How long of an NCT will I get?

Hyperbollix

Car is 30 years old and has been off road a couple of years.

When I check the NCT website it says NCT due date: 5th Dec 2023

My question is if I do a test on the 2nd of September coming, will I get a certificate til September '25 or December '25?

I called the booking line and was told I'll get a cert for 2 years from the December '23 date which would be Dec '25. That doesn't sound right to me as I thought the longest any car over 10 years old could get was a one year cert?

zg3409

Cars from 30-40 years only need an NCT every 2 years. I have a 31 year old car.

You can perform your test up to 90 days early from the due date (NOT 3 months) and still get the same expiry date. If you do your test more than 90 days early then you disc will expire early maybe one year from test date.

In terms of tax it should be 56 a year but you need to notify them and not if it's used for commercial purposes.

Neilw

Cars over 30 years old get a 2 year test.

Hyperbollix

Thanks, that makes sense with what the man on the booking line said. It would be a two year test but beginning in December '23 and valid until Dec '25, meaning I really only get a 15 month certificate.

Does anyone know if the due date on the booking system changes automatically every year. Say for example you had a car off the road for 5 years, would the due date update at a certain point every year? I'm wondering if maybe when I'm inside the 90 day windows, the due date will change to December '24, thus giving me a cert until December '26?

gipi

The 90 day window only applies if the car has a current NCT - it allows the owner to test the car up to 90 days before the expiry of the existing NCT.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122525010#Comment_122525010

Does this mean that regardless of due date (last year) or date of reg of vehicle, or the fact the car currently hasn't got a valid NCT, that if I pass a test in September this year, I will get a cert up to September '26? Booking line is telling me two years from the due date online, which would be December '25

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528661#Comment_122528661

Is you NCT out of date, as in many many months out? If so I am not sure on rules.

If you test when car is 30 years old you get 24 months /2 year NCT. Doing an NCT today you will only get one year.

The dates shown as due on website may be wrong if test is very out. I have seen strange due dates in the past for cars with test out by years. I have heard of others doing test day 6 months late and only getting a test valid for remaining 6 months so needing to apply straight away again.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528806#Comment_122528806

You get a two year NCT from the date of expiry. So if you let your NCT lapse for say 6 months it gets backdated to the month of expiry, meaning you only get 18 months not 2 years.

selectamatic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122529342#Comment_122529342

What's the story if it's lapsed by more that two years?

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122529437#Comment_122529437

Not sure, there’s conflicting info on here. There was another thread in the past few days with more info on it.

selectamatic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122529465#Comment_122529465

Ya I could never make head nor tail of it.

I'll be putting a vintage yoke through the test over the winter that has a test out since September 2021 so I'll post up the result when I get it through.

hoodie6029

The 90 day rule won’t apply here as December 24 isn’t an anniversary of testing December 23 is. Next anniversary is 2025.

The NCT guy on the phone was correct. Best of luck with the test.

Hyperbollix

Ok, I chanced another call to the NCT this morning in the hopes I might get someone who could be bothered to get to the bottom of this one…. and luckily I did!

I'm not 100% on everything, I doubt I ever will be, but have much more clarity anyway. The woman I spoke to had me on hold a good bit to get advise from her colleagues/supervisor and was genuinely interested in helping out.

The 90 day rule does indeed still apply. As I suspected, 90 days from the due date is the time every year when your NCT begins a new cycle, shifting from looking at how far past your old expired test you are, and instead looks at how close you are to this years "updated" due date. I was advised If I took my test on September 2nd, because that is 94 days out, I would only get a certificate up until December '24. If I agreed to change the date further into mid September, I would get a "full" test, ie 1 or 2 years. She agreed with me that if I took a test on 15th September, I would then get a certificate valid until December 2025 at least.

At that point, I reminded her of the 2 year NCT status for 30-40 year old cars. She again went off to get some advise and came back to say I would indeed get a 2 year certificate from the date of first registration. This would have been 5th Aug 1994. So she agreed that my September 2024 test should give me a valid certificate up until August 2026

There is a slight added complication for me in that the car is an import and the date of first reg is actually 2007 in Ireland. But the NCT has always worked based of the original UK Aug 1994 date, so i'm going to presume it will be the same here.

All that said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they pinned it back to December again and gave me a 15 month test until December 2025. At this stage, I will call that a win.

Hope this info is A) accurate and B) can help someone else in the same boat.

ArrBee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122529437#Comment_122529437

My personal experience is with a car less than 30yrs old and so only talking about 1 yr NCT's….

Once its expired by more than 1 year, the clock resets and the new NCT will last 1 yr from test date.

Hyperbollix

Update: Went for the NCT yesterday and passed with just a couple of advisories. Was delighted to see the certificate runs until December 2026. So basically a 2 year test because the car is over 30, and it's December because that is the car's anniversary month. Crazy to think that had I went along earlier in September, I'd just have gotten a test until December this year!

Moral of the story is, if you have let the NCT lapse, car has been off the road etc, try to get a test date which is within 90 days of the due date. And the due date does update every year once the 90 day window starts. IE - Mine was December '23. Once mid September '24 rolled around, it begins a new cycle and the due date becomes December '24 effectively. Book inside the 90 day window and you will get a 12 month cert plus 1, 2, or 3 months extra depending on how early you booked. Or in my case a 24 month cert plus 3 months.