MOT certificates: hundreds of incorrect documents registered every day

Checking your MOT certificate is crucial, as mistakes can land you in hot water.

An MOT is a nervy time for most drivers. 

The wait to find out if your vehicle has managed to pass the various elements of the test and the trepidation over what the bill may be to fix any issues discovered is uncomfortable, to say the least.

But passing the MOT can bring with it its own issues should there be issues with the MOT certificate.

Leasefetcher, a car leasing comparison site, submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to get an idea of how frequently mistakes are made with the MOT certificates issued by the testing garage.

And it turns out to be a pretty common issue. The data covers January 2018 to the middle of this year and reveals that more than half a million MOT certificates had to be amended during this time period.

That works out at around 450 MOT certificates containing mistakes being submitted each and every day.

The most common MOT mistakes

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when mistakes are made on an MOT it is often related to the car’s mileage.

In fact, changing the odometer value accounted for just over half of the corrections made during the period covered by the data, coming to more than 285,000 amendments. That’s an astonishing number of drivers who are submitting their MOTs with incorrect mileage information.

This was followed by an amendment to the expiry date (18%) and the odometer unit has changed, for example from miles to kilometers, which accounted for a little under 10% of mistakes.

There have also been significant numbers of certificates that were filed with the incorrect car colour, make, model or even class.

Why mileage is recorded

Making a mistake with some form of official documentation isn’t exactly out of the ordinary. We are only human, and there will inevitably be times when we get something a little wrong when filing paperwork.

And more often than not, these mistakes don’t really make much of a difference. Yet a mistake on your MOT certificate ‒ particularly on your mileage ‒ can be costly.

The mileage was added to MOT certificates about a decade ago, in order to tackle the issue of ‘clocking’. This is where criminals would wind the odometer back, essentially as a way of making a car look ‘newer’ than it really was when selling.

As a result, when the MOT certificate is printed up, it contains not only the latest recorded mileage but also the mileage recorded on up to three previous MOTs.

The mileage itself can make a big difference to the value of a car when you come to sell it on. Leasefetcher reckons that effectively for every 20,000 miles your car covers, it loses around 20% of its value. 

As a result, having the incorrect mileage on your MOT could hurt the value of your car when you opt to sell it on. 

Alternatively, you could find yourself accused of ‘clocking’ should the person purchasing the vehicle find that it has actually covered far more miles than the MOT certificate suggests. And this could open up a thoroughly unpleasant legal can of worms.

In other words, an incorrect mileage recording could not only make selling your car harder, or force you to take a hit on the price you can get, it can also lead to dealings with the authorities.

Putting mistakes right

Clearly, it’s crucial that when you receive your MOT certificate, you check that the details are correct ‒ and particularly that the recorded mileage matches what your car’s odometer says.

If there are issues, then you need to move quickly. If it’s within 28 days of the test, then you can ask the garage to check the mileage. Should there be a mistake, they will then issue you with a new ‒ hopefully correct ‒ certificate.

However, if the MOT took place more than 28 days prior then you will need to report the mistake to the DVSA directly. 

You will need to send proof of the mileage. The Government recommends sending a copy of the invoice for the MOT, an emissions printout, a service receipt, or a vehicle job card from the MOT centre which will show what the mileage should be, as well as the date of the MOT.

This can then be emailed to motreplacement@dvsa.gov.uk.

This email address should also be used if you need to correct non-mileage errors with the MOT.