MOT history check: free, official, and more revealing than most buyers realise
The MOT history of any GB-registered vehicle is public and free. GOV.UK's check-MOT-history service returns every test since 2005: pass or fail, the recorded mileage at each test, every advisory and every failure reason, straight from the DVSA's own register. For a used buyer it is the single most useful free document in the market. Because the mileage is recorded at every test, it is also the free clocking check. What it does not carry is finance, write-off and theft markers, which is exactly the gap the paid checks in the table below exist to fill.
- median advertised price of a single full car check
- £14.99
- vendors with a verified published price
- 2
- check types with measured demand
- 2
Figures on this page come from the KnownVehicle Car Check Price Index: 2 vendors with a verified published price, median advertised single full check £14.99, checked against each vendor's own page.
- 2 vendor product pages verifiedevery figure matched verbatim to the vendor's page
- Quoted and dated, never estimatedlast verification pass 2026-08-26
- 2 check types coveredeach with measured search demand behind it
Advertised prices, verified
| Vendor | Full check | Basic check | 3-check bundle | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Car Check | £9.99/check | £3.99/check | £14.99/3 checks | totalcarcheck.co.uk | August 2026 |
| HPI Check | £19.99/check | £9.99/check | £29.99/3 checks | home.hpicheck.com | August 2026 |
How to read an MOT history like a trade buyer
- Start with the mileage line, not the pass line. The recorded mileage at each test should climb steadily. A figure that drops, or a gap where thousands of miles appear between two tests a month apart, is either a typo or a clocked odometer, and either way it is a question the seller answers before you go further.
- Advisories are the service history the seller didn't write. Advisories are the tester's notes on what is wearing out: brakes, tyres, corrosion, play in the suspension. Read three years of advisories together and you can see what was fixed, what was ignored, and roughly what the next year of ownership costs.
- Failures tell you how the car was kept. A car that fails on dangerous defects and reappears the same week tells you repairs happen only when the law forces them. A long record of first-time passes with minor advisories is the pattern a careful owner leaves.
- Check the gaps. A vehicle needs an MOT every year from its third birthday. A missing year means it was off the road (SORN), untested, or tested under a different registration: a plate change is visible to the paid checks, and a long SORN period is worth asking about directly.
What the free MOT record shows, and where it comes from
The GOV.UK service reads the DVSA's test register and returns results since 2005: dates, outcomes, recorded mileage, advisories, failure reasons, and the expiry of the current certificate. It asks only for the registration number, it is free, and no paid product carries better MOT data: the paid checks read the same register.
The record follows the vehicle, not the keeper. Nothing in it identifies any owner, and no public check can: the registers return facts about the vehicle. The lawful route to keeper information, where there is reasonable cause, is DVLA form V888: anything that offers to name an owner from a plate is not reading an official register.
What the MOT history cannot tell you
The test register knows nothing about money or crime: outstanding finance, insurance write-off categories, and stolen markers live in other databases: the finance houses' register, the insurers' claims records, and the Police National Computer. Those are the three questions a paid check answers, and the vendors in the table above print their prices for doing so.
The practical sequence for a private purchase is free first, paid second: run the free MOT and tax checks the moment you have the registration, and spend on a full check only once the vehicle has survived them. The paid check protects the money; the free checks stop you driving to see a car that fails on page one.
Common questions
- Is an MOT history check free?
- Yes. GOV.UK's check-MOT-history service is free and official, returning every test since 2005 with recorded mileage, advisories and failure reasons from the DVSA register. Paid checks read the same MOT data; what you pay for is the finance, write-off and theft markers the MOT register does not hold.
- Does the MOT history show who owns the car?
- No, and neither does any public check. The registers return facts about the vehicle, never the keeper. Where there is reasonable cause to contact a keeper, the lawful route is DVLA form V888; a service claiming to name an owner from a plate is not reading an official register.
- Can I check mileage from the MOT history?
- Yes: it is the best free clocking check available. The tester records the odometer at every test, so the history gives you a mileage series across the vehicle's life. A reading that falls, or climbs implausibly slowly around a sale, is the classic clocking signature.
- Why buy a paid check if the MOT history is free?
- For the three things the test register cannot know: outstanding finance, write-off history and stolen markers. The vendors in the table above advertise those checks at the verified prices shown; if the free MOT and tax checks already killed the deal, you never need to spend it.
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Cite or embed this figure
The median advertised price of a single full car check in the GB car check market was £14.99 in August 2026, across 2 verified vendor product pages recorded in KnownVehicle Car Check Price Index.
Cite as: "KnownVehicle Car Check Price Index", updated 2026-08-26, https://knownvehicle.com/mot-history-check/.