MOT or Road Tax which comes first?

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
2

Hi

I’ve had the MX5 SORN over winter and let the MOT lapse as I wanted it to be done at a better time of year (May rather than February) as it does’t go out when it is wet never mind salt on the roads. 

My question is do I have to get Road Tax before I can drive to the MOT station?

MX5 NB

To sell or not to sell… that’s the other thing I’m pondering!

Cheers

Simon

3

You can’t tax it without a valid MOT, you can drive it to or from a pre booked MOT test station or place of repair

4

You can’t tax a car until it is insured and has an MOT.

Insure it first, then you can drive it to a PREBOOKED appointment at the MOT centre. If it fails you can then drive it to a ‘place of repair’ and back to the MOT centre.

As soon as you have the MOT you must tax it before taking it on the road.

5

Thanks.

That is how I thought it worked however what through me off was that I went on the Gov MOT Status Checker (unsurprisingly it states I need a MOT) and a comment said it has to be Road Taxed before it goes on the road.

Thanks again.

Simon

6

The easy way to find out for sure is to try and tax it online. 99.9% sure it will not allow you to as the MOT has expired.

7

Good point!

1 Like
8

Yes, this correct - the website checks electronically if there’s a valid MOT certificate. I don’t know why they even bother giving you a piece of paper anymore!

9

Thet piece of paper you get these days is an MOT receipt.

When I trade a car in a few years ago the garage asked for the MOT certificate. I said it is only a receipt but they demainded the piece of paper but as advised above it is the electronic part of the business that allows you to tax the car. Gets a bit confusing.

10

Has something changed in the last few months then? I had my NC MoT’d last August and I got a MoT certificate. When I sold my daily driver at the end of December I handed over an MoT certificate…

 

11

When I had my Fiesta MOT’d recently I got a certificate too…

12

All done now. MOT’d and Road Taxed.

I came away from the MOT feeling very chuffed as the car sailed through and the tester remarked about the condition of the car saying he couldn’t believe what good condition the car was in. He said it is totally rust free he commented on the brake lines, not even any rust on them.

Well I knew all that but it’s still nice when someone else notices: )

13

I have just discovered that you can’t actually tax a car even with a valid MoT if said MoT expires before the VD period starts.

I wanted to do my wife’s VED a few days ago before I forgot. VED runs out 31 May. I have had to wait until the car was tested today because the MoT was due to expire on 29 May.

 

EDIT - to be clear, I meant of course my wife’s car VED - there is no requirement (yet) to pay VED on wives.

14

EDIT - to be clear, I meant of course my wife’s car VED - there is no requirement (yet) to pay VED on wives.

 

Barrie

15

Pleased that your car passed the new MOT standards.

16

Nothing new there - that’s always been the case.  MOT must be valid on the day the vehicle VED starts, but it could expire the next day(!)

JS

17

At least with a car you stop paying VED when they are 40 years old. With a wife…

18

Give Hammond time…

JS