Previous owners check: how many owners has a car had?

The V5C records the registered keeper — the person who keeps and uses the car — which isn’t always the legal owner. A car on finance belongs to the lender until it’s paid off, and a company or leased car often has a business as its keeper. A motor dealer that buys a car to sell on usually isn’t added as a keeper at all, so a car can pass through more hands than the count shows.

So “two previous owners” really means two previous registered keepers. On a nearly new car, one of them is often a dealership or leasing company.

• Lots of keepers in a short time can mean a car people move on quickly — sometimes because of a fault nobody wants to fix. It’s worth asking about.
• A recent change of keeper on a car that’s already for sale again is worth a question too: why sell so soon?
• The count isn’t the condition. How the car has been looked after matters more. The manufacturer’s dealer service records show where and how often it was serviced, and a move between dealers in different areas often lines up with a change of keeper.
• The MOT mileage tells a story. A change in how far the car travels each year often coincides with a new owner — the free MOT history shows the reading at every test.

Not as a buyer. DVLA keeps keepers’ names and addresses private and releases them only with a “reasonable cause” — its examples include finding out who was responsible for an accident and tracing the keeper of an abandoned vehicle. Wanting to know who owned a car you’re buying isn’t among them.

If you’re the current keeper, you can ask DVLA for the information it holds about you and your vehicle with a free subject access request. The paperwork can help too: old service invoices and the service book sometimes show the garage a previous owner used.

• Outstanding finance, with the lender, the type of agreement, when it started and its term.
• Stolen: whether the car is recorded as stolen on the Police National Computer, with the police force to contact.
• Insurance write-offs: the category (A, B, S or N, or the older C and D), the date of the loss and where the damage was.
• Salvage auctions: any listing, with the lot description, damage, mileage and links to the auction photos where they exist.
• DVLA history: scrapped, exported and imported markers, plate changes, colour changes, the number of previous keepers and V5C logbook dates.
• Experian’s Data Guarantee: up to £10,000 for 12 months from the check if the finance, stolen or write-off data turns out to be wrong. The check must be run before you buy, and Experian’s terms apply.

It gives the number of keepers and the dates, never who they were.

Data provided by Experian. The car check is £12.99 on its own, or £8.00 added to a manufacturer service history check (£17.99 for both). Your card is authorised when you pay and charged only for what’s delivered. It comes with Experian’s Data Guarantee: up to £10,000, or the car’s market value if lower, for 12 months from the check, if the finance, stolen or write-off data is wrong (Experian’s terms apply, and claims go to Experian). Finance and theft records change daily, so check again on the day you buy.