Key facts
- Tool: FLHSMV Motor Vehicle Information Check, free, at services.flhsmv.gov/MVCheckWeb. Accepts a VIN or a Florida title number.
- Returns (Florida-titled records only): title status, title brand(s), lien/lienholder information, odometer reading at last Florida titling, basic vehicle description and registration events.
- Does not return: accident/collision/damage records, salvage-auction sale records, out-of-state title or registration history, prior-owner count.
- Salvage threshold: an insurer paying to replace the vehicle (or paying out on theft); or, for an uninsured vehicle, a repair cost of 80% or more of a like-kind replacement (Fla. Stat. s. 319.30(3)(a)). The 80% figure is the uninsured-vehicle test, not a universal one.
- Flood brand: FLHSMV must brand a flood-damaged title conspicuously (s. 319.14(1)(b)); insurers brand total-loss floods "salvage flood."
- The title-washing gap: FLHSMV states a car branded flood in another state "can be sold in Florida with a clean title" because title standards vary by state. NMVTIS is the national fix.
- Flood context: CARFAX estimated up to 482,000 water-damaged cars were already on U.S. roads at the start of 2025, with up to 45,000 more flood-damaged by the mid-year storms; Florida and Texas lead the nation. These are CARFAX estimates, not government counts.
What the FLHSMV free check returns vs. what it won't show
The single most useful thing to understand before you buy in Florida is the boundary of the free tool. It is authoritative for one thing (the Florida legal title record) and blind to everything that happened before or outside Florida. The table below is the page's reason to exist: the free lookup on the left, what a paid VIN history report adds on the right.
| Data point | FLHSMV free Motor Vehicle Information Check | Paid VIN history report (Carfax / AutoCheck / Zilocar) |
|---|---|---|
| Florida title status | Yes | Yes |
| Florida title brand (salvage/rebuilt/flood) | Yes — the legal brand | Shows brand data; Zilocar shows junk/salvage auction records, not the legal brand itself |
| Lien / lienholder | Yes (lien/lienholder information) | Sometimes (varies by provider) |
| Odometer at last Florida titling | Yes — a single reading | Full odometer history + rollback screening |
| Out-of-state title / registration history | No | Yes |
| Accident / collision / damage records | No | Yes (Zilocar: location, type, severity, airbag deployment) |
| Salvage-auction sale records | No | Yes (Zilocar surfaces junk/salvage auction records) |
| Prior-owner count / ownership history | No | Yes |
| Theft (NICB) | No | Yes (Zilocar via NICB) |
| Sales-listing history (past listings, prices, days on market) | No | Yes (Zilocar) |
| Recall presence | No | Yes — presence/count only, not remedy or open-vs-closed status |
Field list for the FLHSMV check is drawn from FLHSMV's own documentation of the tool.
Is the Florida FLHSMV title check by VIN really free?
Yes. The FLHSMV Motor Vehicle Information Check at services.flhsmv.gov/MVCheckWeb is a free online form that accepts a VIN or a Florida title number. FLHSMV's own flood-vehicle consumer advisory tells buyers to "use the FLHSMV's Motor Vehicle Information Check to confirm the vehicle description and check for brands" — but only "if the vehicle is titled in Florida." There is no fee for the lookup; paid history reports are separate commercial products.
How do I run the FLHSMV Motor Vehicle Information Check step by step?
Running the check takes under a minute. Open services.flhsmv.gov/MVCheckWeb in a browser, enter the vehicle's 17-character VIN (or, if you have it, the Florida title number) into the search form, and submit. The tool returns the Florida title record on screen: title status, any brand, lien/lienholder information, the odometer reading recorded at the last Florida titling, and the basic vehicle description.
Read the result for three things in order. First, the title status and brand — a clean status with no brand is what you want; salvage, rebuilt or flood is a stop-and-investigate signal. Second, the lien — an active lienholder means the seller may not own the car free and clear. Third, the odometer reading — note it, but remember it is a single reading from the last Florida titling, not a mileage history. If the car was never titled in Florida the tool shows nothing, which is itself a signal to move to NMVTIS and a paid VIN history report such as Zilocar's for the out-of-state record the free check can't reach.
What is a salvage title vs. rebuilt vs. flood title in Florida?
Florida assigns title brands by statute, and each one means a specific thing about the car's condition. A brand is FLHSMV's term for "a descriptive label assigned to a vehicle that appears on that vehicle's title, which identifies the vehicle's current or prior condition, such as junk, salvage or flood." Selling a rebuilt, salvage, flood or lemon-law buyback vehicle without the title being properly branded is prohibited under s. 319.14.
| Brand | Statutory basis | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Salvage / total loss | Fla. Stat. s. 319.30(3)(a) | Insurer pays to replace the vehicle (or pays out on theft); or, for an uninsured vehicle, repair cost is 80% or more of like-kind replacement cost |
| Rebuilt | Fla. Stat. s. 319.30(1) + s. 319.14 | Vehicle built from salvage or junk; must pass an FLHSMV/authorized inspection (verifying repairs and no stolen parts) before a rebuilt title issues |
| Flood / water damage | Fla. Stat. s. 319.14(1)(b) | FLHSMV must brand the title conspicuously as flood-damaged; insurers brand total-loss floods "salvage flood" |
| Junk | s. 319.30 / FLHSMV brand definition | Not rebuildable; for parts or scrap only |
The distinction that trips up buyers is salvage versus rebuilt. A salvage car was totaled and has not been certified roadworthy. A rebuilt car started as salvage, was repaired, and passed the inspection — it is legal to drive but permanently marked. Neither brand disappears; it stays on the Florida title. If you are weighing one, our guide on how to check if a used car has flood or salvage history goes deeper on what each brand costs you at resale and insurance.
