said they'd found a lip on one of the pads, filed it off, and now it's passed.
No charge for work or retest.
Which was nice 🙂