Check both in seconds, for free
Whether a vehicle is taxed and whether it has a valid MOT are both public records. The DVLA holds the tax status of every registered vehicle and the DVSA holds every MOT result, and both can be checked by anyone using nothing but the registration number. You don't need the V5C logbook, the keeper's permission or any paperwork at all.
Enter the reg on our free reg check and you'll see the tax status, the tax due date, the MOT status and the MOT expiry date together on one page, alongside the full MOT test history. It's worth doing for your own car as much as one you're thinking of buying: there are no paper reminders for either any more, and the renewal dates are easy to lose track of.
Reading the tax result
A tax check returns one of three statuses:
- Taxed: the vehicle is legal to use on the road (as far as tax goes) until the expiry date shown. Remember that tax runs to the end of a calendar month.
- SORN: the keeper has declared the vehicle off the road with a Statutory Off Road Notification. It pays no tax but cannot be driven or even parked on a public road, except straight to or from a pre-booked MOT test. Our car tax guide covers SORN in detail.
- Untaxed: the vehicle has neither tax nor a SORN. If it's being kept or used on a public road, the keeper is already liable for penalties; enforcement is automatic, run by computer against the DVLA's records.
One date deserves special attention: if the tax expired recently and the vehicle is up for sale, that's often simply because tax no longer transfers between keepers, and the previous keeper's tax was refunded when they sold it. It becomes the buyer's job to tax the car before driving it home.
Reading the MOT result
The MOT check shows whether the vehicle currently holds a valid certificate and when it runs out. A few things to keep in mind when reading it:
- No MOT shown for a young car is normal. A vehicle needs its first MOT three years after first registration, so a two-year-old car will have no test history yet.
- An expired MOT means the car can't legally be driven, except to or from a pre-booked test or to a garage for repairs found at a test. A seller offering to let you drive away a car with no MOT is putting the risk on you.
- The expiry date matters when negotiating. A test due within a month or two is a real cost with a real chance of failure: check the last test's advisories to see what's likely to come up.
- Passing an MOT doesn't mean the car is good. It means it met minimum roadworthiness standards on one day. The history tells you far more than the current status: see how to read an MOT history.
The penalties for driving without tax or MOT
- Untaxed: an automatic DVLA fine for the keeper, a penalty of up to £1,000 for using the vehicle plus back-tax owed, and the vehicle can be clamped or impounded with release fees on top.
- No MOT: a fine of up to £1,000, rising to £2,500 and penalty points if the vehicle is found to be dangerous.
- Insurance: driving without a valid MOT will usually invalidate your insurance, which is a far bigger problem than either fine. Driving uninsured brings a fixed penalty, six points and possible seizure of the car.
Police forces use ANPR cameras that check tax, MOT and insurance automatically as you drive past, so “I'll sort it next week” is a genuinely bad plan.
The traps when buying a used car
Two misunderstandings catch buyers out again and again. First, tax never comes with the car: since October 2014 the seller's tax is refunded automatically when the keeper changes, so however the advert is worded, you must tax the car yourself (online, using the reference in the V5C new keeper slip) before driving it away. Second, “MOT until next year” tells you almost nothing about condition; read the history, not the status.
Before viewing any car, run the reg through our free check and work through the rest of the used car buying checklist. Five minutes at home filters out most of the cars you'd regret travelling to see.