About Free Car Checks

Everything the UK government knows about a car is already public. The DVLA holds its tax, SORN and registration record; the DVSA holds every MOT test it's ever taken, mileage included. But that data is spread across separate GOV.UK services, one field at a time, and most websites that pull it together for you are really sales pages for a paid report, with the free check as the teaser.

Free Car Checks is the third option. We bring the official DVLA and DVSA records together into one free check, explain what the results actually mean, and never ask you for a card. There's no premium tier, no upsell and no “unlock the full report” button, because there is no paid report.

We're an independent service. We are not the DVLA or DVSA, and we're not affiliated with or endorsed by them; we're built on the data they publish. For the definitive word on tax and MOT status, GOV.UK is always the final authority.

And we're not a replacement for a paid history check. Outstanding finance, theft markers and insurance write-offs sit in commercial and industry databases a free check can't reach. Where that matters (usually just before you hand over money), our guide to HPI checks explains what a paid check adds and when it's worth it, and askMID covers insurance status for free.

Free Car Checks is built and run by Simon, a UK software developer, as a free public resource. It started with a simple question: why should checking a car you're about to spend thousands on cost anything, when the data is already public?

It's also personal. Simon has been burnt before buying a car without checking it first: the kind of expensive surprise that was sitting in the public record the whole time. This site exists so that doesn't happen to you: run the check, read the guides, and go into the purchase knowing everything the data can tell you, so the decision you make is a properly informed one.

Questions, corrections or ideas? Get in touch.