Car dealers urged to back write-off industry database campaign to protect themselves and motorists

UK car dealers are being urged to back a campaign that would create a database of written-off vehicles, changing the law to better protect the public who buy used vehicles.

Vcheck, the provenance check provider is lobbying the industry and government to compel insurance companies to register write-offs with industry databases to protect both dealers and motorists.

In the company’s most recent study of a leading used car sales website, 16,700 vehicles were identified as ex-salvage, of which 4,000 were deemed to be write-offs, but not registered on the MIAFTR database when the study was conducted, which is primarily used by all car checking companies.

Adrian Mierzwinski, founder of Vcheck, said:

“We have highlighted the issues of write-off vehicles for two years and seen a minimal movement to address the problem. There seems to be a deadlock between the insurance companies, MIB and large provenance providers. It is now time that more positive action is taken to force change and protect dealers from unknowingly selling write-offs as ‘provenance check clear’ vehicles to motorists who risk financial loss and a potentially dangerous, unroadworthy vehicle.

“Dealers face damage to their reputation and legal action if they unwittingly sell a write-off to a consumer. We’ve seen cases that range from superminis to supercars, and on each occasion, the dealer was faced with a huge amount of work and cost to resolve the situation. It is time to solve this issue once and for all.

“We understand the change for a legal requirement to record all vehicles in MIAFTR is not an overnight update, so in the meantime, we’re offering a solution to help dealers to protect themselves from the vehicles which slipped through the net, at a fixed and affordable cost. Our aim is to protect motorists in the UK, and any problematic vehicles should be detected before being advertised.”