MotorSnoopStart a check

Terms of Service

MotorSnoop Terms of Service. Version 1.0. Last updated: 9 October 2026.

These terms apply when you use the MotorSnoop website and when you buy a MotorSnoop report. Please read them before you buy. The parts that matter most are in bold: how cancellation works (section 6), the conditions on the vehicle data in your report (section 8) and our responsibility to you (section 11).

The key points

1. About us and these terms

1.1 MotorSnoop is run by MOTORSNOOP LTD, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 17279674. Our registered office is 167-169 Great Portland Street, London, England, W1W 5PF. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZC176926. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean MOTORSNOOP LTD, and "you" means the person using our website or buying a report.

1.2 You can contact us by email at hello@motorsnoop.com, or by post at our registered office.

1.3 These terms, our privacy notice (www.motorsnoop.com/privacy) and our refunds policy (www.motorsnoop.com/refunds) make up the agreement between us. If these terms and the refunds policy say different things, the one that is better for you applies. The version of these terms that applies to a purchase is the version shown on our website when you paid.

1.4 Who the service is for. To buy a report you must be 18 or over and buying for your own personal purposes, not for a trade, business or profession. Reports cover vehicles registered in the United Kingdom. They do not cover vehicles registered in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

1.5 Words we use.

2. What we provide

2.1 Free parts of the website. Our website, our guides and the registration lookup at the start of checkout are free. The free lookup uses public MOT records to show basic details of the vehicle, such as its make, model and colour, so that you can confirm it is the right one. It is for identification only, and it may sometimes be unavailable.

2.2 The report. A report covers one vehicle, identified by the registration you give us, in up to three parts:

2.3 The verdict. Each report ends in one of three verdicts: "Nothing found in our checks", "Something to check" or "Serious concerns found". The verdict is decided by fixed rules applied to the records. The same facts always give the same verdict.

2.4 No artificial intelligence. Reports are produced by fixed rules and set wording. We do not use artificial intelligence to write reports or to decide verdicts, and we never send vehicle data to an artificial intelligence service.

2.5 Sources. The report names the source and the check date behind each fact, in neutral terms. Naming a source does not mean that the source has approved MotorSnoop or your report, or that we have a direct contract with every register behind our vehicle data supplier's data.

3. What the report is, and what it is not

3.1 A snapshot. The report sets out what the records we checked showed on the check date. Records change. A marker can be added or removed after the check date, and your report is not updated.

3.2 What an absence means. Where a register did not record a marker, the report says that the marker was not recorded in the registers we checked on the check date. That is a statement about the records, not a promise about the car. If a register could not be checked, the report says so. It never treats a register it did not check as showing nothing.

3.3 Not advice, and not a promise about the car. The report and its verdict are information to help you make your own decision. They are not professional, legal, mechanical or financial advice, and they are not a guarantee about the car. They do not replace seeing the car in person, checking that its details match its registration certificate (V5C), a test drive, or an inspection by an independent qualified mechanic. The decision to buy, and the price you agree, are yours.

3.4 What records cannot show. Registers depend on what is reported to them. Some events are never reported, and some are reported late or wrongly. For example, damage that never led to an insurance claim may never be recorded. The records also describe the registration you gave us: they cannot tell you whether the car in front of you is the vehicle that registration belongs to.

3.5 The verdict is not a decision about you. The verdict is produced automatically, by fixed rules. It describes the records about a vehicle. It is not a decision about you, it does not have any legal effect on you, and it does not decide whether you can buy, insure or finance the car. If you think a verdict rests on a fact that is wrong, email us. A person will review it and reply, and section 7 explains how we put things right.

4. Ordering and paying

4.1 How an order works. You enter the registration, confirm the vehicle shown by the free lookup, and give us your email address. You tell us whether the seller is a private individual or a dealer and, if you wish, paste the advert and a dealer's company number. You then tick three confirmations, described in sections 6 and 8, and pay on Stripe's hosted checkout page.

