Reg Lookup

Terms of use.

Last updated 25 October 2026. This replaces all earlier versions.

These terms apply whenever you use Reg Lookup, including the single lookup, the bulk lookup page, the DVLA tax and vehicle details, the AI buyer summary and anything else on this site. By using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

1. What the site is

Reg Lookup is an independent, free service that shows information about a vehicle, such as its MOT history, tax status and basic details, when you enter its registration number. It gets that information from the DVSA MOT history service and the DVLA's vehicle enquiry service, and for buses and minibuses it adds fleet details from whensmybus.co.uk. For the optional buyer summary it also uses an AI language model hosted by NVIDIA.

Reg Lookup is provided by SYNK Team, referred to in these terms as "SYNK Team", "we" or "us". It is not part of, endorsed by or connected with the DVSA, the DVLA, the Department for Transport, NVIDIA or any other government body or company. How the site handles personal information is explained in the privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

2. Using the site

You may use the site for lawful, personal or business purposes, such as checking a vehicle you own, are thinking of buying or operate. When you use it, you agree that you will not:

Using results in your own work, for example a spreadsheet of your fleet, is fine. Please keep to the licence conditions in section 6 if you republish the data.

3. Usage limits

To keep the site fast and to be fair to the services behind it, these limits apply to each visitor:

The site also limits the total number of summaries it will write across all visitors each minute. These limits can change without notice. If you reach one, wait and try again. If you need far more than this, please ask first.

4. Accuracy and what it is not

The information is shown as the DVSA and the DVLA supply it. It can be incomplete, delayed or wrong, and the site cannot correct it. In particular:

Reg Lookup is not a vehicle history check. It does not show outstanding finance, whether a vehicle has been stolen, written off or clocked, previous keepers or insurance. It is also not legal, financial or mechanical advice. Do not rely on it alone to decide whether a vehicle is legal to drive, safe, correctly described or worth buying. Check the official GOV.UK services, the V5C logbook, the seller and the vehicle itself.

Details the site works out itself. Some of what you see is not supplied by the DVSA or the DVLA but is calculated by this site from the data they do supply. This covers a vehicle's age, the area its plate was issued in, its type (taken from the type approval code), an estimated Euro emissions standard where the DVLA does not give one, an estimate of whether it is likely to be charged in London's ULEZ or Birmingham's Clean Air Zone, a note that it may be exempt from the MOT because of its age, the standard road tax rate from GOV.UK's published tables, average yearly mileage taken from MOT readings, and fuel economy and cost estimated from the CO₂ figure and the latest weekly pump price. These are estimates based on published rules and on dates and fuel types in the records. They can be wrong. Zone rules and boundaries change, a vehicle may have been modified, imported or re-registered, a cherished or transferred plate shows where the plate was issued and not where the vehicle is, and many vehicles, such as buses, lorries and motorcycles, follow different rules. Always check the official ULEZ checker and Clean Air Zone checker on GOV.UK before you drive in a zone, and the vehicle's own documents before you rely on any exemption. Tax rates change, usually each April, and the site's copy of them can be out of date. What you actually pay is set by the DVLA, and your real fuel use will differ from an estimate. You remain responsible for any charge, fine or penalty, and for checking what you owe, whatever this site said.

5. The AI buyer summary

The buyer summary is an optional feature that is only run when you press its button. This section applies to it in addition to everything else in these terms.

What it is. The site works out a set of facts from a vehicle's MOT record, such as the number of tests and failures, the mileage readings, advisories that keep recurring and the MOT and tax status. Where it has already looked them up, it adds the DVLA details, its own estimates (such as emission zones, road tax and fuel cost) and, for a bus, the fleet details. An AI language model then turns those facts into a few sentences. It is a reading of the record on the page, and it is not an inspection, a valuation or a professional opinion.

It can be wrong. AI models make mistakes. Even when the facts they are given are right, a summary may misread a figure, leave out something important, put emphasis in the wrong place, repeat a mistake that is already in the record or describe something with more confidence than it deserves. Each summary is marked as written by an AI for this reason. It may also differ between two requests for the same vehicle.

Do not rely on it. Do not use a summary as the basis for a decision about buying, selling, insuring, repairing or driving a vehicle. Always check it against the record shown on the page and against the vehicle itself, and get a proper inspection from a qualified person before you buy.

