Window Tinting Legalities

Window Tinting Legalities 

For any rear window on a vehicle B pillar back, or any window behind the drivers seat, there is no legal limit. This means for all these windows they can be tinted as dark as you like as it would make it no different to a van. These windows would include rear door windows, rear quarter windows and rear screen / boot window.  

For front side windows in the UK, there is a legal limit of 70%, meaning they have to let at least 70% of the light through the glass also known as the VTL. Most modern cars come with a dye in the glass which brings them down to the legal limit from factory. Unfortunately most cars will test at 72/73% from factory. 70% is very light and most would consider it to be clear, however if you drop your window slightly and look at a cloudy sky you will see a very slight colour difference between looking through the glass and looking through the open part of the window, this is 70%. 

This means if any additional tint is applied to the front side windows would make them illegal in most cases. 

Some cars even have stamped on the glass where they kite mark is "70% min". This is not the case on all cars, so please don't think if this is not shown they don't have a dye in. 

For the windscreen the legal limit or VTL is 75%. Most cars windscreens test are circa 90% from factory. This is how chameleon tint film is legal as genuine chameleon film has a VTL of 86%, meaning once installed it normally tests about 80% VTL. Please note that not all 'chameleon' film is the same, and some film supplier by other tint shops is not even technically a chameleon film. We only used the original genuine American made chameleon material. 

More details of the legalities can be found on the government website at https://www.gov.uk/tinted-vehicle-window-rules   

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