Documents required for MOT in England

[Simon J]

Circumstances require me to get my Northern Ireland car MOT'd in England later this year and I was wondering what documents one is required to produce. In NI we have to bring along our V5 and our old MOT certificate. Is it the same in England?

[DWM]

I've never taken anything except the old MoT certificate myself (and that only because if you do it up to a month early they can issue new one so that it will be valid for 12 months from the date of expiry of the old one if you bring it along), but not sure if technically you should have anything else. Don't think so though.

[Simon J]

Thanks for the speedy reply. That's what I thought, but was just wanting to be sure (to be sure!)

[Michael J]

I don't think you have to produce any. The inspector can read the VIN off the vehicle. Don't take my word for it though.

You do need insurance and license to drive it to/from the test station, but you don't have to own it. If you do have the old MOT then you can get a "13 month" certificate (provided the old one still has a month to run).

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by Simon J

Circumstances require me to get my Northern Ireland car MOT'd in England later this year and I was wondering what documents one is required to produce. In NI we have to bring along our V5 and our old MOT certificate. Is it the same in England?

you + car + method of payment (cash/c card) is it
the reg/colour/vin are all taken from the car, the Last mot dates are on the system, (as are the last if any advisorys)

as DWM says you will need insurance and tax , and If the MOT has expired before you goto the test center you Will need to have made an appointment Before hand for the MOT to be done (ie , phone em, name/reg/time of appointment, and be either directly on the way to or from said test appointment ,or you risk a "driving without a current MOT" no diverts via asda/etc )

[hawklord]

I took a friend's car for an MOT and realised I'd left the documents wallet at home, after I got there. Ooops!

Turned out I didn't need anything but means of payment, as it was all on the dateabases that they can call up.

Seems to me that, these days, in the UK, vehicle reg is an open sesame to all of the checks. I don't know that I quite like that.

[Simon J]

Thanks guys. It does seem to be pretty straightforward but probably best to have the V5 with me as that gives all the info needed to create a new record on the GB system. The car will be taxed but technically it doesn't need to be if it's on its way to a previously made appointment for the MOT test. But I'll be coming off the Eurostar the previous evening so theoretically I could get done for no MOT as I wouldn't be going directly to the appointment until the next morning, but hopefully that's a slim chance when there's a valid tax disc on the screen.

P.S. And I think there's little likelihood of getting done in an NI registered car for no MOT anyway. I suspect the penalty would be unenforceable (in practical terms at least) as the two vehicle registration systems aren't integrated and it would be more trouble than it'd be worth to chase me down.

[migrator]

The ANPR camera system is linked to the MOT database amongst others. When the car reg is 'captured' a check is done on UK Tax, MOT and Insurance databases. Being 'absent' from any one of them could get you 'pulled'. I imagine that routes from ferry ports and Eurostar would be well policed with these units.

[rogerthechorister]

I am aware of a car having been inadvertently and innocently used for several months with no tax - and the DVLA in retrospect at first erroneously said that they had no ability to tax it - often along a road with multiple multiple cameras - no rude letters.

[Simon J]

I don't think there is yet any common UK data base for these checks. MOT and tax are certainly separate in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, although I imagine the insurance database is UK wide. So my car wouldn't appear as not having a current MOT, it simply wouldn't show up on the GB MOT data base at all.