Find owner of car by license plate free

Locating the owner of a license plate for free is not a simple process. Many websites allow you to retrieve the information, although they will charge for the service. The only way to access the information for free is using the Department of Motor Vehicles in your state, although it will only provide you with the name of the person and not his address. You will need to do some sleuthing to locate an address.

Step 1

Look for clues in the license plate itself. If it is a personalized plate, can you draw any clues from this? The license plate can refer to an organization or a business that you can ask for information. Provided you have a legitimate reason for doing so, such as wanting to buy the car, a company may give you the information.

Step 2

Go to the Department of Motor Vehicles with the license plate number. Explain to an agent why you need the owner's name, and if the reason is valid, it may be provided. You may have to provide your own name in this process.

Step 3

Look up the person whose name you were provided in the White Pages or online. Once you have the person's name you will be able to find the person assuming you can research a broad area. Speak to the person on the phone and explain your business.

Step 4

Inform the police if a crime has been committed. If your car was involved in an accident, tell the police, who will search their database for the owner. However, unless there is an exceptional reason they will not share the information with you. If you are attempting to find an address to file a civil law suit, police may share the information depending on the circumstances. Consult an attorney in these cases.

References

• Car Insurance: Locate a Driver by License Plate

Writer Bio

Emile Heskey has been a professional writer since 2008, when he began writing for "The Journal" student newspaper. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in modern history and politics from Oxford University, as well as a Master of Science in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies from Edinburgh University.

Our search engine for license plate numbers is in beta development. If you notice any issues, please let us know using our Contact form.

FindbyPlate.com is a free resource for looking up license plates and reporting bad drivers. In most cases the website will identify the car and its basic information. If other users have submitted any reports about the license plate number, images, videos, comments, or even related websites, you'll be able to see that information. Please use this license plate lookup service at your own risk; we do not guarantee the validity of this information or the accuracy of the details. We also do not display VIN details or provide a VIN lookup service.

License plates (aka vehicle tags, vehicle registration number, number plates, etc.) have been around since 1893. New York was the first state to require a registration plate on vehicles, in 1903. But back then, license plates were not government-issued. Massachusetts was the first US state to provide government-issued license plates.

What does a license plate search result provide?

When you do a reverse license plate number search on FindByPlate, you will access a report about the motor vehicle, government recalls, vehicle sketch, and image. In many cases, if the license plate was previously reported, you will see images and videos submitted by our community, read comments and feedback, view related resources, and more.

If you'd like to receive additional information, you may try contacting your state or local law enforcement, DMV, motor vehicles agency, or local police department. They can provide additional information upon request and sometimes for a fee. All the information displayed on our website is in the public record.

Specialty and Vanity Plates

In most countries and states, people can register vanity and personalized license plates, with custom characters or numbers. For example, a personalized or vanity license plate may read "MY RIDE." Most countries and states prohibit profanities and obscene or offensive words or meanings in license plates. Registration is usually available on the state DMV office's official website. A driver's license is required for vanity plate registration. These specialized and vanity numbers may incur additional fees; it depends on the plate type. Contact your state Department of Motor Vehicles for more details on registration fee and procedure, or check our state pages for fees, official websites, and additional details.

Temporary Registration Plates

Some state DMVs now require temporary license plates on newly purchased or leased vehicles. Temporary tags have an expiration date, usually after 90 days (this may differ from one country or state to another). This is usually attached to the driver's license information until the actual vanity plates or regular license plates are issued and shipped.

Why Should I Report Bad Drivers?

According to US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are more than 35,000 fatal crashes in the United States each year (average based on data from 1960–2017), and more than 3 million people are injured each year. There are more than 270 million vehicles registered in the US. Bad drivers continue to break the laws until they are caught and arrested. The local police looks up license plate records to identify offenders, and sometimes they may refer to arrest records, license plate check, VIN check details, and other sources to pull historical information on lawbreakers. Reporting a bad driver will put them on a lookout and will result in safer driving. If they are arrested, public records on our website may help investigators to create a compelling case against the offenders.

Report Your Uber or Lyft Driver

Did you know that when you check your Uber or Lyft driver license plate number through the app, you don't always see the actual reviews? People refrain from posting bad reviews online, because the drivers would know who posted the bad review. But by using FindByPlate.com, you can stay 100% anonymous when posting online reviews. The driver and Uber or Lyft staff will never have access to our user records.

Searching for Vehicle License Plate Owner Information?

We constantly get emails from our users, asking us to publicly show information about a license plate owner, but it's not that easy. We have prepared a quick introduction to laws and regulations governing license plate owner information. 

How's My Driving?

Sometimes you'll see a vehicle with a "How's My Driving?" decal on it. Make sure you don't submit fake reports, and if you're planning to report, post it on FindByPlate.com as well! Search for license plate information, and report a good or bad driver.

Don't know the state?

If you are unsure of the state where the license plate was issued, you can check our License Plate Designs in the USA page. Our license plate records are updated daily, so if you don't find the information today, try coming back later for detailed license plate records.

How to look up a license plate

Do you need to look up information based on a license plate number? FindByPlate will do the work for you to find available license plate information online—for free!

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to search a license plate and report bad drivers:

1. Open a web browser
2. Go to FindByPlate.com
3. Enter the license plate number, and select state
4. View the report
5. View images submitted by the community
6. View videos submitted by the community
7. Add comments
8. Add pictures of the vehicle
9. Add videos related to the vehicle

Is it legal to look up someone's license plate?

It is perfectly legal to look up any license plate, as it is a matter of public records. But if you are trying to retrieve personally identifiable information (PII), then you should have specific DPPA (Driver's Privacy Protection Act) reasons for it. The permissible use cases are:

• for government agencies
• in connection with matters of motor vehicle or driver safety, and theft
• in the normal course of business to verify the accuracy of information provided by the car owner
• in connection with any matter before a court or arbitration proceeding
• in research activities (excluding personal information)
• for insurance purposes
• for providing notice to owners of towed cars
• by any licensed private investigative agency or licensed security service
• by employers to verify commercial driver information as required by US Code Title 49, subtitle VI, chapter 313
• by private toll transportation facilities
• for responding to requests from departments of motor vehicles
• for bulk distribution for surveys, marketing, or solicitations (requires opt-in)
• by written consent of the owner
• for other reasons (varies by state)

So running a license plate search is perfectly legal—unless you want to find out personally identifiable information, which is still legal if you have a DPPA permissible use case.

Is it legal to look up license plates in Texas?

Can you look up a license plate in Maryland?

Can I look up a license plate in Virginia?