4.2 Your details. Please check what you give us. We check the registration you enter, and the report is about that registration. We send your link to the email address you enter. If the free lookup could not confirm the vehicle, you can still continue, but please make sure the registration is right.

4.3 Price. A report costs £14.99, in pounds sterling. That is the total price: there are no booking fees, card fees or other extra charges. We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged.

4.4 Payment through Stripe. We are the seller, and we are responsible for your purchase. Payments are processed for us by Stripe. You enter your card details on Stripe's hosted page, never on ours, and we never see your full card number. Stripe's own terms and privacy notice apply to the details you give Stripe.

4.5 A hold first, then the charge. When you pay, Stripe places a hold for £14.99 on your card. We take the payment only once your report has been built. If we cannot complete your report, for example because a data source is unavailable or holds no record for the registration, we release the hold and you pay nothing. Your bank may take a few days to remove the hold from your statement. If you do not finish paying within 60 minutes of starting checkout, the checkout lapses and nothing is held or charged.

4.6 When our contract starts. Our contract starts when Stripe confirms the hold on your card. If we then cannot complete your report, the contract ends, the hold is released, and neither of us owes the other anything.

4.7 Your statement and receipts. The payment appears on your card statement as MTRSNOOP. After payment we send you, by email, a receipt and a confirmation of your order that records the delivery request and acknowledgement you gave at checkout.

4.8 Orders we may refuse. We may refuse or cancel an order before your report is built, for example if the registration is not a recognised UK format, if the order details look false, or for the reasons in section 8.8. If we do, we release any hold.

5. Delivery and access

5.1 Your link. We email you a secure link to your report, usually within a few minutes of payment. The email contains the link and nothing else: never any details of the vehicle or of the report. If it has not arrived within an hour, check your spam folder and then email us.

5.2 Keep your link private. Anyone who has the link can open the report, so do not forward or share it. We store only a scrambled fingerprint of your link, not the link itself, so we cannot look it up or send it again. We cannot issue a replacement link at present, so please keep the email.

5.3 How long you can open it. Your link works for 180 days from purchase. After that it stops working, and we may not be able to provide the report again. You may keep a saved or printed copy for your own records, as section 8.5 allows.

5.4 How long we keep it. We keep each report for 365 days from purchase, for our records and to deal with any questions or complaints, and then delete it. We do not keep the raw data our vehicle data supplier sends us: we use it to build your report and then discard it. We never refresh or re-run the checks in a report you have bought. A new check is a new report.

5.5 If the link does not reach you. If our email with your link does not reach you, tell us and we will refund you in full, as our refunds policy explains.

5.6 What you need. The report is a web page. To open it you need an internet connection and an up-to-date web browser.

5.7 If our access to vehicle data ends. If we stop having access to vehicle data, reports you have already bought stay available for the rest of their 180 days. We will not run new checks, or refresh or re-check existing reports, unless we are allowed to.

6. Your right to cancel

6.1 If you are a consumer, you normally have 14 days to cancel a purchase of digital content made online, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. That right ends once supply begins, if you asked for supply to start straight away and acknowledged that you would lose the right.

6.2 At checkout you tick two separate boxes. In the first, you ask MotorSnoop to start and deliver your report straight away. In the second, you confirm that you understand that once delivery begins you give up your 14-day right to cancel under those Regulations. We cannot take your order without both.

6.3 Delivery begins when we start building your report, which is as soon as Stripe confirms the hold on your card. Reports usually finish within minutes, so the time to cancel is short. If you email us before delivery begins, we will cancel your order and release the hold.

6.4 Our refunds policy goes further than the law requires. If you tell us within 14 days of purchase that the report was not useful to you, we will refund you. The refunds policy explains the limits, for example where repeated refund requests look like misuse. This is in addition to your rights in section 7.

