CAR MOT WARNING

[Cyclone]

On 05/03/2019 at 10:23, lingarth said:

I bought a car from a large reputable company in July of last year of which I have been very satisfied. I decided to check when the next service would be but could only find they had serviced it before I bought it and the MOT was due April 26th. I went on the DVLA website to see if the car had had any advisory’s and what they were. Imagine my total shock and horror to find the MOT stated January 2019, I had been driving around unaware that if stopped I could have had the car confiscated and left stranded, along with my disabled father of 92.

When contacted the ‘company’ said they had emailed me to say an MOT was due - this I totally dispute as I check emails each day along with ‘spam’ and why would they when their records stated April.

Now what I can’t understand is why, when the car was a 13 plate and therefore must have been registered sometime on or after March 2013 with the first MOT due March 2016, was it suddenly changed to be January.

Please, regardless of who you buy a car from, make sure you have a copy of the previous MOT certificate (something the ‘company’ did not provide me with) and go to the DVLA website and check the details.

Ignorance of a fact is not an excuse for breaking the law, and ‘‘tis can have dire consequences, I was lucky you might not be.MO

Ignoring the not received email, did they tell you when the MOT was due when you bought it?

[Janus]

Lingarth,

I think you started the thread to warn others not to end up in the same situation.

Unfortunately you have received quite a bit of criticism for your effort to help. Sorry to see that.

I am guessing that you trusted the garage regarding the MOT status. I guess it is easy to say that the absence of the MOT certificate at the time of purchase was an alert.

Just put it down to experience. Certainly I would now have doubts about the large garage being reputable as per OP. In my experience,  main dealers for example are the worst kind, but some people like to see main dealer stamps in the service history.
 

[L00b]

18 hours ago, ANGELFIRE1 said:

The digital age we are in has seemingly done away with most of our vehicle paperwork.

 

Angel1.

Not everywhere: carrying *all* the paperwork (reg cert, tax acquittal cert, insurance green card, MOT cert) is compulsory here in Luxembourg, and that's *originals only* for all of them, no copies allowed. 

 

Your car is impounded there and then, if you're missing any particular piece (or one is not an original) on a spot check. No joke, I'm seeing it happen time and time again on my commute.

 

Even though, in practical terms, everything (procedures, payments, registers, etc) is fully digitised like in the UK.

Edited March 7, 2019 by L00b