PNC checks are the DVLA letting us down could they do more with the log books

hannahohare

Why are vehicle right off etc cat c etc not recorded on the vehicle log book . my daughter was shopping for a car found one she loved ( facebook market place) but luckly while we were driving down to bring the money they did a pnc check to bring up it history to find it had been involved in 2 write offs cat c . As soon as the guy selling the car found out they  knew he turned really nasty . blocked them on his computer so they cant comment on the cars history .

if the dvla highlighted this on the log book less people would be vulnerable to rouge traders surly they have a responsibility to make it easier to spot the vehicles history  

Car_54

I don't understand your point.

Your daughter found the info before she saw the car, let alone the log book. Any other potential buyer could (and should) do the same.

I'm assuming you meant HPI or similar, not PNC. Using the PNC for private purposes would have been very illegal.

facade

CAT C is recorded on the V5. The insurer who writes it off as CAT S (which is what CAT C  became) has to send the V5 to DVLA as part of the process.

Then when the car is put back on the road the owner applies for a new V5 and it comes marked as CAT S.

CAT N (used to be D) the V5 isn't sent back or marked, but the write off is recorded.

A dodgy seller of a CAT S will have "lost" the V5 and knock £25 off the price for you to apply for a new one.

(A private seller doesn't need to mention that the car is CAT S or N, offer any sort of warranty or pay VAT on their markup, which is why there are so many "private sellers" who seem to sell all their family cars every week.)

It can take a while for the database to be updated and for the CAT N to show up on HPI, so if the "private seller" can bodge the car up and offload it quickly he can get top price for it.

A CAT S should always show on HPI as you need the serial number of the most recent V5 for the HPI, and if the V5 is a duplicate of the old unmarked one it will flag as not the most recent, and the most recent will be marked.