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Does no MOT invalidate Insurance ?

(21 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by dessert rat
  • Latest reply from Frenchy
  • This topic is not resolved

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  1. dessert rat
    Member

    Been having an ongoing email discourse with local Council and Police about an abandoned car nr the office in Newhaven. Been there +6 months and looks worse for wear.

    It is taxed and insured according the police, but has no MOT - so my point is that surely no MOT invalidates the insurance, therefore it shouldn't be on public highway. Police say otherwise "it's the individual insurance companies decision as to whether the vehicle remains covered or not whilst it has no MOT".

    Anyone heard of insurance that is valid with no MOT ? I can't believe that is correct.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. CycleCommute.CC
    Member

    My wife had an insurance claim years ago on a vehicle when her MOT had lapsed. Was a bit nervous waiting for the payment but they stumped up and I'm sure they could easily have spotted the MOT had run out.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    You can drive a car with no MoT as long as you're going to the nearest MoT test station. So it is instantiated that not having an MoT does not invalidate insurance.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. dessert rat
    Member

    IWRATS - have been Googling. So you can only drive without an MOT when going to the MOT station, but you can park it on the road seemingly forever. wow.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    I think your car could quite legally sit on your driveway without an MOT. You'd still want to insure it I guess?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Iain McR

    A stationary car with no MoT is no more or less dangerous that a car with an MoT?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. neddie
    Member

    MoT failure points that could be dangerous on a stationary vehicle:

    - faulty handbrake
    - sharp edges (e.g. rust holes, crash damage)
    - fuel leaks
    - brake fluid leaks

    Maybe some others...?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Maybe some others...?

    Could go septic?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. dessert rat
    Member

    @Edinburgh Cycle Training - pretty sure that even on your own drive or garage you need to SORN it, if not taxed. I can't see how it is possibly allowed on a public road.

    @ IWARTS - more or less dangerous not really the issue i don't think. Surely something along the lines of requirements to use (be on) a highway ?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. urchaidh
    Member

    When does it stop being a 'vehicle' and just become a pile of someone's stuff that they've dumped there, albeit in this case a pile of spare car parts?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. gkgk
    Member

    I suppose it can't stay insured for more than 12 months w/o an MOT.

    Similar vehicle outside my flat. I like it very much, does an excellent blocking job. I wish my street had more of these long-term parked cars, good for air quality. I can see the negatives start to kick in if it makes the street look lawless. I should pop out and give it a wash.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. gembo
    Member

    Need to pay road tax tho to park on the road. My sister in law was given a car and she left it parked outside her house and when the tax elapsed she was fined. This was a while back and the car was an old banger. Taken to crusher in the end I believe though Mrs garto has entirely different recollection from long long ago (I am however correcticus Potts)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. Frenchy
    Member

    Had a conversation with a police officer about related issues today. They confirmed that a parked car doesn't need an MOT, it's only once it is being driven that an offence occurs (with the exception of driving to an MOT appointment). Police also don't deal with SORN vehicles still being on the road (DVLA's responsibility), and say that a vehicle being parked on a footpath (but not completely obstructing it) is not something they can deal with.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. remberbuck
    Member

    The police are correct.

    The insurer's decision to acquire risk from a potential insured party is a simple commercial decision completely outwith law, although the consequences of the later contract may fall within normal law.

    That is not to say there will be consequences for the level of premium. reflecting the risk if such vehicles are involved in incidents giving rise to an insurance claim, or indeed some criminal charge.

    Farm vehicles are routinely insured for many risks, yet do not need MOTs if used only in fields or the farmstead.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  15. gembo
    Member

    @rememberbuck what does the farmer do if he is banging along the main road between fields in his tractor? Does he or she if a female farmer or other nomenclature if gender fluid farmer get the tractor an MOT?

    Posted 5 years ago #

  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    a simple commercial decision completely outwith law

    Yikes.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  17. Blueth
    Member

    The "farmer" does not even need a driving licence if the law is still as it was whereby an underage family member could drive on the highway between plots of land "owned" by the farm.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  18. remberbuck
    Member

    @gembo, a tractor on a public road becomes just as any other vehicle.

    I suspect many "shortcuts" would be taken.

    There's loads of such anomalies lying around. The good news is life goes on unhindered.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  19. Frenchy
    Member

    @Blueth - I don't think that's true now, although you can get a tractor license at 16 (possibly with weight limits on the tractor and trailer).

    Posted 5 years ago #

  20. gembo
    Member

    On the A701 you often see the old Massey Fergusson tractors rallying. a sight to behold. I doubt an MOT amongst the twenty of them.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  21. Frenchy
    Member

    @rememberbuck - tractors can be driven on the road without an MOT:

    "Vehicle used only to pass from land occupied
    by the person keeping the vehicle to other land
    occupied by them, and not travelling on the
    road for more than a total of 6 miles a week."

    I suspect there are many, many such vehicles doing significantly more than 6 miles/week on the road, mind.

    Posted 5 years ago #

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