Enter a registration to see how many keepers a car has had, the dates it changed hands, and whether its plate has ever been swapped.
✓Number of previous keepers
✓Dates the car changed hands
✓Plate change history
✓Latest V5C issue date
✓Plus finance, write off and stolen checks in the Full History report
The DVLA records the registered keeper, the person responsible for the car, which is not necessarily its legal owner. A lease or company car can run for years with the driver as keeper while a finance house owns it outright. That distinction is exactly why a keeper count alone is not a provenance check, and why the finance search in the Full History report matters when money is about to change hands.
One careful owner from new is a genuine plus, but a longer list is not automatically bad. Cars sold on quickly can simply have been through a dealer or two, and an eight year old car with four keepers is unremarkable. What deserves a closer look is a recent flurry, three keepers in eighteen months on an older car often means something about it keeps disappointing people.
A private registration moving on or off a car breaks the trail that most casual checks follow. It is completely legitimate and very common, but it is also the easiest way for an unhappy history to look clean. We show whether the plate has been changed, so you know to look at the vehicle record rather than trusting the number on the bumper.
Enter the registration and the report shows the number of previous keepers recorded against the vehicle, with the dates it changed hands.
It can, particularly on younger cars, because buyers read it as a warning. On an older car it matters far less than service history and condition.
No, and neither can any other check. Personal details of keepers are protected under data protection law. What is available is how many there have been and when the car changed hands.