A car under arrest can cause a lot of trouble when purchasing. The new owner may encounter difficulties in resale or potential seizure of the movable property by bailiffs. To avoid such unpleasantness, it is essential to check the car for arrests before buying. There are both free and commercial services for this purpose, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Options for checking a car for arrests without financial investment
Social networks, search engines, and car forums
Checking a car for arrests is possible for free, and in some cases, these options are no less in quality compared to commercial services and sometimes even surpass them in accessibility. It all depends on the driver's requirements for the program and the depth of information. Where you can check a car for arrests:
- Google sources (there are several dozen, you can choose any from the top 10, which do not require registration and entering a bank card);
- Social media groups, such as "Facebook," as well as car forums. In groups with "Black sellers" and resellers, data on cars and their owners are posted, who tried to sell or successfully sold arrested vehicles to unsuspecting car enthusiasts;
- "Word of mouth." If you have connections with experienced resellers or owners of private car dealerships, you can ask them for free to check the car for arrests using their own databases. The peculiarity of free checks is their connection with state databases. This guarantees the accuracy of the result, but the format of providing information will be quite limited, unlike the more detailed composition of data in paid car checks.
As mandatory information required for conducting a car arrest check, the following should be considered:
- VIN number;
- vehicle registration number;
- make and model;
- owner's full name;
- data from the vehicle owner's documents;
- enforcement case number (if available);
- information about the car's involvement in accidents, mention in a credit agreement, etc. VIN and registration number are required for almost all free checks. In other cases, when the car owner only has the owner's full name, one can quickly browse through websites selling vehicles or social media groups and chats. There, names of "black sellers" and resellers who, under the guise of a normal car, want to "bless" a new car owner with a vehicle, are often posted.
Website Equivalent to the State Traffic Inspectorate (STI) of the Car's Registration Country
Regardless of where the user's vehicle of interest is registered, one can quickly obtain information about it on the official portal equivalent to the STI. This service is provided by car services in many CIS countries and several European states, and it's free of charge.
The peculiar feature of the check lies in obtaining only those data that relate to publicly available information. In other words, confidential information cannot be obtained from the website (such as details from the owner's documents, for example). However, one can see if the owner currently has any legal issues.
NOTE! Typically, the STI website is intended to examine data on fines associated with a specific vehicle. Considering that unpaid violations lead to further seizure of accounts to settle the debt, vehicles with a long list of offenses are likely to have an active or recently settled arrest.
"PAN"
A popular service in Ukraine that allows quickly accessing all publicly available information about a vehicle. The main information required for working with "PAN" is the vehicle registration number. If it's unavailable, VIN data can be used instead.
It's important for the car enthusiast to also input data about the make, model, and year of manufacture when entering the vehicle registration number. In case a vehicle with a similar number already exists in the database, these details will help avoid confusing the desired car with another specimen.
NOTE! The "PAN" service gathers and analyzes only the data included in all free databases. If a car has recently left the showroom, has not been previously listed on sales websites, and especially if it has not been arrested, there probably won't be any information about it when entering the details.
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Paid services for checking cars under arrest
If you couldn't check the car for arrest for free, you should try options among government or commercial services. Government services usually provide such information for a moderate fee.
Bailiff portals
An alternative way to indirectly check if a car is under arrest is to visit the bailiff's website and enter the owner's full name. In most CIS countries, bailiff websites allow you to quickly obtain basic data on whether a particular citizen has any debts. Thus, knowing the full name of the car owner, you can easily determine the presence of arrests on his accounts or the accounts of his organization (relevant for companies and entrepreneurs). In Ukraine, such a service is the Unified Register of Debtors. To obtain information about a debtor, you need to know not only the full name of the person of interest but also their taxpayer identification number (TIN), which complicates the check.
IMPORTANT! If a citizen owns a car with an arrest and the debt amount exceeds several tens or hundreds, it is likely that the vehicle may be seized. It is also recommended to check if these arrests are related to cases of loan non-payment: perhaps the owner previously provided the car as collateral, and now it may be seized for failure to fulfill credit obligations.
State Register of Encumbrances of Movable Property (SREMP)
To check a vehicle for encumbrances and obtain a certified extract from SREMP, you will need to contact a state/private notary or registrar. Information required for verification:
- Owner's full name;
- Vehicle identification number (VIN);
- Make/model (recommended);
- Tax identification number (TIN) of the owner. The feature of the service is the provision of information about an encumbrance, even if it has been previously imposed and already discharged. This is relevant, for example, if you need to understand whether to trust the owner of the vehicle, who claims that there are no issues with the car at all. If the vehicle is currently encumbered, information about the date of imposition and the amount of the encumbrance will appear.
"OpenDataBot"
A standard service where you can check information about a vehicle by license plate or VIN. The check is paid for each vehicle separately. After entering the data, it is necessary to verify if the correct vehicle is displayed on the screen and then proceed to payment. One drawback is the lack of linkage between vehicles and specific owners. If you need to check two vehicles registered to one person, you will have to pay for "OpenDataBot" services twice. To check if a vehicle is encumbered and to obtain an extract, you need to enter the TIN of the individual owner or the EDRPOU for a legal entity.
Websites for checking vehicle history
Among the popular methods of verification are international websites, the services of which are available in many countries, from Ukraine to the USA, and which provide the opportunity to quickly obtain a comprehensive report on the car, finding out information about potential encumbrances of the vehicle.
Carfax
One of the most demanded paid services. Primarily provides information after entering the VIN, but you can also obtain information with the license plate number, taking into account other data (make, model, year of production, body type). Pros - complete check of the car for encumbrances. The website "pulls" information from the official State Automobile Inspection of the country for which the check is carried out. Information is provided almost instantly, and there is no need to regularly enter the same data: the card will contain information on arrests and on credit collateral, which is convenient for comprehensive study of the car before purchase. The feature of the program is the extensive database. But at the same time, using some free services, you can get practically the same amount of information if you search in several sources at once. It's not very convenient, but you won't have to pay a commission for using the services.
Vincleaning.com
Service An alternative to Carfax is the proven commercial service Vincleaning.com. By entering the VIN on the website, you can find out if the car was arrested or encumbered and is currently.
IMPORTANT! Thanks to Vincleaning.com, you can not only find out the entire history of the car, but also prepare it for sale by clearing the data in the database. The advantage of this site is that the service never loses sight of the fact that the history of the car has been successfully cleared before.
Checkcar.vin
Another commercial service, Checkcar.vin, is ready to provide data on the presence or absence of encumbrance on the car only with the identifier code. Other vehicle information is not required: it is enough to go to the site page, enter the car's VIN in the search, then check the accuracy of the displayed information. When the car card is found correctly, to obtain information about the arrest, you need to pay a fixed amount. Overall, services for checking cars for encumbrance work approximately the same. They load information from databases of state organizations and bailiffs, issuing a certificate on whether there is an arrest at the time of verification. Arrested cars can cause a lot of trouble for future owners, so in case of any doubts about the possible encumbrance, it is better to pay according to the Autobot rate, finding out about the difficulties with bailiffs, than to try to regain the rights to the car through the court.
