Is my car insurance valid without an MOT?

Is my car insurance still valid if my MOT expires?

In most cases, you won’t be covered by your car insurance if you drive without an up-to-date MOT.

Insurance providers require your car to be safe and roadworthy as a condition of your policy. This usually includes having a valid MOT certificate.

If you let your MOT lapse, it means you’ll be breaking the law twice: firstly, by driving without a valid MOT and secondly, for driving without valid insurance.

If your car’s current MOT expiry date has passed and your insurance is up for renewal, you should talk to your insurance provider. They may offer to renew your policy if you get your car MOT done as soon as possible.

Can you insure your car without an MOT?

There are some circumstances where you can get car insurance without an MOT certificate. You won’t need an MOT if:

• Your car is less than three years old. New cars don’t need an MOT until the third anniversary of their original registration date.

• You’re driving the car to a pre-booked MOT test. You’ll need proof of the booking if you’re stopped by police though.

• You own a classic car over 40 years old. It will need to be kept in a roadworthy condition and not have undergone any major modifications in the past 30 years.

If you’re not exempt from having an MOT, you’ll need a valid test certificate for your vehicle to be legal.

Can I claim on my car insurance if I don’t have an MOT?

If you don’t have a valid MOT certificate and it’s a requirement of your policy, your insurance will be invalidated and you won’t be able to make a claim.

You’ll have to pay for any repairs to your car out of your own pocket and you’ll be responsible for any damage to other cars too. Plus, if you’re in an accident or get pulled over, the police can charge you for driving without valid insurance and with an expired MOT.

If having an MOT isn’t a condition of your policy, then it will be up to the assessor that handles your claim to decide if your car was roadworthy at the time of the claim. To make that decision, they’ll have to conduct a more thorough investigation to gather evidence about the state of the car. At the very least this is likely to make the claims process longer and more complicated.

Even if your insurance provider decides that your car was roadworthy and your insurance is valid, you’ll probably get a lower pay-out if your car is written off or stolen. That’s because your car will automatically drop in value if it doesn’t have a valid MOT certificate.

What if I’m involved in an accident with another driver who doesn’t have a valid MOT?

If you’re in an accident that wasn’t your fault and the other car involved doesn’t have a valid MOT, then your insurance provider may still be able to claim damages through the other driver’s car insurance.

It’s going to be a trickier process if their policy is invalidated by not having an MOT, but it would be inappropriate for their insurance provider to refuse to pay out for third-party damage in this case. If the insurance provider doesn’t pay, the driver will be responsible for paying for the damage.

Find out what to do if you’re in an accident with an uninsured driver.

How to check if your car has a valid MOT

You can check the MOT status of your car on the gov.uk website. Just enter your vehicle registration number to find out if your MOT is valid.

You can also sign up for gov.uk’s free MOT reminder service to get a text or email a month before your vehicle is due for its MOT. Otherwise, you can ask your local garage or MOT test centre to remind you when your next MOT is due.

Compare garages near you and see if you could save on the cost of MOTs, services and repairs with no upfront payments.

What happens if I drive without a valid MOT?

It’s illegal to drive a car without a valid MOT. If the police catch you, they can fine you up to £1,000.

A poll by Halfords found that almost a quarter of drivers admitted driving a vehicle without a valid MOT in the year to March 2023. This equates to around 9.3 million motorists, yet police forces across the country issued fewer than 17,000 fines in total.

However, never assume that the police won’t catch you in the act. Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are common in police cars and on the roadside.

They can run your car registration through the national database and immediately tell if your car doesn’t have a valid MOT certificate or you haven’t paid your car tax.

Can I drive without insurance to get an MOT?

You need valid car insurance to drive your car, even if it’s just to a pre-booked MOT and back. You could face a fixed penalty of £300 and six penalty points on your driving licence if you’re caught driving a vehicle without insurance.

In the worst-case scenario, your car could be seized, you could face an unlimited fine and you could be disqualified from driving. So, it’s definitely not worth the risk.

Because of a rule known as continuous insurance enforcement, your car must be insured at all times, even when you’re not driving it. That’s unless it’s declared ‘off road’ with a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).

Can I drive a SORN car without insurance to an MOT?

You won’t need an MOT certificate or insurance if your vehicle is parked on private property and has been declared officially off road with a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).

But as soon as you want to remove the SORN and drive your car again, you’ll need to pay road tax, have valid insurance in place and renew your MOT certificate, if it’s expired.

If your annual car insurance policy has expired, and you don’t want to commit to a new annual policy before you know whether the car will pass its MOT, you could get temporary car insurance.