Unrecorded salvage
Not every damaged car makes it onto the official register. We check the ones that don’t.
Insurance write-off databases only capture cars that were claimed against. Vehicles repaired without an insurance claim — or bought damaged at auction — can slip through with no marker. We sweep auction and salvage data to find damage the official register missed.
5%
have unrecorded damage
140k
salvage auction listings per year
£0
on the official write-off register
How it happens
A car is damaged but the owner doesn’t claim on insurance — maybe the excess is too high, or they don’t want to lose their no-claims. The car is repaired privately and sold. There’s no write-off marker because no insurer was ever involved.
Where we look
Salvage auction records, trade-only listings, and insurance industry data feeds. If a vehicle has appeared at a salvage auction or been listed as damaged-and-repairable outside the official write-off process, we surface it.
Why it matters
A car with unrecorded damage might look clean on every other check. The MOT might pass. The write-off register might show nothing. But the structural integrity, the paint quality, and the long-term reliability can all be compromised. This check catches what the others miss.