Car Owl Vehicle History Report - Terms and Conditions

Version 4.0. Last updated: 17 August 2026. These terms apply to any Car Owl History Check purchased on or after that date.

1. About these terms

1.1 Who we are

The Car Owl History Check is provided by Car Owl Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales (company number 15130731), whose registered office is Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, United Kingdom, IP28 7DE. You can reach us at support@carowl.co.uk.

1.2 When these terms apply

These terms apply to your use of the Car Owl vehicle check service at www.carowl.co.uk and form a contract between you and us when you buy a Check. Please read them before you buy, and keep a copy. You must be aged 17 or over to buy a Check.

They apply to free Checks too. Where we provide a free Check, these terms govern your use of it and of the Report it produces, as a condition of us providing it. Sections 4, 5, 13, 14 and 16 apply to a free Report in exactly the same way as to a paid one.

Our general website terms also apply to your use of the site. Where those terms and these terms differ in relation to a Check, these terms take priority.

1.3 Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example to reflect changes in the law, in our data suppliers, or in the service. The version in force when you buy a Check is the version that governs that Check. Changing these terms will never alter a purchase you have already made. Where a change materially affects a service you have paid for but not yet received, we will tell you beforehand and you may cancel and be refunded for what you have not received.

1.4 Orders we cannot accept

Occasionally we may be unable to accept an order, for example if we cannot take payment, if the vehicle is outside the coverage in section 3, or if we suspect misuse of the service. If that happens we will tell you and we will not charge you. If we have already taken payment, we will refund it in full.

1.5 What each Check covers, and relying on a Report

We offer Checks at three levels, and they do not all cover the same things:

A free Check is provided at no charge and shows MOT, tax and vehicle details.
A Basic Report is a paid, cut-down report. It adds scrappage, import and export markers, mileage history, keeper and plate history, and VIN confirmation.
A Full Report is the complete paid report. It is the only one that includes outstanding finance, stolen vehicle markers and insurance write-off records.

Neither a free Check nor a Basic Report includes finance, theft or write-off records. Paying for a Basic Report does not change that. Each Report sets out what it covered, and if you need those three checks you need a Full Report.

Whether a Report is free or paid, it is prepared for the person who requested it, on the basis set out in these terms and in particular in sections 4 and 5. If you rely on a Report, you do so on those terms. We do not accept responsibility to anyone who relies on a Report otherwise than on those terms, including anyone who was shown a Report by somebody else.

Our responsibility to you for a free Check is set out in section 14 and is limited in the same way, whether your claim is made in contract, in negligence, or in any other way.

2. Definitions

Check means a single Car Owl vehicle search against one vehicle, at any of the three levels described in section 1.5: a free Check, a paid Basic Report, or a paid Full Report.
Basic Report and Full Report mean the two paid levels of Check. Where these terms say something applies to a Check, it applies to all three levels unless we say otherwise.
Report means the results of a Check, delivered to you on screen, by email link, or as a PDF.
Information means the data contained in a Report.
Credit means a pre-paid entitlement to run one Check, bought as part of a pack.
Data Suppliers means the third parties whose records we search and report, including the DVLA, the DVSA, the police (via the Police National Computer), insurers and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR), finance houses and the UK Finance register, and our aggregating data providers.
VRM means a vehicle registration mark, the number plate. VIN means a vehicle identification number.
We, us and our mean Car Owl Ltd. You means the person buying the Check.

3. The service we provide

When you buy a Check, we search the records held by our Data Suppliers for the VRM or VIN you enter, and we report back to you what those records contain.

What you buy is a service: the search we carry out on your behalf. The Report is the record of that search, and the means by which we deliver its result to you. Your contract with us is a contract for that service.

Payment is taken in advance. Results are delivered electronically, and we email you a link to your Report. An archive of your Reports stays available to you for 24 months in the "My History Checks" area of your account. That 24 months is what you have paid for, and closing your account does not cut it short: if you close your account within that period and later want a Report you paid for, ask us and we will provide it. We would still suggest downloading anything you want to keep, which is what the PDF add-on is for.

To perform a Check the vehicle must be registered in the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. Vehicles registered in Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man are not covered.

Depending on the product you buy, and where the records are available, a Report may include:

Make, model, colour, body type, transmission, fuel type and number of gears
Engine capacity, engine number, CO2 emissions and year of manufacture
First registered date and previous keeper change records
Road tax cost for 12 months, and MOT history
Stolen status, outstanding finance status and insurance write-off status
Plate change and colour change records
Mileage records and any discrepancies visible in them
Import and export markers, and scrapped or destruction records
Environmental report details and VIN confirmation

The words "where the records are available" carry real weight. Section 5 explains, check by check, what each one actually depends on.

4. What a Report is, and what it is not

This is the most important section of these terms. Please read it before you rely on a Report.