What is title washing, and how do flood cars get clean Florida titles?
Title washing is the practice of moving a branded car across state lines to shed its brand. FLHSMV states the mechanism plainly: because "standards for vehicle titles are controlled by states and vary across the country," a flood-damaged vehicle branded in one state "can be sold in Florida with a clean title." That is the exact gap the free Florida-only check cannot close — it never saw the out-of-state brand.
This matters most in Florida because Florida is a flood state. CARFAX estimated up to 482,000 water-damaged cars were already on U.S. roads at the start of 2025, and that the mid-year storms flood-damaged up to 45,000 more — with Florida and Texas leading the nation, and cars often resurfacing in non-coastal states like Pennsylvania and Illinois. Both are CARFAX figures, not FLHSMV numbers. The antidote to title washing is NMVTIS, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System run under the U.S. DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance, which consolidates title, brand, odometer and junk/salvage/total-loss data reported by participating states, insurers and salvage yards. NMVTIS is the system that lets a brand from one state follow the VIN. For the paper trail, see how to check if a used car has flood damage, and for the ownership record, how to verify a used car title is clean before buying.
How do I check a car that wasn't titled in Florida?
The FLHSMV check is blank for out-of-state cars, so you need national tools. Start with NMVTIS at vehiclehistory.bja.ojp.gov — the government portal points you to approved data providers who sell a consolidated report (title, brand, odometer, salvage) for a small fee, typically a few dollars. Then run the free NICB VINCheck (vinCheck.nicb.org), which flags whether a VIN was reported stolen-and-unrecovered or declared salvage/total-loss by participating insurers covering more than 92% of the market.
NICB's own recommendation is the sensible order of operations: run VINCheck, buy a full history report, review the title history, and have the car inspected. A full history report is also where the pre-purchase evidence lives — accident and damage records, ownership changes, and everything in how to check a used car's history before buying from a dealer — none of which the free Florida check contains.
Who should use which
Buying a car titled in Florida: run the free FLHSMV check first. It is the authoritative source for the Florida legal brand and lien, and it is free. If it comes back clean and the car has only ever lived in Florida, you have covered the state record.
Buying a car that has ever been titled outside Florida, or you can't confirm where it's been: the free check is not enough. Use NMVTIS through an approved provider plus a paid history report, because title washing hides exactly here.
Buying any car where you want damage, odometer and ownership history — not just title status: you need a paid VIN history report. The free check shows one odometer reading and no accidents; a report shows the mileage history and rollback screening, accident records, and prior owners.
On price, treat every non-Zilocar figure below as reported by third-party review sites as of 2026-09-18, not confirmed on the provider's own checkout (Carfax returned an access error and AutoCheck/Bumper pages did not expose figures to automated checks). Carfax single report: reported at $44.99, with multi-packs reported around 3 for $79.99. AutoCheck single report: reported at $29.99, with a 25-report pack reported at $49.99 — on price alone AutoCheck's single report is reported below Zilocar's. Bumper: reported as a subscription, roughly $1 to start then about $24.99–$27.99/month. NMVTIS reports have no fixed government price and sell for a small fee through approved providers. Zilocar: $39.50 for a single report, or $29.50 for the first month then $59.75/month for 20 reports a month.
What to verify by VIN before you pay
- Florida title status and brand — run the free FLHSMV check; no brand is what you want, and salvage/rebuilt/flood is stop-and-investigate.
- Lien — confirm there is no active lienholder, or that the seller has a payoff plan, before money changes hands.
- Out-of-state history — check NMVTIS for any prior brand from another state that title washing could have erased from the Florida record.
- Theft and total-loss flags — run the free NICB VINCheck.
- Accident, odometer and ownership history — pull a paid report; the free check shows none of it. Watch for a single Florida odometer reading that can't be cross-checked.
- Flood warning signs on the car — musty or heavily perfumed interior, silt or rust in unusual places (under seats, in the spare-tire well), water lines, and fogged lights. A clean title does not rule out flood damage.
What a Zilocar VIN check can and can't tell you here
Be precise about the division of labor. FLHSMV and NMVTIS are the authorities for the legal title brand — only they classify a car as salvage, rebuilt or flood on the title. A Zilocar VIN report does not show the legal title brand, and does not assign it. What Zilocar adds is the evidence and the out-of-state history the Florida-only free check cannot: junk and salvage auction records, accident and damage records (location, type, severity, airbag-deployment status), odometer and rollback screening, theft data via NICB, ownership history, and sales-listing history (past and current listings, prices, mileage, days on market), plus specs, NHTSA and IIHS safety ratings, and market valuation.
On recalls, a Zilocar report shows recall presence and count by VIN, the same as NHTSA's free tool. It does not show whether a recall was remedied or flashed, does not flag NHTSA investigations, and does not provide per-unit dealer firmware detail — check those with NHTSA and the dealer. In short: cede the legal title-brand classification to FLHSMV and NMVTIS, cede recall remedy status to NHTSA and the dealer, and lean on the accident, salvage-auction, odometer, ownership and listing history for everything the free Florida check will never show.
If the car has any history outside Florida, a Zilocar VIN check surfaces that out-of-state and damage record — the auction sales, accidents, airbag deployment, odometer and ownership trail that the free FLHSMV lookup, being Florida-only, cannot.
