REVS check NSW (Sydney and all of NSW): finance, stolen and written-off, from $12.95

The NSW REVS database no longer exists. What people still call a REVS check is a search of the Personal Property Securities Register, which covers every state. The steps below work for a car parked in Parramatta or in Broken Hill.

1. Type the NSW number plate into the search box, or the 17-character VIN from the rego papers or the compliance plate.
2. Check the make, model and year we show you. Nothing is charged until you confirm the car is the one in the ad.
3. Pick the certificate at $12.95 or the car check report at $27.95, then pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
4. Read the verdict page straight away. The certificate PDF follows by email, normally inside two minutes.
5. For a private sale, run the search again on the day you pay. Finance can be registered after you first looked.

The certificate answers three questions. Is there a security interest registered over the car, which usually means a loan is still owing? Is the VIN recorded as stolen? Is the car on the Written-Off Vehicle Register, and if so was the write-off statutory or repairable?

The write-off answer matters more in NSW than in most states. Repairable write-offs have not been allowed back onto NSW registration since 2011, apart from narrow exceptions such as hail damage and inherited cars. So a NSW-registered car with any write-off record deserves hard questions, and a car written off interstate and now wearing NSW plates deserves even harder ones.

The certificate also prints the plate, state, expiry, make, model and colour held against the VIN. If those do not match the car in front of you, stop and ask why.

Before paying anyone, run the plate through the Service NSW free rego check. It is the most generous free check in the country. It confirms the registration is current, names the CTP insurer and lists up to three yearly odometer readings from eSafety inspections. Those readings are the cheapest odometer sanity check you will find.

What it does not show is the part a REVS check is for. There is no finance, no stolen flag and no write-off history on the Service NSW page. It also prints only the last four characters of the VIN, so you cannot take the result to ppsr.gov.au on its own.

If you want to know how many owners the car has had, Service NSW sells a separate Vehicle History Report for NSW-registered cars. The PPSR does not hold owner counts.

Not quite, but close. The Australian Government charges $2.00 for a PPSR search at ppsr.gov.au, and you can do that yourself if you hold the full VIN. Budget Direct also gives away a limited number of certificates per mobile number in exchange for marketing consent. Either way the certificate you receive is the same document we deliver.

We charge $12.95 for the certificate and $27.95 for the report. The difference pays for the plate-to-VIN lookup, which the PPSR itself cannot do, a verdict written for buyers rather than lawyers, and two guarantees. We re-run the search free if you mistype, and we refund in full if no certificate arrives within 15 minutes.

Every price is itemised: $12.95 is the $2.00 search fee paid to the Australian Government plus a $10.95 CarVerify fee including GST.

Sydney private sales move fast, and buyers often inspect a car in a car park with the seller waiting. A plate search from your phone fits that moment. Confirm the make and model on screen, pay, and read the verdict before you hand over a deposit.

Sydney buyers also see more interstate cars than the rest of the state. A Queensland or Victorian repairable write-off can be repaired, inspected and sold legitimately in its home state. It cannot normally be registered in NSW. The certificate shows the write-off record and the state that recorded it.

• The amount owing. The register records that a lender has an interest, never the balance. Ask the seller for a payout letter.
• Owner history. Use the Service NSW Vehicle History Report for NSW owner counts.
• Accident repairs that were never claimed on insurance, mechanical condition or service history.
• Whether an odometer has been wound back. The Service NSW readings help; the PPSR holds none.