Tens of thousands of cars without MOT

OVER 40,000 cars have not renewed their MOT this year, Road Transport Department’s head, Sotiris Kolettas said yesterday.

In an effort to combat the problem the department have set up a service whereby they will send out SMS messages to remind people.

“These cars have an expired MOT and the road tax runs till December 31, 2011, but because the MOT has expired it means that automatically their road tax is suspended,” said Kolettas, clarifying that essentially these car owners have neither an MOT or road tax.

According to Kolettas if police catch them they will be charged for not having an MOT or road tax, because under current law a vehicle that does not have an MOT certificate is considered automatically suspended. The certificate must be renewed every two years.

Without an up to date MOT certificate and road tax, insurance companies may refuse to cover damages if the driver is in an accident.

“Every year we send written letters to all vehicle owners who have not renewed their MOT, but this costs and because it has to be sent to each person it is expensive,” said Kolettas. “We will send it this year too hopefully for the last time and we ask of them that, if they have no objection, for us to remind them via a SMS message,” he added.

The total number of vehicles registered by the end of 2010 had reached over 700,000.

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