Could a garage refuse to release a dangerous car?

[EvianBaby]

This is only a hypothetical question but say you took your car in for an MOT and the garage found it to be completely unsafe to drive, could they by law refuse to return the car to you until the required repairs were made to make it safe again?

[flump1]

Indeed they can EvianBaby, they issue a red ticket that explains it all.

[barry1010]

You can of course remove it on the back of a low loader.

[AlBags]

Nope.
They can only ADVISE it is dangerous.

[Mamyalynne]

With a red refusal notice you may drive it away to a pre booked place of repair.

[Mamyalynne]

Which could also include your home.

[Kayless]

No they can only advise. They have no power to sieze a car. The red notice is an MOT failure, it has no other empowerments in law.

[Kayless]

Can you imagine the chaos if they could!?

[EvianBaby]

I just wondered after one of our vans failed today (nothing serious).

There a probably tons of cars driving round which should be nowhere near a road.

The fail notice (or pass cert. for that matter) isn't red any more either. They now look like something I've knocked up on word and printed off myself.

[AlBags]

Because NOTHING you get from your MOT garage is a certificate.
It's just a receipt.
Certificates are held by VOSA.

[Andyvon]

Suppose a vehicle is found to have steering or brake defects that are so serious the vehicle is an obvious danger to other road users. Surely the testing station then have some powers to prevent it being driven away?

[NOX]

No they don't they can only advise, you can also dispute and appeal the MOt fail on any vehicle, they've got no powers to impound a vehicle whatsoever.

[Zeuhl]

They do.

It's called phoning the police.

[Kayless]

no, they can only advise. The customer can take the car if they choose to. They can of course get prosecuted if the vehicle is deemed dangerous by plod even if on the way back from an MOT. These sorts of things are just too subjective to frame a law. There would be disputes every 5 minutes if garages where given powers that amount to forcing customers to give them work. It's the same in these tyre places, they can advise about illegal/unsafe tyres but at the end of the day they have no powers to stop the customer leaving.

[Andyvon]

"On the customer's head be it" I suppose.

[Kayless]

yes Andy, indeed. At least if something really is dangerous and the customer won't listen then, they can always phone the local plod as someone above said.