Last Updated on May 27, 2023
Hopefully you know if your own car has tax MOT or insurance, but there might be occasions when it would be useful to be able to find out if somebody else’s car is legal. So how is it possible to find out if a third-party vehicle is legal, if you don’t have access to their paperwork (which of course you don’t).
So why would you need to find out these things? Maybe you caught somebody driving aggressively near you on your dash cam, maybe you were involved in a traffic collision and the other car drove off, or maybe you are a pedestrian or cyclist who was threatened by a driver. Any of these occasions would be a good scenario for wanting to find out if a vehicle has tax insurance or an MOT.
in the case of a traffic collision, or perhaps a minor incident on private land (like a supermarket carpark) you might need to find out who is the insurer of the third-party vehicle, especially if the person who has driven into your car or caused the incident has driven away without giving you their insurance details.
How to find out if someone else’s car has tax and a valid MOT.
It is surprisingly easy to check a car has a valid MOT certificate and is taxed, in fact, the British government happily gives this information out on an official government website.
In fact, checking, this information is surprisingly easy. The UK government website receives praise around the world for how efficient and simple it is to use to check a vehicle simply visit the government vehicle enquiry website. Click here to visit it now.
Simply press the start button, then enter the numberplate of the vehicle you wish to check. You will then be asked to confirm the make and model of the vehicle you wish to find information for, don’t worry if you are unsure of the make or model because the website also asked you to confirm the colour.
I have used this service several times over the years to check my own road tax and MOT just to be sure I don’t accidentally forget to deal with either. I recommend everybody use this website occasionally because with numberplate recognition software in police traffic vehicles, the chances of getting caught if you accidentally forget to refresh your tax or MOT are high. If you are a law-abiding vehicle owner, getting a fine (or worse) through accidental negligence would be infuriating.
How to find out who insures a vehicle that you have been in an incident with.
Unfortunately, checking who insures a third-party vehicle isn’t as straightforward and easy as checking for tax or a valid MOT certificate, but it is possible.
AskMID is a service that reports on who insures vehicles. The cost for running a search is currently £10, which is disappointing because this type of service must save the insurance industry a lot of money, but we have come to expect the car insurance industry to squeeze every last penny out of us that it possibly can. But I can’t help feel that the world would be a fair replace if the car insurance industry were to foot the bill for the service.
interestingly, you can check your own car insurance for free with this service, which strikes me as unusual. I wonder if you can enter a third-party numberplate and still get the information for free, probably not. I also suspect that adding any numberplate to this website, will pop up a red flag with any insurer .
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