NCT shock!

Wanderer2010

Ok, apologies if this has been asked a lot before but a reply would be much appreciated. I left my NCT over a year before doing it again (my disc said 05-11, so since May last year its been out of date). Anyway I booked it for a full test, it came back clean but for one minor bulb defection. I fixed that, handed it back for the visual retest and it passed.

I fully expected them to give me a cert which backdated to 05-12, as everyone I know including mechanics say the NCT always backdate, however he gave me 05-13 so i legged it with a smile on my face!

Will this come back to haunt me, surely the guy just made a mistake and I will get a letter asking for a full retest for an updated cert, I just get the feeling that he made a system error, it will be flagged and I will have to return, or even next yr it will show up that I got the wrong cert.

What do you think, is it too early to celebrate??

wexie

.....that is backdated isn't it??

if your car is less than 10 years old you still get NCT certs for 2 years no?

or has this changed again?

Yawns

BLEH mis read the op.

Yawns

I misread and did a completely different post above which I edited .

What you received is a back dated cert assuming the car is less than 10 years old. If you had brought the car to be tested when due you would have got a cert for 05-13. Even now you only get 05 - 13. However if you brought the car to be tested in say 03-13 instead of today, you would have missed the back dated issue and would have instead been issued with the next due date of 05 -15 assuming it's on 05 year car.

Yawns

OP is the car over 10 years?

Wanderer2010

wexie wrote: »

.....that is backdated isn't it??

if your car is less than 10 years old you still get NCT certs for 2 years no?

or has this changed again?

The car is 1998 so i would only get a year from the NCT, however my question is since I havent got an NCT since May 2011 surely another test would just bring me up to May 2012, but he handed me a cert for May 2013!

Yawns

Strange one alright.

Yawns

Generally if you miss a test date but bring it within 3 months of the new test date coming, you will receive a cert for the coming year.

wexie

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

The car is 1998 so i would only get a year from the NCT, however my question is since I havent got an NCT since May 2011 surely another test would just bring me up to May 2012, but he handed me a cert for May 2013!

maybe they just figured it'd be nonsense to hand you a cert that was already outdated (which it would be) and applied some common sense? They could hardly give you a cert till 05-2012 and send you around to the front desk to pay for another test to bring you up to date?

So you got a cert from 05-2012 maybe and you just skipped a year?

Wanderer2010

wexie wrote: »

maybe they just figured it'd be nonsense to hand you a cert that was already outdated (which it would be) and applied some common sense? They could hardly give you a cert till 05-2012 and send you around to the front desk to pay for another test to bring you up to date?

Thats exactly what I expected them to do because my workmates, my mechanic amd a few of my mates are adamant the NCT will always backdate because if it was the case that you left your car a few years without doing your NCT then you did it and they dated it for the next year then everyone would be doing that?? With the amount of people who can barely afford petrol or car maintenance I would have thought the whole NCT system was watertight in that if you miss a year, you get backdated and them have to go through another test to get up to date.

leeroybrown

In that case whoever did it was probably being nice because your car would pass and they've a lot of bookings in that centre. Fair play to them. They saved you a few quid. :-)

kasper

if a car over ten years old with no current test passes its nct the certificate it receives is valid until its next birthday (date when the car was first registered)

Chris_Heilong

That backdating is absolutely bonkers, either your car is road worthy or not. They should just charge extra for the tests it has missed.

Anyway, you may have gotten luck OP, enjoy.

kermitpwee

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Ok, apologies if this has been asked a lot before but a reply would be much appreciated. I left my NCT over a year before doing it again (my disc said 05-11, so since May last year its been out of date). Anyway I booked it for a full test, it came back clean but for one minor bulb defection. I fixed that, handed it back for the visual retest and it passed.

I fully expected them to give me a cert which backdated to 05-12, as everyone I know including mechanics say the NCT always backdate, however he gave me 05-13 so i legged it with a smile on my face!

Will this come back to haunt me, surely the guy just made a mistake and I will get a letter asking for a full retest for an updated cert, I just get the feeling that he made a system error, it will be flagged and I will have to return, or even next yr it will show up that I got the wrong cert.

