The Expert Podcast

…Today we're going to talk about running VIN checks or VIN searches and what you can obtain and not obtain, and also a method to get hidden or private records for vehicle that you may not be able to find online. First of all, What covers or what law protects drivers records Well it's called the driver's privacy protection act or D P P a. And this makes your state motor vehicle record. Private, you wouldn't want somebody looking up your private information just because they have your license plate and that's what this law protects So if you're driving down the street and maybe somebody doesn't like how you're driving or you cut them off. And they write down your license plate or they follow you to a parking lot and write down your VIN number off your dashboard. And then they look up where you live and they come knocking on your door You would not like that So, Driving records are protected under federal law called the DPA. The law was originally enacted 30 some odd years ago 1994. because of an event that happened where. I'm a fan. was stalking an actress named Rebecca Shaffer. And. Used her information to stalk her and kill the actress, wrote down her license plate. There was another incident where…A ring of home thieves I wrote down license plates that were parked in a parking lot of expensive cars called their friend. Got their home address and went to their house knowing that they weren't home and they robbed their house. So this law was passed in order to protect privacy of people Because if you did not have this law, basically your home address. Is. Taped to the back of your car. Your. License plate. Has all your information attached to it. And if it wasn't protected anybody could find that where you live just by writing down your license plate So that's where this law comes in play. So how do you do a simple search and how do you do an advanced search Well first you can do. A basic history report and you can get a link on our website of running this, where you can type in a VIN number and you can get to basic information without having to go through that DPA process And there's ways you can still find out other information but here's what you can find out. right through our website. Basic information about the vehicle As long as you have a VIN number. You can look up the year make model what state it's titled in and this is going to help you later When you want to find out more information, title records will tell you the state. And they'll tell you what date it was titled. And if there's different states before that it'll tell you that it'll tell you if it's junk, if it was in an accident if it was stolen, if it has any. flood damage fire damage rebill constructed, collision damage If it was a prior taxi that might be important to know. If it was a gray market car meaning that did it come from another country and does not conform. us. safety and equipment laws. is an agricultural vehicle, a lot of different, categories. parts only that's important to be aware of some vehicles are, categorize as parts only. does it have a nonconformity meaning that was at a, a lemon law car. Right Lemon law cars have to be reported. Was the VIN number replaced it Somebody scrape off the old van and put on a new one. Manufactured by back That's another lemon law. and then also odometer records Is the odometer not actual was it tampering Is it exceeds mechanical limits So if the odometer only goes up to a hundred thousand miles, maybe it's been rolled over in addition it'll have a mileage. record So it'll tell you how many miles are on the vehicle A hundred thousand. The reason why that's important is because if the mileage was reported earlier at a higher amount than what it is now that might indicate odometer tampering. But I'm guessing the reason you're watching this is because you want to find out more information Do you want to find out the owner's name? Lienholders name. Again those records are protected under federal law This isn't even a state law This is a federal law that all states have to abide by. So when you go to try to get this information using this secret form, You will find that the form for every state is going to have the same criteria on it And again one last reason why this is in place You might think it's inconvenient If you want to, you know, find out the lien holder or a name of an owner but here's why. case in Georgia and obsessed fan obtain the home address of a fashion model. From the DMV and assaulted her in front of her department Same thing with you. You wouldn't want somebody who's mad at you. to write down your license plate go to DMV get your name and address and show up on your door Right It's a reasonable thing. It's called the driver's privacy protection act or the D P P a. And it's strikes a fair balance between reasonable interests and rights of private citizens That's really what they…came down with. So what does the law say? The law says that the DPA. the use of drivers information to. Certain purposes they're defined in us Code 2 7, 2, 1 It's called permissible use. Things like legitimate government fund functions. Motor vehicle safety. So if you have a recall that. The the manufacturer wants to get in touch with you. market surveys legitimate business needs. To verify accuracy, civil criminal and administrative proceedings research activities. It gives you all of the reasons why this information can be released So if you are eligible for release how do you get it? Well you have to get the form There's a certain form And this is an example of one. That we'll, we'll show you that has to do with. An individual record request