A provenance check — what most people still call an "HPI check" — is the set of background checks that tell you whether a vehicle is safe to buy, finance or insure. Outstanding finance, write-off history, stolen markers and mileage anomalies. This guide explains what a provenance API returns and how to build it into a buying, lending or underwriting flow.
What a provenance check returns
A provenance (VDI) check draws on official and industry registers — the DVLA, the Police National Computer, the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR) and UK finance houses — to surface the risk markers on a vehicle. From a single registration you get, among others:
- Outstanding finance — whether the vehicle is subject to a current finance agreement. Buy a car with outstanding finance and the lender can reclaim it.
- Insurance write-off category — whether the vehicle has been written off and to which category (A, B, S or N).
- Stolen marker — whether the vehicle is recorded as stolen on the Police National Computer.
- Scrapped / exported markers.
- Mileage anomalies — recorded discrepancies that point to clocking.
- Plate and colour change history.
VehicleMatic's Provenance Check returns all of this in one normalized JSON response.
Understanding write-off categories
The four current UK write-off categories carry very different meanings, and your logic should treat them differently:
- Category A — scrap only. The vehicle must be crushed; it must never return to the road.
- Category B — the body shell must be crushed, though some parts may be salvaged. Never roadworthy again.
- Category S — structural damage that was economical to repair; must be re-registered with the DVLA after repair.
- Category N — non-structural damage (panels, electrics); the DVLA should be informed before it returns to the road.
For a buying flow you might warn on any category; for lending you might hard-decline Cat A/B and flag Cat S/N for manual review. Because the category is a discrete field in the response, encoding that policy is straightforward.
The response shape
POST /products/provenance-check/api/live/lookup
X-API-KEY: your_key_here
{ "registration": "AB12CDE" }
You get a structured verdict per marker, so you can gate on the exact conditions your policy cares about rather than parsing prose. See a realistic payload in the sandbox.
Building provenance into your flow
The common integrations:
- Marketplaces & dealers — run a check before a listing goes live, or offer a buyer-facing report. Pair it with valuation and imagery for a complete listing.
- Lenders & motor finance — make provenance a hard gate in underwriting: no advance against a vehicle with undisclosed outstanding finance or a serious write-off. More on this in our guide to finance & write-off checks for lenders.
- Insurers — flag write-off and stolen markers before binding, so risk isn't discovered at claim time. See validating vehicles at quote time.
If you need details, MOT history, valuation and provenance together, the Full Vehicle Check bundles them in a single call at a lower combined price than buying each separately.
Cost and billing
Provenance is the most data-intensive check in the catalog, drawing on multiple licensed registers, so it's priced accordingly — from around £2.34 per check at the best volume tier — and, as with every VehicleMatic product, you're only charged when a result is returned. Model it on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Is a "provenance check" the same as an "HPI check"? Effectively yes — "HPI" is a brand name that became shorthand for the underlying provenance/VDI check. VehicleMatic's provenance product covers the same markers: finance, write-off, stolen and mileage.
Where does the data come from? Official and industry registers including the DVLA, Police National Computer, MIAFTR and UK finance houses, via licensed data partners. See data & coverage.
Can I decline automatically on a write-off? Yes — the write-off category is a discrete field, so you can encode per-category policy (e.g. hard-decline Cat A/B, review Cat S/N).
Start with the Provenance Check product, or explore the full API catalog.