What do you think, is it too early to celebrate??

The date you got is the date you should have got, you didn't get anything special, how could they give you a date from the past? If you had tested the car in 5-11 you would be tested up till 5-13. You have been backdated alrite as you only got your test till 5-13. The rules for over 10 year old cars was not in in 5-11 so your next test would expire on the 5-13 regardless of when you got it done as it goes on the registration of the car.
You haven't beat the system and your mechanic musn't have a brain in his head!

To explain a little more, there was a cut off date in june or july for cars over 10 years old getting tests for 2 years in 2011. If you had tested you car in may 11 you would have got a test till may 13. Now if you had left it after the deadline then you would have got a test to may 12. That test would have now expired so when you brought it in this year you would have got a test till may 13 which you did:;)

Yawns

leeroybrown wrote: »

In that case whoever did it was probably being nice because your car would pass and they've a lot of bookings in that centre. Fair play to them. They saved you a few quid. :-)

They didn't tho. There's nothing wrong at all. His car was due in may 2012 which he didn't bring. He simply showed up late for it. His cert that he received today is a backdated cert as it covers him up until the next due date.

If his car was a 05 car fr example and he brought it today having missed the one in 2011 he would get a 2 year cert dating from may 2011 until may 2013. Since his car is over 10 years it becomes due every1.

He missed one but they only backdate the cert for the relevant year. So in this case he only got a 9 month cert covering him up until next may as per normal circumstances.

Just to clarify things for you OP. If you had brought the car in for the NCT in January 2012 you would have received a disc covering you up to may 2012 as that would be the next due date and it's not within 3 months of testing. If you had brought it in for the test from say march 2012 or any time after you would get a cert for may 2013.

So when you passed today you were due a cert for may 2013.

Yawns

kermitpwee wrote: »

The date you got is the date you should have got, you didn't get anything special, how could they give you a date from the past? If you had tested the car in 5-11 you would be tested up till 5-13. You have been backdated alrite as you only got your test till 5-13. The rules for over 10 year old cars was not in in 5-11 so your next test would expire on the 5-13 regardless of when you got it done as it goes on the registration of the car.
You haven't beat the system and your mechanic musn't have a brain in his head!

His mechanic was right tho? He mechanic said he'd get a backdated cert which he did...

kermitpwee

Yawns wrote: »

His mechanic was right tho? He mechanic said he'd get a backdated cert which he did...

Well was he tho? The op is telling us that they should have backdated to 5-12 which she seems to have gained this info from her mechanic. Perhaps he/she did not understand what his/her mechanic meant by backdating or perhaps her mechanic didn't know, either is not clear and I read his/her posts quite quickly when posting earlier. Only the op can answer?

martyc5674

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

That backdating is absolutely bonkers, either your car is road worthy or not. They should just charge extra for the tests it has missed.

Anyway, you may have gotten luck OP, enjoy.

Couldn't agree more with you... The nct's job is to prove road worthiness and certify you for it, whether it be a year or two years from the date you present your vehicle.
Not to penalise you for driving around in an untested possibly dangerous car for x number of months by subsequently giving you a cert valid for say three months etc.

It's the gardas job to make sure you've the disc on your windscreen.
Typical Irish solution... Aim for the pocket and they'll cough up
However most Irish people think it's "grand"

Marty

Yawns

kermitpwee wrote: »

Well was he tho? The op is telling us that they should have backdated to 5-12 which she seems to have gained this info from her mechanic. Perhaps he/she did not understand what his/her mechanic meant by backdating or perhaps her mechanic didn't know, either is not clear and I read his/her posts quite quickly when posting earlier. Only the op can answer?

I too read the OP too fast and made a wrong assumption post. Only there a few mins ago did I reread it and see what I had written was off a bit. I think the OP assumed when the mechanic said backdated they would only get a cert to 05-12 and then need to retest. It's a very easy assumption to make and many have made it.

The mechanic is correct in that the cert was backdated as the OP only got 9 months of a cert covering until 05-13. The op didn't realise that if you bring a car for a test when you miss one but it's past the next one after you missed, then the new cert covers you up until the next due one. Easy to get confused.