from the Michigan department of state. you put your name. You put, if you're an individual or company your phone number here's the most important thing they do not give this out. Anonymously So if you want to request this information, You have to…Identify yourself. Normally you have to go in person. Or mail this form in it has to be signed notarized with your ID because they want to know who is obtaining the private information on a vehicle. They have to keep it under federal law for five years So if the person who owns the vehicle comes forward and says Hey somebody was knocking on my door. They can find out who looked up their vehicle records at any point. As a requester you must select one permissible use in section seven and we'll look at those. And and provide an explanation in your own words, why you are eligible for this personal information. If you're selecting your own record then you're fine If you want to just get your own DMV records that's not a problem. Now you don't want to fake this because penalties this is Michigan. If you make a false statement, Five years in prison and a fine up to $7,000. If you do it again it's 15 years and a fine up to 15,000 So they don't play around with this You want to make sure you're only using this for proper purposes. So here's what you can ask for You can ask for driver's record. Application history on a vehicle So if you want to find out all the prior titles on the vehicle, if you want to find out. Things about driving history on a driver's license you can. who the current owner of a vehicle is? Title application history complete title history. If you want to only get a partial title history from dirt certain dates you can do that. in order to request this you have to put in the VIN number, make and model. and then you can also get registration history…You can also do an asset search where you can get all assets registered through the DMV for an individual So in this case you searched for all assets registered or titled to this owner. You put the name in and it'll give you a printout of all the vehicles owned by a person. Here's what the permissible uses are And you'll notice it's almost always in section seven because that's how it up. in the federal law. And if you look at any state it's going to have all these same wordings. Because it's taken right from the federal DPA. And I won't read them all in detail but I'll give you a couple examples of what are the common ones use a normal course of business by a legitimate business. Things like insurance companies. Things like verifying, assets for a bank. we talked about recall so connection with matters of motor vehicle safety So if you're a manufacturer and you have to issue a recall, you want to find out who owns all those vehicles. civil administrative and arbitration proceedings So if you have a lawsuit, Are you doing some civil case investigation in anticipation of litigation? So private investigators can look this up. research activities by an insurer. two. Investigate claims or fraud to an insurance company providing notice to an abandoned vehicle used by a private detective or private investigative agency. That's licensed. Used by an employer to verify information. used by rental agency for the purpose of making rental decisions, connection with operating toll company So if you have a, a toll company and somebody blows through the toll you want to write down their license plate and send them a bill You can do that. news media can use it for, motor vehicle safety. Individual requesting pertaining to himself or herself requesting information So you have to. basically I qualify for one of these permissible uses And for many consumers you may have a permissible use allowable, but you have to pick the right one because they're going to scrutinize this and they're going to keep your request on file for at least five years in most states. So the question is. How do you run a VIN search Well you'll see the link on our website. How to get a VIN search done with basic information you can do that pretty quick You can get those results instantly. You can also run a DPA search and we have, re. for that. If we run a VIN search for you. We will also send you the form, the DPA form, where you can submit that to the state to get more advanced records So our VIN searches include sending you that form that way If you want to get more advanced records you can do that…Driver's records are not public records. anybody who says they can run a VIN search and tell you the owner, unless they have permissible use of breaking the law. Can't release the owner's information. So it's very clear that this law is federal It's not individual states have, have latitude to do something different. You also can't ask a police. Officer to look it up for you They can look it up but if they give it to you they're breaking the law…You want to get the records directly? If you have a permissible use they'll give it to you If you don't have permissible use they won't give it to you. You want to make sure that you have a permissible use because even if you obtain it another way, And you use it improperly you may be violating the law. So be aware that VIN records are private and that's for your production To, again you don't want somebody who doesn't like the way you're driving. Write down your plate and coming knocking on your door to punch you in the face Cause that's not going to help you at all. Make sure that you understand the use requirements of private owner information. You can get some basic information but just not the name and address of the driver, because that's going to put everybody safety at risk.