What it will not do. It does not say whether a vehicle is a good buy, how much it is worth or whether it is safe. It is told not to accuse anyone of clocking a vehicle or of any other wrongdoing, and you must not treat a remark about odd mileage readings as proof of anything. Readings that look inconsistent are most often typing mistakes by testers.

If you share it. If you pass a summary on to anyone else, for example in an advert or a message, say that it was written by an AI from unofficial data and that it may contain errors. Do not present it as an official report, as the view of a mechanic or dealer, or as something the DVSA, the DVLA or NVIDIA has produced or approved.

How your data is used. What is sent to the AI service, what is not, and how long anything is kept are explained in section 4 of the privacy policy. In short, only a digest of the vehicle record is sent, without the registration number or any information about you.

The service behind it. The model and the company that provides it can be changed, limited, made unavailable or withdrawn at any time, by SYNK Team or by the AI provider, without notice. When that happens the button may stop working or may disappear.

6. Third-party data and licences

The vehicle data belongs to the DVSA and the DVLA and is made available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This site contains public sector information licensed under that licence. If you reuse the data, you need to follow the licence, which includes acknowledging the source with the words "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0". The licence does not cover personal data, and it does not allow you to suggest any official status or endorsement.

The DVSA and the DVLA have their own terms for their services, and they can withdraw or change those services at any time. The same applies to NVIDIA, whose model writes the buyer summary, and NVIDIA's own terms apply to its service. Bus fleet details come from whensmybus.co.uk, which SYNK Team also runs, and the open data behind it. That service can change or end at any time, and its records can be out of date. The site has no control over the DVSA, the DVLA or NVIDIA. The DVLA information is fetched from the public pages of its vehicle enquiry service, and the site may stop providing it at any time, for example if the DVLA changes or restricts that service.

7. Availability and changes

The site is free and provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. It depends on services run by others, so it may be slow, incomplete or unavailable at times. When the DVLA service is down, the tax and DVLA details simply do not appear, and when the AI service is down or busy, no summary can be written. SYNK Team may change, suspend or close any part of the site, or the whole site, at any time and without notice, and has no duty to keep it running or to keep the same features.

8. Ownership, fonts and summary text

The design, text and code of the site belong to SYNK Team, apart from the third-party data above and the fonts. You may view the site and make personal copies of what you see, for example by saving a bulk lookup as a CSV file, but you may not copy the site itself or present it as your own. The fonts, Geist and DM Mono, are open source and are used under the SIL Open Font Licence.

SYNK Team does not claim ownership of the text of a buyer summary and you may use it for your own personal or business purposes, subject to section 5. SYNK Team cannot promise that the text is free of the rights of others or that it is unique, because it is generated by a model and may resemble text produced for someone else.

The site links to external sites such as GOV.UK, Transport for London, the Clean Air Zone checker and the Information Commissioner's Office. Those sites are not controlled by this one, and their content and privacy practices are their own responsibility.

10. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes anyone's liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law. It also does not affect any statutory rights you have as a consumer.

Subject to that, and because the site is free and the information comes from third parties and from an AI model:

If you use the site for a business, you use it at your own risk and are responsible for checking anything that matters before acting on it. If a court finds SYNK Team liable to you despite these terms, the total amount is limited to the amount you paid to use the site, which is nothing.

11. Suspending or blocking access

If you break these terms, overload the site, or SYNK Team has good reason to think you are misusing it, your access can be slowed, limited or blocked without notice. Anything that breaks the law may be reported to the relevant authorities.

12. Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time, for example when a feature is added or the AI provider changes. The new version applies from the date at the top of this page, and continuing to use the site after that means you accept it. If a change would be significant, SYNK Team will try to make it clear on the site.

13. Governing law

These terms, and any dispute about them or the site, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring a claim in the courts of the part of the UK where you live.

14. General

If any part of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. If SYNK Team does not enforce a right straight away, that does not mean the right has been given up. These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and SYNK Team about your use of the site. You cannot transfer your rights under them to anyone else. A person who is not a party to these terms has no right to enforce them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

15. Contact

For questions, corrections or to report a problem, including a summary that is wrong or harmful, email blake@hostedbysynk.com.