Either way at the end of the day, the OP got exactly what they were entitled to regarding the cert.

Yawns

martyc5674 wrote: »

Couldn't agree more with you... The nct's job is to prove road worthiness and certify you for it, whether it be a year or two years from the date you present your vehicle.
Not to penalise you for driving around in an untested possibly dangerous car for x number of months by subsequently giving you a cert valid for say three months etc.

It's the gardas job to make sure you've the disc on your windscreen.
Typical Irish solution... Aim for the pocket and they'll cough up
However most Irish people think it's "grand"

Marty

They don't charge for the test you missed. You can in theory go 6 years in a row with no NCT. You can have it tested on the 7th year and you will get a cert and disc covering you until the relevant due date. It's not the NCT guys job to penalise you. They do exactly what you are moaning, saying they should do. They check your car for current road worthiness and they leave it up to the guards to deal with ppl who skip NCT and drive around.

You can't get a 3 month cert only as if you bring a car for a test within 3 months of it being due you get the cert 3 months early covering you for 15 months if it's a 10 yr or older car, or you get it for 27 months if it's newer than 10 years. If you bring it 4 months before it's due, then you get covered up to the point where it's due which is in 4 months.

driver02

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Thats exactly what I expected them to do because my workmates, my mechanic amd a few of my mates are adamant the NCT will always backdate because if it was the case that you left your car a few years without doing your NCT then you did it and they dated it for the next year then everyone would be doing that?? With the amount of people who can barely afford petrol or car maintenance I would have thought the whole NCT system was watertight in that if you miss a year, you get backdated and them have to go through another test to get up to date.

no you are ok i'd say the date they will be working off now is 2013 so keep smiling you got lucky and probably like the rest of us you pay enough taxes anyway so don't worry keep smiling when you think of it.

Wanderer2010

Thanks a million for the replies, guys. I guess I did make a few assumptions with regards the late testing etc. I thought that if my car was late for the test (which it was, by over a year) and it passed a test, you would only get a cert that said 05-12 and it was up to you to book yet another test to get up to date i.e 05-13, am quite surprised they just give you a cert a year from when you present it, I honestly thought (in order to get yet MORE cash off you) that they would punish you by forcing you back a few months and then more money for another full retest. This was confirmed by the 3 people I chatted to whilst waiting for my results: I know idle chat isnt the most reliable of sources but they were adamant that "you will only get a disc saying May 2012, you need another retest!", I will chalk it down to experience and loose chat

My mechanic also said the same but in fairness he could have been talking about (as people have explained) me only getting a year from it as I didnt bother getting it tested before the whole "yearly" basis for cars over 10yrs old in July last year. Anyway, thanks again for the replies, much appreciated. Im gonna enjoy another while driving without fear of getting caught by the Guards, cheers.

Yawns

driver02 wrote: »

so keep smiling you got lucky

He didn't get lucky tho. I was only entitled to a disc covering him from 05-12 until 05-13 which is what he got. He was not supposed to be punished and then he somehow escaped punishment. He was supposed to receive the disc that he received.

If you are late ncting your car be it by days, weeks, months or years, the nct crowd do not care. They can't and don't punish you by looking for more money for tests etc. It's the guards who do the punishing via fines and more recently they can and do now impose penalty points.

OP glad you now understand the situation. I'm sorry for quickly reading earlier and given a false bit of info. I did as another poster did and quickly read the OP. you got what you were entitled to as when you bring a car into NCT late for it's test you get a cert to cover you up until the next due testing date.

The only thing is because you can book a test up to 3 months early, if you bring a car for testing within 3 months of another test due date, you will get a cert covering you until the following due date as in you don't do the test you missed but the one that is due in the 3 months. It saves you money but you risk the guards while without NCT.

Pottler

Who really cares? You got a cert, happy days. Personally, the only thing I'd be doing is displaying it in the windscreen. Gift horses and mouths and all that:)

Guy:Incognito

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

am quite surprised they just give you a cert a year from when you present it,

They dont. They give you a cert until the next due date. In your case you got a cert for 9 months. If you went in January next year your cert still would have said 5/13.