7. If something is wrong with your report

7.1 Your legal rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, your report must be as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for its purpose, and we must use reasonable care and skill in producing it. If it falls short, you are entitled to have the problem put right or, if that cannot be done within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, to a price reduction, which can be a full refund. Nothing in these terms takes those rights away. Citizens Advice can explain them.

7.2 How we put it right. Email hello@motorsnoop.com and tell us what you think is wrong. A person reads every message and replies within two working days. Each check is a fresh, paid look-up against the records, so where a report failed or was wrong because of our error, we will usually put it right by refunding you in full. We will also tell you what went wrong.

7.3 What is not a fault in the report. A report that accurately sets out unwelcome records is doing its job. A report is also not faulty because the records changed after the check date, or because a register recorded something wrongly, late or incompletely and the report accurately set out what the register showed. Our refunds policy may still give you a refund in some of these cases.

7.4 How refunds are paid. A person issues every refund, to the card you paid with, within two working days of agreeing it. Banks and card providers usually take five to ten working days to show it.

7.5 Your card provider. Nothing in these terms limits your right to raise a dispute with your card provider. While a dispute about a payment is open, we suspend access to the report it paid for. If the dispute is closed in our favour, access is restored for the rest of the access period. If the payment is reversed, access does not return. We would rather put things right directly, so please contact us first if something is wrong.

8. Vehicle data: conditions of use

Some of the information in your report is vehicle data that we license from our vehicle data supplier. Our licence requires us to make the conditions in this section part of our contract with you. When you tick the purpose confirmation at checkout and buy a report, you agree to them.

8.1 Only for a vehicle you have a legitimate reason to check. At checkout you confirm that you have a legitimate reason to check the vehicle, for example that you are thinking of buying it. A legitimate reason is a genuine, personal reason connected with that particular vehicle, such as considering buying it, having agreed to buy it, or helping a member of your family or household decide whether to buy it. You must not order a check to find out about a person, out of general curiosity, or for any trade, business, research or commercial purpose. We may ask you to explain your reason.

8.2 No sharing, publishing or reselling. Your report is for your own decision about that vehicle. You may show it to people directly involved in that decision, such as a member of your household who is buying with you, a mechanic or adviser who is helping you, or the seller while you discuss the sale. Apart from that, you must not publish, post, forward, sell, license or give away your report, the vehicle data in it, or the link to it.

8.3 No databases and no bulk use. You must not use the service, or any report, to build or add to a database, index, list, dataset or lookup service of any kind. You must not place bulk, repeated or systematic orders, or use automated tools, scripts or scraping to reach the service or any report. We apply limits and monitor use to detect and prevent this.

8.4 Vehicle identification numbers. Reports show no more than the last three characters of a vehicle identification number (VIN). If an advert you paste contains a full VIN, we hide it when you submit it. You must not use the service to obtain, rebuild or confirm a full VIN, or to link a VIN to a registration.

8.5 Keeping copies. You may keep one saved or printed copy of your report for your own records about that vehicle. You must not copy the vehicle data into any other system, store it where other people can reach it, or keep it once you no longer need it for that purpose. The vehicle data is accurate only as at the check date, so do not reuse it for a later or different enquiry: buy a new check instead.

8.6 Data protection. A report can contain information that relates to identifiable people, such as keeper changes or the officers of a dealer company. You must handle it lawfully, under UK data protection law, and only for the purpose in section 8.1.

8.7 Telling us about misuse. If you think your report, its link or the vehicle data in it has been misused, lost or seen by someone who should not have it, for example because your email account was accessed, tell us promptly at hello@motorsnoop.com. We may have to tell our vehicle data supplier about a breach of these conditions, or about a security incident involving vehicle data, and share with it the information it needs to look into it. Our privacy notice explains this.

8.8 Our right to suspend or refuse. We may refuse or cancel your orders, suspend or end your access to reports, and refuse future orders if we reasonably believe that you have broken the conditions in this section, that an order is fraudulent, or that the service is being used in bulk or systematically, or if our vehicle data supplier or the law requires it. We will tell you what we have done and why, unless the law or a security reason prevents us. If we end your access to a report you paid for when you have not broken these terms, we will refund you in full.

