How To Run A Vin# To Check Car Title

So, how do you run a VIN number check on a vehicle to check out the title or check out the vehicle history? Well, there’s four different things that many times people want to check on a VIN number.

Four Key Checks
Number one is if it’s stolen or not. Number two is if there’s liens on the car. Number three is who the prior owner is or what is the prior owner history. And the last one is a salvage brand or some type of collision history.

Different Methods for Different Checks
Each one of those searches is done in a different way and in a different place. Only about half of those can be done online and sometimes not even that.

Checking If a Vehicle Is Stolen
Only a law enforcement officer can check if it’s stolen. There’s nothing online that you can do to see if it’s stolen accurately. There’s a few third-party websites that might have those records, but they might be outdated. They might not be up-to-date. So only a local police officer, given that VIN number, can check if it’s stolen. But that’s all they can check. They can’t tell you if there’s a lien on it. They can’t tell you if it’s a salvage title. They can’t tell you who owns it.

Checking for a Salvage Title
If you want to check a salvage title, you’re going to go through CARFAX. CARFAX is probably the best source to find out if there’s any damaged or collision brands on the title, salvage, rebuilt, certificate of destruction, any of those other brands. That’s where you’re going to get information from CARFAX.

Checking for Liens and Owner History
The remaining items are liens and owners. Well, those two records are covered under a federal law called the DPPA, Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. The information is restricted for release under that law out of privacy for prior owners and banks. So anything other than the government DMV records is not going to be a hundred percent.

Accessing Restricted Records
In order to get those DPPA records, you’re going to have to go through a licensed private investigator like one of the things we do. But be aware that not all the records may be able to be released to you if you’re not the legal titled owner.

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