Driving to northern Ireland in southern reg car

dirtydiesel · 12-01-2015 3:19pm #1

I am going to the north next week in a southern reg car.

Nct is up since Dec 14, will anpr cameras in north pick this up?

Wondering if I should just hire a car for the week instead.

Into The Blue · 12-01-2015 3:20pm

dirtydiesel wrote: »

Nct is up since Dec 14, will anpr cameras in north pick this up?.

No

Victor · 12-01-2015 3:23pm

dirtydiesel wrote: »

Nct is up since Dec 14, will anpr cameras in north pick this up?

Garda ANPR cameras probably, PSNI ones won't have the data. However, if the PSNI stop you for whatever reason, they will arrest and then bail you (a few hundred pounds) as they can't issue a summons for you.

CiniO · 12-01-2015 3:23pm

Into The Blue wrote: »

No

ANPR won't, but policeman at roadside check might.

kooga · 12-01-2015 3:26pm

to be honest PSNI have too much to do to care about your NCT being out of date..................

dirtydiesel · 12-01-2015 3:27pm

Best to just hire a car so, thanks for the fast responses.

mfceiling · 12-01-2015 3:27pm

Make an appointment now. Print off the confirmation letter.

Chances of getting stopped are minimal...even more so that a police officer will be arsed. If he is, show him your confirmation letter and tell him that it was the earliest date you could possibly get.

HandsomeDan · 12-01-2015 4:13pm

As if the PSNI will give a crap about an NCT being a few weeks out. Get real.

Victor · 12-01-2015 4:42pm

HandsomeDan wrote: »

As if the PSNI will give a crap about an NCT being a few weeks out. Get real.

They expect vehicles from outside their jurisdiction to be street-legal for the vehicle's home jurisdiction. They'll even do people for expired tax.

corktina · 13-01-2015 10:14am

Listen to Victor...there's a few people here who think UK Police operate like the Gards...they don't and they will take your car off you if it transpires it isn't road legal.

biko · 13-01-2015 1:18pm

dirtydiesel wrote: »

Best to just hire a car so, thanks for the fast responses.

Yeah, this is what I'd do. Just for the peace of mind if anything.

Sheldons Brain · 13-01-2015 1:39pm

biko wrote: »

Yeah, this is what I'd do. Just for the peace of mind if anything.

Peace of mind ok, but if you are spending on the hire a significant proportion of the fine it doesn't really make economic sense. You may never be stopped, and even if you are they won't inevitably throw the book at you if everything else is in order.

corktina · 13-01-2015 1:55pm

If they stop you they may or may not throw the book at you but they will impound your car if it isn't 100% and that means a lot of hastle and expense getting it back.

Mycroft H · 13-01-2015 2:41pm

Stopped at a checkpoint at the time and they were only interested in my insurance. The NCT was out months.

corktina · 13-01-2015 3:04pm

yes but you can't give advice based on that.

Mycroft H · 13-01-2015 3:40pm

I'd take the chance based on past experience. Feck renting a car.

ardmacha · 13-01-2015 3:49pm

corktina wrote: »

If they stop you they may or may not throw the book at you but they will impound your car if it isn't 100% and that means a lot of hastle and expense getting it back.

Surely it should be they may impound your car, have you any real data on the actual frequency of this? There are thousands of 26 county cars in NI with expired NCT in a given week, which is their real experience of those a few weeks out?

yop · 13-01-2015 3:53pm

The NI Police have in the past impounded Irish reg cars that are out of Tax and/or NCT.
Its up to you OP if you want to chance it or not.

corktina · 13-01-2015 4:17pm

exactly

Praetorian · 13-01-2015 4:59pm

In the 12 years I'm driving I've never once been stopped or even seen a checkpoint in the North. If you have tax / insurance I think you would be okay.

The gardai regularly operate a checkpoint right outside where I work in Dublin. From talking to them, the general attitude seems to be

NCT only out - Fine / Warning / Lecture about getting it sorted

2/3 (nct & tax or insurance out). Defintely trouble. Good chance to have the car taken there and then.

3/3 out of date, definitely car taken...and i've seen this happen quite a few times.

free_man · 14-01-2015 4:50pm

Praetorian wrote: »

NCT only out - Fine / Warning / Lecture about getting it sorted

I think its illegal to drive without NCT now. Even a test confirmation letter is no good.
But its good to see Guards use their head

tossy · 14-01-2015 4:59pm

Can someone post a link to a case of a driver from the south being arrested by the PSNI for having no NCT ? If you do i'll edit my post and remove the following PSNI ROFLcopter ...

corktina · 14-01-2015 5:03pm

free_man wrote: »

I think its illegal to drive without NCT now. Even a test confirmation letter is no good.
But its good to see Guards use their head

it always was, ever since it was introduced

corktina · 14-01-2015 5:04pm

i doubt you'd be arrested for it, just you run the risk of getting the car impounded and being stranded at the side of the road.

ba_barabus · 14-01-2015 5:13pm

corktina wrote: »

i doubt you'd be arrested for it

I know you will be arrested on the spot if you are stopped speeding and have a southern reg'd car.
Not sure about the NCT, but I've had my car fully checked over by the PSNI several times to ensure everything was in date.

fullstop · 14-01-2015 7:57pm

HandsomeDan wrote: »

As if the PSNI will give a crap about an NCT being a few weeks out. Get real.

