Checking if a vehicle is insured

[ESD1711]

Is there a way to check if a vehicle is insured which doesn’t belong to you which you’ve not been involved in an accident with?

Over the years I’ve seen many folk do
It via askMID - but I note that that service is meant for the owners of vehicles and comes with data protection declarations about it being an offence to check if you’re not entitled to etc.

So - is this just a rule folk openly flaunt or is there another source to use to check this sorta thing?

We are having issues with a can that’s been left beside our house which is showing as sorn and no mot whilst on a public road…. Neighbours have already reported it through the gov website for that - but as I understand it it’s not a police issue on those grounds alone - if it was uninsured though, would it then become a police issue?

[AJB88]

I just use AskMID.

[Mammasaid]

AskMID has 2 options, one for yourself and one for another vehicle which costs £4.50 but gives more details;

[Honk]

I've heard that people use askMID with impunity.

[Jazoli]

I know people who have done dozens of askmid checks just by simply using incognito mode on their browsers.

[Pica-Pica]

Report it to the local council as abandoned.

[matjk]

I’ve heard that if you try to pay the £4.50 it will crash their entire system.
Fortunately no one has ever done this so it could just be a urban legend, like the person that purchased a copy of winzip

[Sebring440]

Jazoli said:

I know people who have done dozens of askmid checks just by simply using incognito mode on their browsers.

I know people who have done dozens of askmid checks without bothering to use incognito mode (what's that?) on their browsers.

matjk said:

I’ve heard that if you try to pay the £4.50 it will crash their entire system.
Fortunately no one has ever done this so it could just be a urban legend, like the person that purchased a copy of winzip

^^^^^ This.^^^^^

[Monkeylegend]

I dont think the police will come knocking if you put any vehicles details in.

I can say that from experience.

[Phil Dicky]

Monkeylegend said:

I dont think the police will come knocking if you put any vehicles details in.

I can say that from experience.

I'm still waiting the dawn raid.

[Jinba Ittai]

A friend of mine had a problem with similar years ago, but this car was left really awkwardly parked. Not blocking his drive, but made it incredibly difficult to get in and out with the road width/layout. He made enquires but nothing was done.

He bought a can of petrol and poured it all underneath the car then phoned the fire brigade saying a car was leaking petrol badly. They turned out and then got it towed away.

Don’t condone this obviously due to wasting resources, just retelling a story.

[HantsRat]

Report to the council. The Police won't take action unless it's being seen driven without insurance. Just because it's not shown on the insurance database, doesn't mean that it is driven without insurance.

There could be a typo on a policy (This doesn't invalidate the policy) or there could be drivers using it on a trade policy. There are lots of variables that the Police would look at if it was sighted driven, but just being parked up.. Down to the council to sort if abandoned.

[The big yin]

Google check car tax online which will get you to the GOV website .

[Ganglandboss]

I would love to know what data protection offence you are committing by looking up whether a vehicle is insured or not.

I am not an expert, but I work in loss adjusting as a technical advisor on engineering matters, so I have to do multiple tedious online courses on GDPR in order for my employer to say they have complied with the requirements of our clients, the FCA, and the ICO.

From clicking through each page as quickly as I can, in order to get to the end of course multiple choice quiz that a monkey with a pin has a half decent chance of passing, I have a vague recollection that the DPA applies to the personal data of a living individual.

Given that by typing a car registration into AskMID can only tell me whether or not a car is insured, but nothing about the registered keeper, it seems no different to getting the tax status and MOT history of a vehicle from the DVLA website.

If saying whether or not a car is insured is covered by the DPA, I'm pretty sure there would be a requirement for AskMID to have checks in place that the person requesting the information is entitled to it, and that those checks would have to be more robust than clicking 'I am over 18' on Pornhub.

If it was an offence to give out this data, I would have thought selling it would be even worse.

I suspect they just want your £4.50.

[trashbat]

Ganglandboss said:

I would love to know what data protection offence you are committing by looking up whether a vehicle is insured or not.

I am not an expert, but I work in loss adjusting as a technical advisor on engineering matters, so I have to do multiple tedious online courses on GDPR in order for my employer to say they have complied with the requirements of our clients, the FCA, and the ICO.

From clicking through each page as quickly as I can, in order to get to the end of course multiple choice quiz that a monkey with a pin has a half decent chance of passing, I have a vague recollection that the DPA applies to the personal data of a living individual.

Given that by typing a car registration into AskMID can only tell me whether or not a car is insured, but nothing about the registered keeper, it seems no different to getting the tax status and MOT history of a vehicle from the DVLA website.

If saying whether or not a car is insured is covered by the DPA, I'm pretty sure there would be a requirement for AskMID to have checks in place that the person requesting the information is entitled to it, and that those checks would have to be more robust than clicking 'I am over 18' on Pornhub.

If it was an offence to give out this data, I would have thought selling it would be even worse.

I suspect they just want your £4.50.

Pretty much.

AsKMID warn you that you might be breaching S.170 of the DPA.

Here it is: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/secti...

Setting aside what you say about personal data:

law said:

It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to prove that the obtaining, disclosing, procuring or retaining—

(a)was necessary for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime, or
...
(c) in the particular circumstances, was justified as being in the public interest.

Given that uninsured driving is both illegal and commonplace, and against the public interest, that shouldn't be too challenging.

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

Ganglandboss said:

I would love to know what data protection offence you are committing by looking up whether a vehicle is insured or not.

I am not an expert, but I work in loss adjusting as a technical advisor on engineering matters, so I have to do multiple tedious online courses on GDPR in order for my employer to say they have complied with the requirements of our clients, the FCA, and the ICO.

From clicking through each page as quickly as I can, in order to get to the end of course multiple choice quiz that a monkey with a pin has a half decent chance of passing, I have a vague recollection that the DPA applies to the personal data of a living individual.

Given that by typing a car registration into AskMID can only tell me whether or not a car is insured, but nothing about the registered keeper, it seems no different to getting the tax status and MOT history of a vehicle from the DVLA website.

If saying whether or not a car is insured is covered by the DPA, I'm pretty sure there would be a requirement for AskMID to have checks in place that the person requesting the information is entitled to it, and that those checks would have to be more robust than clicking 'I am over 18' on Pornhub.

If it was an offence to give out this data, I would have thought selling it would be even worse.

I suspect they just want your £4.50.

Indeed, I struggle to identify what DPA rules you would be breaching that £4.50 would make go away? It does seem to be more a case of "we have this really great database, how can we monetise it?"

Edited by TriumphStag3.0V8 on Monday 7th February 11:24

[jondude]

It is not infallible though. I was on it for 5 days after not renewing a policy and it can take a few days to go on it when you change insurer.

[Ian Geary]

Jinba Ittai said:

He bought a can of petrol and poured it all underneath the car then phoned the fire brigade saying a car was leaking petrol badly. They turned out and then got it towed away.

Just check the car is not a diesel.

All this guff about incognito browsers is so funny It's been pointed out in SPL before, and on this thread, that the law quoted by askmid allows access to information for reasonable purposes.

Askmid conveniently forgets to mention these in their blurb, presumably in the hope that one day someone will actually pay the £4.50.

[Fitz666]

You can also use the Vehicle Smart app.

[mattyprice4004]

Fitz666 said:

You can also use the Vehicle Smart app.

Which just takes you to the AskMID website.