road tax

[5lab]

hi guys

i recently drove my (sorn) car to a local garage for an MOT (which is the only place you're allowed to drive a sorn car too), however whilst it was *there* they parked it on the road and i got a ticket saying that it had been spotted without a tax disc and reported. does anyone know where i stand? i didnt park the car on the road, so surely i'm not liable for a fine?

Hugh

[George Holmer]

It seems to me a nice letter to the DVLA explaining the situation should do it. My father-in-law once declared his old Ford Granada SORN and then left for Germany with instructions to me to sell it. I drove it and got stopped but I never paid a penny, simply wrote to the DVLA and explained.


George

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'95 Volvo 945 Polar LPT
'87 Volvo 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler
'86 Jaguar Sovereign 4.2

[Clifford Pope]

It's a nice point. If they got sticky I suppose they could argue it was not actually being driven to or from an MOT. Nor could it be argued that the garage were driving it at the time, so it wouldn't be covered by their trade plates or whatever kind of exemption they have. It's potentially more serious than the fine, because you could in theory be liable for all the "unpaid" tax back to when it's last tax disk expired.
I think I'd try the line that it was actually in the middle of being tested, but the tester parked it in the road temporarily for some kind of operational reason, such as clearing access or fetching a test instrument.
Keep us posted - I'm a bit worried by this one!

BTW there is in fact another little-known exemption to the "pre-booked MOT" one. You are allowed to drive an untaxed car to a garage in order to have work carried out FOR an MOT, not simply the MOT itself. That could for example be a specialist body shop who may not actually do MOTs themselves.

[warthog]

'BTW there is in fact another little-known exemption to the "pre-booked MOT" one. You are allowed to drive an untaxed car to a garage in order to have work carried out FOR an MOT, not simply the MOT itself. That could for example be a specialist body shop who may not actually do MOTs themselves.'

I assume that this doesn't cover a car with a red prohibition notice on it following an MOT failure (in which case I thought it wasn't allowed on the road at all until the 'red' defects had been rectified). The vehicle would therefore have to be transported on a trailer etc. to the specialist repairer.

Is this correct?

[Clifford Pope]

Yes, of course, I think you are right. Incidentally that applies even to the MOT exemption - the car has to be roadworthy. So if a SORNed car fails its MOT on anything more major than a technicality strictly it shouldn't be driven home.

I was thinking more of the scenario where someone is doing a major restoration, but needs to get a specialist to do some of the work before the car can be in a state ready to be MOTed. It could, subject these provisos, be driven to the garage, home, and then later to the MOT.
I've never tested this however, and I'd be cautious about the obvious grey areas.