Guidance

Record MOT retests

How to record retests on the MOT testing service.

This guidance was withdrawn on

This guidance has been withdrawn because it is out of date.

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Recording retests

The MOT testing service will show you if a vehicle is or isn’t eligible for a retest.

If a vehicle isn’t eligible then you’ll need to carry out a full test - you can charge the customer a full test fee.

Vehicles re-tested within 10 working days of the issue date of MOT refusal certificate (VT30) only need a retest on the failure items and their associated components.

Brake, emissions and headlamp retests

You may need to carry out another test and enter the readings into the MOT testing service if a vehicle fails any of the following:

  • brake test
  • headlamp test
  • emissions test

Failure items

During a valid retest the original failure items will be listed. Nominated testers (NTs) can remove failure items when they’re repaired by selecting the ‘Repaired’ button.

When all the failure items have been removed, NTs can issue the VT20 pass or VT30 failure certificate as required.

If additional failure items have been identified during a retest, they can be selected from the ‘reason for rejection’ (RfR) list.

Questions and feedback

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MOT testing service

Questions, comments and suggestions about the new MOT testing service being introduced by the MOT modernisation project.

Updates to this page

Published 15 March 2015
Last updated 7 January 2016 + show all updates
  1. Updated content to reflect switchover to MOT testing service.

  2. First published.

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