Buyers often want to know whether tax is paid and whether the MOT is current before they travel to a viewing. Car Buyer Check can show DVLA licensing fields when that service responds: tax status and due date, MOT status and expiry date, and related snapshot lines on the government record. These are point-in-time licensing facts, not a list of past defects.
Licensing snapshot versus MOT History
DVLA MOT status tells you what the licensing database holds today — for example valid until an expiry date. DVSA MOT History holds dated tests with pass/fail results, mileage, and tester comments. The engine surfaces dvla-mot-status and dvla-tax-status findings when those fields are present, with interpretation that tax and MOT status are not mechanical condition reports.
A valid MOT on the snapshot does not prove advisories were fixed or that the car is safe. Defect patterns still come from the MOT timeline in the buyer report. If MOT History is missing entirely, limitations explain that tax/MOT status alone is not a defect history.
After you enter the registration
Use the plate form at the top. The free check and the buyer report are built from MOT History. They do not show current tax status or MOT expiry. Confirm those on GOV.UK and the V5C.
- Confirm live status on GOV.UK before you drive the car — our snapshot can age.
- Read export marking on the record if shown; it is a separate DVLA finding when present.
- Do not use tax band tables here; we show status lines from DVLA, not annual rate calculators.
When DVLA is unavailable
Some lookups return MOT History only or fail when government services are down. The report fails closed with limitations rather than guessing tax or MOT status. Retry on the production site if a preview deployment blocks live API access.