The police tell me this is illegal and will invalidate the insurance on the tow-car as well.
Therefore if I want to tow my old SIII Landy to a garage for repair work, prior to an MOT, can I just get a short term third party insurance cover and nothing else?
Obviously I cannot get a tax disk prior to a successful MOT, and what if the garage where I'm having the repair work carried out is not an MOT centre?
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Are we talking about towing on a rope or on a trailer here?
If the latter then I'm seriously confused.
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Are we talking about towing on a rope or on a trailer here? If the latter then I'm seriously confused.
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On a rope, surely. If its on a trailer its just cargo. But what if its towed with one of those A-frame devices?
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Or with just the front wheels off the ground? Perhaps you only have to insure the rear half in that case?
More seriously, if the law states that you cannot tow an insured vehicle to a garage to get it repaired, why? What does this achieve? What ill does this prevent?
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Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to get the garage to tow it to their premises?
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Hire a trailer for about £30.
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You used to be able to drive a car without a valid MOT to a testing station provided that an appointment had been made, but I doubt if it applies now.
I would assume that being towed with a driver at the wheel would be illegal in both the case of no MOT or insurance, but if on a trailer or suspended from the front or rear on some form of hoist and with no driver then there will be no problem.
However, from:
www.insureyourmotor.com/car-insurance/the-road-tra...p
Third party liabilities. This is a key section in relation to UK car insurance laws. Section 143 deals with compulsory insurance or security against third party risks and users of cars to be insured against third party risks.
This part of the act says that persons should not use a car on the road without car insurance, that a person should not let others drive their car without car insurance. Breach of these points is an offence. The word 'use' is much wider than just driving it. The presence on the road is sufficient to constitute use.
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For example towing a broken vehicle is termed as use. In the case of Brown v Roberts (1963) a driver was the 'user' when his passenger opened a door into a pedestrian.
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You can still drive a car without an MOT to a testing station for it to be tested. But it probably hasn't got tax to go with it, (which you need even if you tow it) and you run the risk of hundreds of pounds worth of fines for that.
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>>The police tell me this is illegal and will invalidate the insurance on the tow-car as well.
Conceivably this has changed, but I think the police are wrong, or overly simplistic, since it depends on how you were towing it.
If I remember correctly, and I may not its been a while, its down to whether or not the towed vehicle needs to be driven/steered. If its steering wheels are off the ground, then I think that you may tow it whatever its own legal state is.
Otherwise you would have the AA checking the insurance status of every car before they'd pull it off the motorway.
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Well, I suspect that the sort of insurance the AA has will cover their men comprehensively for any vehicle they're driving & so by implication towing?
Does the steering wheels bit get round the tax disc?
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Providing an appointment has been pre-booked at the Testing Garage then it is in order to drive a motor vehicle (mpv) to the Garage for the purposes of this test without a Test Certificate or Road Fund Licence. Further it also covers the return home or to place repairs to be made to make it MOT passable..
Towing a vehicle with its wheels on the road whilst exempting the above DOESN'T do the same in relation to Insurance, irrespective of going for the test or general towing. It requires Insurance. Whilst the towed vehicle becomes a "trailer" it still remains a motor vehicle (Milstead v Sexton 1964).
Unless of course it has been rendered in such a state that it can no longer be classed as a motor vehicle/owner has no intention of putting it back on the road as such.
DVD
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I think insurance is the only issue here. It has been well established in previous threads that a car does not need tax if it is being taken to a pre-booked MOT, or to a garage where work is going to be carried out for an MOT. This can be any garage in the country, not necessarily the nearest.
The insurance question would hang (!pun just noticed) on whether the "car" was still a motor vehicle or had become a "trailer", which of course would then be covered by the towing car's insurance.
I remember a previous thread where someone established and quoted precedents for the rule that if the intention was to turn a non-working car back into running order, then it was still a car, even if minus wheels, engine, etc.
I would either:
a) if in remote rural area, known friendly police, short distance, etc, risk it
or b) borrow a trailer
or c) get the garage to pick it up.
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Cliff states
>>>>>This can be any garage in the country, not necessarily the nearest.>>>>>>
Whilst it says nothing in the Act against this somewhere in the rusty sections on my brain is that a High Court decision was made to the contrary when I seem to recall someone went on a holiday all the way up to Scotland without Tax because an MOT had been booked.
I've searched in vain to locate the reference but have been unable to do so.
P.U. any comment?
DVD
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And DVD, what about the rusty sections of the car? Doesn't it have to be roadworthy?
If I saw this being towed on the roads, and I were plod, I'd want to pull it over, even if it were being taken to an MOT test centre.
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...1
So does this mean that if I buy a car (sans tax/MOT) that is in the West Country, and book an MOT for it near my house and drive it there I'm OK? So what if I stop at my house instead, & cancel the MOT test, and then get break it as I want.
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Cliff Pope says that an untaxed / mot less car need not be driven to the nearest test station for testing. When I did the testers course I was told that in such circumstances the test must be pre-booked at the nearest testing station. In a previous thread someone pointed out that legally, the car can be driven only for the purpose of testing / repair / retesting. This means the nearest testing station. Driving past testing stations en route to the one of your choice can only mean that the car is being driven for reasons other than testing.
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Just out of interest is the vehicle presently registered as SORN or are you especting the fine shortly. If a garage collects the vehicle they stick trade plates on it, problem solved. And you have to use a local test station, Regards Peter
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The Landy has been SORNicated, but is suffering rust to the front spring mounts and the front indicators do not work. Its a bit of a restoration project, which I suppose is car seller speak for POS (anyone want to buy it?)
I have a local LR specialist just up the road but it's not an MOT station and is just one old guy. I would be towing it by rope with someone "driving" the towed car.
So effectively, I could get short term insurance cover, tow it to garage and then drive it to an MOT station.
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I have a friend who regularly uses the "any MOT tester" line and it works. He has on two occasions been stopped by police, but OK'd after they checked that the test really was booked.He often buys cars long distances away, and then brings them back to his local mechanic for fixing or testing.
But the journey really does have to be for the purpose of going to or from an MOT. Taking in a holiday or some shopping would be pushing your luck.
As for the "or driving to a garage to have MOT work carried out" extension of the concession - it says that on an official notice in the MOT station.
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As pointed out many times on this site a car is roadworthy at the time the MOT examination is over and it passes. Within 24 hours it can become unroadworthy for a number of things as Cartographer points out.
With the Landy - depending on the state of the rusty spring mounts then it is possible that parts and accessories are in such condition as likely to cause danger - an offence and also indicators not maintained in good working order - offence. So no matter how the vehicle is taken to the MOT Station other than by a trailer these offences remain.
I have found my reference re movement to TS without Excise Licence. It is not a High Court decision but contained as an opinion in a much respected Law Book - Wilkinsons Road Traffic Offences. It mentions that the exemption from duty is where a vehicle is soley used for the purpose of going to/away from place of test or repair and states " This appears to prevent an impecunious holiday maker in London from arranging for his car carrying him and his family on holiday to Cornwall to be tested in Penzance and thus exempting the vehicle from being taxed". As a similar exemption applies in relation to MOT then I presume the same will apply.
DVD
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Of course the greater risk to the impecunious holidaymaker is that the car might pass its MOT test in Penzance. Unable then to book a test in London to justify the return trip, they would have to stay in Cornwall. Aarrghhh!
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A shrewd-but-impecunious holidaymaker might take out a lightbulb and so guarantee the car's failing.
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Yes, obviously, but then I can't work an insult to Penzance into the post.
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