I need an MOT ASAP to tax the car as its now 3 years old.
I need tax but can't get it without MOT.
I don't want an automatic fine for not taxing the car.
Is there any grace period allowed or am I going to have to SORN it?

Jonathan (Disorganised as ever)

 

You dont need tax to get an MOT, you just can't drive the car on the road without tax. So could you get the car flat bedded to the dealer, get the MOT done then get the tax and drive home.

 

I think you get 14 days, but don't quote me on that....

 

You can drive a car to the MOT station as long as you have an appointment without tax.

As far as having no tax goes they can automatically issue you a fine on day 1 if they wish. The 'grace' period is not guaranteed, especially with the new computerized fines.

I would declare SORN if you don't know when you are to tax / MOT it.
You can still tax the car without the reminder etc, just take the V5, insurance and MOT certificate to the post office.

Be safe, avoid the fines to the greedy collectors.

You can declare the car SORN at the post office as well !!

 

I had some probs with tax/mot synchronisation last year on the volvo. When I got it it took some time to sort out the transfer of ownership and then when that was done, the MOT needed sorting. So basically I was a couple of months over the TAX date. Some grumpy old twat up the road complained about me parking outside his house (which was about 500m from my house and the closest I could park that day) and the next time we had to park there he shopped us to the DVLA or whoever sorts the tax.

Was up for a

 

As you say now that it's computerised the machine just spits out the tickets.

 

there is no official grace period, but the reality is that they give you about 14 days grace. this is supposed to be the period it take them to process paperwork if you declared it sorn before they can issue the computerised fine.

 

I think you can declare SORN online as well