8.9 Ownership of the vehicle data. The vehicle data belongs to our vehicle data supplier or the organisations it licenses it from. Buying a report gives you only the rights to use it that this section sets out.

9. Using our website

9.1 Our guides and other free content are general information. They are not advice about any particular vehicle, and they may change.

9.2 You must not:

9.3 We may change, suspend or withdraw free parts of the website at any time. We take reasonable care to keep reports available for their 180 days, but the website may sometimes be interrupted, for example for maintenance.

10. Information you give us

10.1 If you paste an advert, it should be the advert as published for the vehicle you are checking. Please do not add anything else, such as other people's personal details. You keep any rights you have in what you paste, and you allow us to use it to produce your report and as our privacy notice explains.

10.2 Our privacy notice explains how we collect and use your personal data, how long we keep it, and your rights.

11. Our responsibility to you

11.1 If we break these terms or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of that. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it was obvious that it would happen or if, when you bought the report, both of us knew it might happen.

11.2 What we never exclude. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for breach of your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 described in section 7.1, or for anything else for which the law does not allow us to limit or exclude liability.

11.3 Loss we did not cause. We are not responsible for loss that was not caused by our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. For example, we are not responsible for loss caused by:

11.4 Business losses. We supply reports for private use only. If you use the service for any trade or business purpose despite section 1.4, we are not responsible for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.

11.5 Damage to your device. If digital content we supply damages a device or digital content belonging to you because we did not use reasonable care and skill, we will repair the damage or pay you fair compensation.

11.6 Events outside our control. If something outside our reasonable control, such as the failure of a data source, delays or prevents your report, we will release the hold or, if you were charged, refund you. We are not responsible for the delay.

12. Businesses named in reports

12.1 For dealers, the seller section reports the company's record at Companies House on the check date. Those facts can be incomplete or out of date, and they are not an allegation of wrongdoing. We do not research, rate or report on private individuals.

12.2 If you run a business named in a report and believe something in it is wrong, email hello@motorsnoop.com. We will review it within five working days and keep a record of what we decide.

13. Our intellectual property

13.1 We own the MotorSnoop name and logo, our website, and the design and wording of our reports.

13.2 Buying a report gives you a personal, non-transferable right to use that report for the purpose in section 8.1, while your link works and in any copy you keep under section 8.5. You may not copy, adapt or republish our website or reports, except as these terms allow.

14. Complaints, disputes and the law

14.1 Complaints. Email hello@motorsnoop.com, or write to us at our registered office. Tell us the email address you used and roughly when you bought, so that we can find your order. A person reads every complaint and replies within two working days, with a full response within 14 days.

14.2 Independent help. We are not a member of an alternative dispute resolution scheme. For free, independent advice, you can contact Citizens Advice in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland, or Consumerline in Northern Ireland.

14.3 Which law applies. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer law that applies where you live.

14.4 Which courts. You can bring legal proceedings about these terms in the courts of the part of the UK where you live. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can choose the courts of England and Wales instead.

15. Other important terms

15.1 Changes to these terms. We may update these terms, for example to reflect a change in the law or in our service. A change applies only to orders placed after we publish the new version. We show the version and date at the top of this page, and we keep earlier versions.

15.2 Transferring this agreement. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will tell you if that affects a report you can still open, and it will not reduce your rights. You may not transfer your rights, because the conditions in section 8 are personal to you.

15.3 Nobody else has rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. Nobody else has any right to enforce it.

15.4 If part of these terms is invalid. If a court decides that part of these terms is unlawful, the rest still applies.

15.5 If we delay. If we do not insist straight away that you do something these terms require, we can still insist on it later.

15.6 Language. These terms are in English, and we will deal with you in English.

Version 1.0, effective 10 October 2026.