When you lend against a vehicle, the vehicle is your security. If it already carries outstanding finance, has been written off, or is worth far less than the customer claims, the loan is impaired before the first payment. This guide explains how lenders and motor-finance brokers use provenance and valuation data to protect the loan book — as an automated gate in the underwriting flow.
The three risks a vehicle can hide
At the point of advancing funds, three data-driven risks matter most:
- Outstanding finance. If there's a current agreement registered against the vehicle, another lender has a prior claim. Advance against it and you may be lending on security you can't recover.
- Write-off history. A vehicle recorded as a Category A, B, S or N write-off is worth materially less and may be unsuitable as security regardless of its apparent condition.
- Over-valuation. Loan-to-value decisions built on a customer's estimate — or a stale book value — set the wrong advance.
Each is checkable in seconds before you commit.
Provenance as a hard underwriting gate
A Provenance Check returns the risk markers you underwrite against, drawn from official and industry registers (DVLA, Police National Computer, MIAFTR, UK finance houses):
- Outstanding finance agreement present / absent
- Write-off category (A/B/S/N)
- Stolen marker
- Mileage anomalies
Because each marker is a discrete field, you can encode policy directly: hard-decline on outstanding finance or a Category A/B write-off; route Category S/N or a mileage anomaly to manual review; auto-proceed when clean. That turns underwriting from a manual look-up into a deterministic, auditable step.
POST /products/provenance-check/api/live/lookup
X-API-KEY: your_key_here
{ "registration": "AB12CDE" }
Set LTV against a real valuation
For loan-to-value, replace estimates with a current market valuation. Vehicle Valuation returns trade, retail and private values for the specific vehicle, so your advance is set against a defensible number rather than a customer's optimism. Combined with provenance, you're underwriting against the asset you think you're financing — not the one described to you.
A lender's decision flow
- Customer provides the registration.
- Call Provenance Check → apply your decline/review/proceed policy.
- Call Vehicle Valuation → set LTV against trade/retail value.
- Optionally confirm attributes with Vehicle Details.
For convenience, the Full Vehicle Check bundles details, MOT history, valuation and provenance in one call. It all maps to the finance & lending solution, and every product shares one API key and one normalized schema.
Speed and cost
Manual provenance and valuation checks slow approvals; automating them removes that friction while tightening controls. Billing is pay-per-lookup on credits, charged only on successful lookups, with no contract — so check costs scale with application volume. See the pricing page or the cost calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Can I detect outstanding finance before lending? Yes — the provenance check flags whether a current finance agreement is registered against the vehicle.
How should I treat different write-off categories? Policy varies by lender; a common approach is hard-decline on Cat A/B and manual review on Cat S/N, all driven by the discrete category field.
What valuation should I use for LTV? Trade or retail depending on your policy — both are returned by the valuation product for the specific vehicle.
Explore the finance & lending solution or start with Provenance Check.