The VIN numbers of all previously insured written-off vehicles will soon be published on an open website, allowing consumers to know if the vehicle they are considering has been in a serious collision and has been written off before.
Richard Green, national director of Sambra, said the VSD will provide private buyers and car dealers the opportunity to make informed decisions. There were several other cases of unwitting consumers buying second hand cars they didn’t know had been previously written off. Without a register to refer to, there was no way of stopping these cars from finding themselves back into the system, said Sambra.
“This is where the system goes awfully wrong, as the unsuspecting buyers often end up with a vehicle that has previously been written off by an insurer — who is unaware of the subsequent sale — and deemed uneconomical to repair. It also has not been reclassified as a code 3 vehicle and the purchaser has no way of checking the history.”