MOT history

Every UK vehicle on GarageHQ gets its full MOT history pulled from the DVSA's public test record automatically. You don't have to enter anything; the timeline appears as soon as you add the vehicle.

Where to find it

Open any vehicle's detail page and switch to the History tab. The MOT history section shows a vertical timeline of every test the DVSA has on record (alongside service history and mileage).

MOT history timeline on a vehicle detail page showing pass and fail entries with mileage and advisories — The timeline orders tests newest-first, with mileage at test date, the result (pass / fail / pass with advisories), and any advisories or failure reasons listed below.

What's in each entry

Each row in the timeline carries:

Test date in DD MMM YYYY format.
Result — pass, fail, or "pass with advisories".
Mileage at test — what the tester recorded on the day. This is what feeds the mileage anomaly detector.
Expiry — when the certificate is valid until (next test due).
Advisories — items the tester noted as not yet a failure, but worth watching. Click into one to find priced replacement parts via Finding parts.
Failure reasons (for failed tests) — the specific defects that caused the fail.

How fresh is the data?

GarageHQ refreshes a vehicle's MOT history:

On vehicle creation — first fetch happens when you add the vehicle.
Daily — the reminder cron pulls fresh data for every vehicle as part of the morning sweep.
On demand — opening the vehicle detail page triggers a refresh if the cached copy is more than 24 hours old.

The DVSA publishes new MOT results within a few hours of the test completing. So if a test was done today, expect the entry to appear in GarageHQ tonight or tomorrow morning.

What if a test is missing?

A few possibilities:

The vehicle is too new. First MOT is at 3 years for cars, 1 year for many commercial classes. No test = no record.
The test was done very recently. Wait 24 hours for the DVSA to publish.
The vehicle is exempt. Some vehicles (historic, certain electric) don't need MOTs.
DVSA outage. Rare but it happens. The timeline shows a stub message; refresh tomorrow.

If a test is more than 48 hours old and still missing, contact support. We can ask DVSA to confirm it's in their public record.

What if a result looks wrong?

The data we display is exactly what the DVSA publishes — we don't edit, score, or interpret it. If a result on your timeline doesn't match a paper certificate or your expectation:

Look up the vehicle on the official DVSA service using the same reg.
If the official site agrees with GarageHQ, the issue is with the test record at DVSA. Their helpline can correct genuine errors (e.g. wrong mileage entered).
If the official site disagrees with GarageHQ, our cache is stale. Email us with the reg and we'll force a refresh.

What next?

Mileage anomaly warnings, what triggers a flag when MOT mileages don't add up.
Finding parts, turn an advisory into priced replacement parts.
Service history and mileage, log non-MOT mileage readings yourself.