Lost your MOT certificate? You can now print it out at home

A new online service allows motorists to get duplicate MOT certificates for their car or van, free of charge.

The service could save drivers around £6m a year.

Previously, if the original document was lost or damaged and you needed a replacement -- for example when selling the vehicle -- you had to visit a test centre and pay £10 for new one.

In 2018, more than 636,000 duplicate MOT certificates were issued in England, Scotland and Wales. That's about 2% of all MOT tests done each year.

The new service launched this month allows vehicle owners to view and save their MOT certificate as a PDF, and print a copy if they need one.

The service is available at http://www.gov.uk/replace-mot-certificate. To use it, you'll need to enter your vehicle's registration number and the 11-digit reference number from its V5C logbook.

"We knew from feedback from motorists that there was a need to make obtaining duplicates easier -- having to physically go to garages was seen as a real burden," explained Grant Thunder, MOT testing service product specialist at the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency).

"Longer term, we want to help motorists understand that they don't need the paper certificate most of the time. But in the meantime, we were hearing that there needed to be a better way of getting a duplicate."

Roads minister Jesse Norman, quoted by Auto Express, said the move was "part of a Government drive to keep costs down for motorists and remove unnecessary barriers to getting out and about safely".

All certificates issued since 20 May 2018 will be available on the service -- including both passes and fails.

Owners of cars, vans and motorcycles can access the service immediately, while certificates for lorries, buses and coaches will be available online later in 2019.

You may also be interested in finding out when it is legal to drive without an MOT certificate and you can read about this here. 

For information on getting a quote visit our car insurance page.