What information is available from a Previous Owner Check
If you’re about to hand over a large amount of money purchasing a car, surely you should know everything about it—you definitely don’t want any nasty surprises! So, performing a previous owner check just makes pure sense. And you’ll get plenty of other valuable data points to ensure your dream car doesn’t become a nightmare!
If you’re deliberating whether or not to carry out a previous owner check on your next dream car, then look no further. Motorscan has gathered everything you need to know about what a previous owner check is and what information it delivers so that you can better position yourself in making that decision to buy or walk away.
Arming yourself with a car’s registration, you can carry out Motorscan’s premium car check to display the number of previous vehicle owners the car had as well as a multitude of other data points. With our free car check, you’ll be able to see when the logbook was last updated, possibly giving you an idea of when the car last exchanged hands.
In addition to discovering how many previous owners a vehicle had, a full car history check will also give the dates the current and previous keeper acquired the vehicle, indicating how long the last two keepers kept hold of the car. The advantage of this information is possibly discovering a reliability issue if the vehicle has been offloaded quickly, over short periods, especially by multiple keepers. Our premium report will also display when the car was first registered and a host of additional data points, including whether it’s stolen, insurers have written off the vehicle, or it has outstanding finance attached. It will also advise you if the car is ex-taxi, Police, Fire or Council.
When you carry out a car history check, previous owners listed won’t include you unless you’ve already purchased the car and the DVLA has registered you as the new keeper.
Due to data protection laws, you won’t be able to discover personal information through a previous owner check. However, if you have a valid reason to know this information, you can apply to the DVLA with Form V888.
Data protection laws apply to both individuals and companies. If a company needs to discover the personal information of a previous or currently registered keeper, it will need to apply to the DVLA. Examples of this would be law enforcement agencies, private claimants and organisations to establish where liability lies for an event or incident. The reasonable cause for releasing such personal data would be motoring incidents, road safety matters, enforcing road traffic legislation and tax collection. The DVLA only releases the information on the primary condition that it’s used for the requested purpose, and the company involved retains said information confidentially. For further information, please visit Release of information from DVLA Registers