Well they impounded a neighbours car that was parked at the side of the road for the tax being out of date, southern reg.

dirtydiesel · 15-01-2015 11:28am

Quite a few interesting replies, some think its not a big deal, some think it is, well ive decided to drive my car and not hire one and what will be will be.:cool:

dirtydiesel · 15-01-2015 11:34am

fullstop wrote: »

Well they impounded a neighbours car that was parked at the side of the road for the tax being out of date, southern reg.

How much did it cost to get that car back? I would guess they either had to tax it or have it transported on a recovery truck.
My car is taxed so no worries there.

15-01-2015 12:11pm

Praetorian wrote: »

In the 12 years I'm driving I've never once been stopped or even seen a checkpoint in the North. If you have tax / insurance I think you would be okay.

The gardai regularly operate a checkpoint right outside where I work in Dublin. From talking to them, the general attitude seems to be

NCT only out - Fine / Warning / Lecture about getting it sorted

2/3 (nct & tax or insurance out). Defintely trouble. Good chance to have the car taken there and then.

3/3 out of date, definitely car taken...and i've seen this happen quite a few times.

Insurance out = fnuked

Pov06 · 15-01-2015 3:51pm

Augeo wrote: »

Insurance out = fnuked

Would be scary if this was false :rolleyes:

Jesus. · 15-01-2015 4:01pm

OP, you've nothing to worry about. There's not a hope in hell the PSNI would give a hoot about an NCT cert out by a few weeks.

dirtydiesel · 15-01-2015 4:50pm

Jesus. wrote: »

OP, you've nothing to worry about. There's not a hope in hell the PSNI would give a hoot about an NCT cert out by a few weeks.

Cool now I can tell them Jesus said its ok lol:)

Cartel Mike · 15-01-2015 6:06pm

As people said youll be fine Op .If anything is out ,the north is the one place you can actually feel safe in . As you can imagine , the logistical nightmare of trying to fine or impound a car from the Republic for just about anything isn't gonna be worth it for the pnsi .

People will have different experiences but over the last say 15 years of driving in the north I've found the psni in general to be fairly fair & that's knowing plenty of people with northern regs as well. You dont get the same whiff of desperation to fine or meet quota levels as you do here.

Also the Mot in the north is a breeze . My sister had a norhern reg car (huyndi) , same mechanic for years & always sailed through the mot . When she moved back & switched back to southern reg that same mechanic couldn't get her car through an nct , they found so many fails she needed to save for an entire new car to pass it!

So to conclude, when buying a second car in the north ,just because its mot'd doesn't mean that it would automatically get through an Nct!

fullstop · 15-01-2015 7:52pm

dirtydiesel wrote: »

How much did it cost to get that car back? I would guess they either had to tax it or have it transported on a recovery truck.
My car is taxed so no worries there.

I think it was £150, something like that anyway

CiniO · 15-01-2015 8:55pm

Augeo wrote: »

Insurance out = fnuked

It is true of course, but there seem to be EU directions, that police in all EU countries assume a foreign car is insured automatically.
Therefore as I travelled a good bit over EU with my Irish car over last few years, and had many roadchecks, I don't really recall they they ever checked my insurance.
They always ask for licence and VRC, sometimes for NCT, but never for insurance.

It obviously doesn't mean it's OK to drive without insurance abroad, as it would be fairly crazy thing to do, but just saying this isn't generally checked.

CiniO · 15-01-2015 8:59pm

Victor wrote: »

They expect vehicles from outside their jurisdiction to be street-legal for the vehicle's home jurisdiction. They'll even do people for expired tax.

That's what it says on the gov.uk websites, but I could never find any UK law in relation to this. I strongly doubt such law exists.
And therefore having not-up-to-date-tax in Ireland should be of no interest of foreign police, as Irish tax is required by Financial act and required only when driving on public roads in Ireland.
Unfortunately this doesn't seem to line up with practice in NI or even UK, as their police might seize the car.
And possibly upon getting a good solicitor and proper court trail you might even win the case, I can hardly see it as worth it.
BTW - there is not a chance that anywhere on the Continent, someone is going to ask for Irish motortax.

ardle1 · 15-01-2015 9:17pm

Eh I would be more concerned about making it to the border without being stopped by the Gardaí.
And then I could relax!?

16-01-2015 10:53am

CiniO wrote: »

It is true of course, but there seem to be EU directions, that police in all EU countries assume a foreign car is insured automatically.
Therefore as I travelled a good bit over EU with my Irish car over last few years, and had many roadchecks, I don't really recall they they ever checked my insurance.
They always ask for licence and VRC, sometimes for NCT, but never for insurance.

It obviously doesn't mean it's OK to drive without insurance abroad, as it would be fairly crazy thing to do, but just saying this isn't generally checked.

Look at the post I quoted to establish the context

Driving to northern Ireland in southern reg car

Comments