Security Watch Check
A car registered on a security watch programme by an organisation means it cannot be sold legally. The car checking company will alert you if the car is on a Security Watch and it will mean that the car cannot be sold legally by the seller.

Finance Check
Car checking companies have information on cars that are still under finance, if this is the case – some may provide information of the organisation to whom the finance agreement is outstanding with. Therefore it will allow you to contact them and find out what the outstanding balance is owed and when it will be settled by.

Mileage Check
Car Checking companies offering a mileage check will query the Data base from the National Mileage Register holding approximately 85, 000, 000 records. They will return you with sufficient information to help you asses if the car’s odometer has been clocked, or if has done 112, 000 miles and the seller is advertising it as 12, 000 miles.

Write-off Check
Certain companies such as HPI Check use the association of British Insurers Coding on the level of damage to sustained to a vehicle in the event of a car accident. This helps the public to understand the type of damage the car has sustained in the past i.e. If it was too bad to be put back on the road or very trivial damage. The car companies normally use data from insurance companies to check if the car has ever had an accident and the severity of the damage:

- *Category A: The Vehicle & All Parts should be crushed.

- *Category B: The Vehicle's parts may be salvaged, however the shell should be crushed & the car can never
                        be put back on the road.

- *Category C: The car has extensive damage, enough for the insurer deciding on not to have the car repaired.
                        However the car can be Repaired and put back on the road.

- *Category D: Just a damaged vehicle that the insurer has not decided to repair, however can be repaired and
                        put back on the road.

- *Category F: The Vehicle has been subject to fire damage, insurer has decided no to repair.

- *Theft: If the car has been stolen and recovered, the ownership lies with the insurer as they paid out for the
              car. If the car is identified, repossession can take place even bought by an innocent party unaware of
              the car's history.

Vehicles with an astrix (*) require a VIC check before the DVLA will issue a new registration document for the vehicle. This is noted on the V5C, if the car you have bought has any of these vehicle data check alerts mentioned above- it will show up under a car history check.

With this information you can determine if a car has had any previous damage and decide whether you would still like to buy it or not.

Inspection Report
An Inspection report is not really a check. Any car that has been declared as a ‘total loss’ and has been put back on the road after being repaired undergoes a Thatcham-approved independent structural examination and must be approved to be classed ‘road worthy’. The check that the car checking company will make is: to tell you that it has passed this independent check or not.

Plate Transfer
Around 15% of cars undergo at least one plate change in their lifetime. Most of the time there is an innocent reason as to why the car has a plate change. However there are occasions where it was used as a ploy to hide the car’s history. Car checking companies such as HPI Check would search back through mountains of records even going back over 10 years to find out why the plate had a transfer and what the former keeper was trying to hide.

Documentation Check
This will tell you if the if the cars paperwork is suspected to be fraudulent or incorrect. The car checking company will provide you with the Issue date and serial number of the V5 registration document, from which you can then check these with the documents presented by the seller.

Stolen Check
This information is sourced from the Police National Computer to alert you if the car you are about to buy has been reported stolen.

Valuation Check
Certain car checking companies will supply you with the valuation of the car you are checking in respect to what the marketplace value is.

This webpage explains in detail the risks of buying a used car without carrying out the appropriate checks on the car history or any car check such as hpi check,
Click here to make an vehicle data check now