▸ Classification · Vehicle History
Data sourced live from DVLA, MIAFTR, PNC and the UK lender register at lookup time.
Typical lookup completes in under one second from the UK.
Built and supported in the UK as part of the consumer side of the network.
/ Insurance shortcuts
Most people checking a vehicle on freecarhpi.co.uk need cover for it within the same day or week. Rather than send you back to a comparison site, the four panels below route directly to UK specialists for the most common short-notice insurance situations.
Day rates from £15 on standard hatchbacks and saloons. Fully comprehensive — not third-party — with the cheapest cover routed first in the quote stack.
Get a day quote →via TempcoverLearner driverShort-term learner insurance for new and provisional drivers on a borrowed or family car. Claims are isolated to the learner's policy so the car-owner's no-claims bonus is protected.
Quote learner cover →via VeygoImpounded releaseStandard annual insurers routinely refuse impound cases. This is the specialist 30-day standalone policy every UK pound and police force accepts. Documents in minutes.
Quote impound cover →via Tempcover ImpoundedAnnual comparisonQuote stack sorted by lowest annual premium, with the conditional terms — excess, approved-repairer requirement, courtesy car — pinned beside each price so the cheapest isn't a trap.
Compare annual →via Confused.comWe earn a commission on policies bound through these partners. The commission does not affect the price you are quoted.
The check returns every MOT test on record: pass and fail outcomes, the testing station name where DVSA publishes it, the mileage figure entered at the test and every advisory issued. Repeated advisories on the same component across multiple tests, where the report shows no corresponding work, are worth raising directly with the seller.
Statutory Off-Road Notifications and VED status are returned with their dates. Long, recent SORN periods may indicate a vehicle that was laid up after an incident, which is a useful corroborating signal against any insurance markers found elsewhere in the report.
For vehicles over £10,000, ex-fleet stock, anything advertised as 'just imported' or any car where the registered address sits a long way from the listing, treat a summary check as a starting point rather than the verdict. A full full history report, a pre-purchase inspection at the seller's address and a finance settlement letter where applicable are the three layers that catch the cases a quick lookup will not.
/ Brand consolidation
freecarhpi.co.uk is now part of Expert Car Check — the consolidated UK vehicle-data platform that several of these older brands have joined. The data sources are unchanged: DVLA's vehicle record, DVSA's MOT history, MIAFTR for write-offs, the Police National Computer feed for theft markers and the UK lender register for outstanding finance. The team, the underwriting partners and the support contact are the same. What's changed is that the work that was previously spread across several smaller brands now sits in one place, which keeps response times tight and the underlying registers maintained against current DVLA schemas. Bookmarks and historic links to freecarhpi.co.uk continue to resolve here. If you were referred to freecarhpi.co.uk by a previous report, broker or print listing, this is the right page — there is no further redirect to chase.
Visit expertcarcheck.com →/ Common questions
No. Service records are held by garages and manufacturers, not by DVLA, and are not part of any vehicle history report. Ask the seller for the service book and look for stamped, dated entries with mileage.
The vehicle was first registered outside the UK and later imported. Imported vehicles can be entirely sound, but the absence of pre-import history is itself worth recording in the buyer's notes.
Every recorded mileage point — MOT records and change-of-keeper submissions — is plotted in date order. A drop of more than 100 miles between consecutive records, or a year with implausibly high mileage, triggers a flag.
Digital MOT records start in 2005 in England, Wales and Scotland. Older tests pre-date the digital register and are not retrievable.
/ Also in vehicle history
/ Begin
One field. A typical lookup completes in under a second, using the same UK vehicle records relied on by trade buyers and insurers.