4.1 A Report is a snapshot of recorded data

A Report tells you what our Data Suppliers' records contained at the date and time the Check was run, which is printed on the Report itself. It is a record of what third parties have reported to those databases. It is not a physical or mechanical inspection, and it is not a statement by us about the vehicle's true legal or physical condition.

4.2 The absence of a marker is not proof that nothing happened

This is the single most important thing to understand about any vehicle history check, ours or anybody else's.

A vehicle may have been stolen, written off, scrapped, imported, exported or placed under a finance agreement without that fact having been reported to, or recorded by, the relevant database at the time you searched. Delays in reporting are normal and are entirely outside our control.

So where your Report shows no marker, that means only this: no such marker was recorded at the time of the search. It is not a guarantee, a warranty, or a confirmation from us that the vehicle is not stolen, is not written off, is free of finance, or is otherwise clear. We do not certify the status of any vehicle.

4.3 Records change after your search

A Report ages. Records can be added or amended at any time after your Check. If there is a gap between your Check and your purchase, run a fresh Check immediately before you hand over any money. We sell a re-check add-on for exactly this reason, described in section 7.

4.4 A Report covers an identifier, not the vehicle in front of you

A Report covers only the VRM or VIN you entered. You must check that the VIN shown on your Report matches the VIN physically stamped on the vehicle and the VIN printed on the V5C. We have no way of knowing which physical vehicle you are standing next to, and a Report cannot detect a cloned, re-plated or otherwise misidentified vehicle. If the numbers do not match, do not buy the vehicle.

4.5 What a Report is not

A Report is not:

a guarantee that you will acquire good title to the vehicle;
an indemnity or insurance against loss on a vehicle purchase;
a valuation, or a statement of what the vehicle is worth;
an assessment of the vehicle's mechanical condition, safety or roadworthiness;
a substitute for a physical inspection by a qualified person; or
advice about whether you should buy the vehicle. That decision is yours.

4.6 We do not guarantee that the records are accurate or complete

We make you two promises about a Check, and both of them are about what we do: that we will carry out the search with reasonable care and skill, and that we will report back to you accurately what our Data Suppliers gave us. Section 14 sets those out in full, and we stand behind them.

We make no promise about the records themselves. We do not guarantee, warrant or certify that the Information is accurate, complete or up to date. We neither create those records nor control them. Every entry in a Report was put there by somebody else, and we have no means of checking it against the real world.

So, however it comes about, we are not responsible where:

a record held by a Data Supplier is wrong, out of date, incomplete or duplicated;
a record that should exist does not exist, because nobody reported the event, or reported it late, or reported it to a database we do not search;
a Data Supplier changes, removes or corrects a record after your Check; or
something had happened to the vehicle that had simply not been recorded anywhere at the moment you searched.

A Report is supplied and used on that basis. So far as your decision depends on whether the underlying records are correct, rather than on whether we searched properly and reported accurately, you rely on the Information at your own risk. Where we have carried out the search properly and reported accurately what we were given, we have done everything you paid us to do, even if a record later turns out to have been wrong or to have been missing altogether.

This is not us limiting a responsibility we would otherwise have. It is a description of what the service is: a search of somebody else's records, reported to you as we found them. What we are responsible for, and what we never exclude, is set out in section 14, and nothing in this section 4.6 affects section 14.5 or your statutory rights.

5. Data coverage, and the known limits of each check

We would rather tell you the limits up front than have you discover them afterwards. Each type of check depends on somebody else having recorded something, and here is what each one actually depends on.

5.1 Stolen vehicle check

Depends on the theft having been reported to the police by the owner or insurer, and recorded on the Police National Computer, before your search. A vehicle stolen recently, or a theft not yet reported, will not show.

5.2 Outstanding finance check

Depends on the lender having registered the agreement with the relevant industry register. Not every lender registers, and not every form of lending is registrable. Private loans, some overseas finance, and lending secured against the person rather than the vehicle will typically not appear.

5.3 Insurance write-off check

Depends on an insurer having submitted the loss to MIAFTR. Damage repaired privately, damage where no claim was made, and vehicles that were uninsured at the time will not appear, however severe the damage was. Write-off categories have also changed over time, so older records may use retired categories.

5.4 Mileage check

Shows mileage readings recorded at MOT tests and other recorded points. It is not a continuous record. Gaps between readings, and periods where a vehicle was not MOT tested, cannot be verified, and an absence of discrepancies is not proof that the odometer is accurate.

5.5 Keeper, plate and colour history

Comes from DVLA records and reflects registered keepers rather than legal owners. The registered keeper is not necessarily the owner, and the number of keepers does not tell you how the vehicle was used.

5.6 Import, export and scrapped markers

Depends on the relevant notification having been made to the DVLA and processed. Recent changes may not yet be reflected.

5.7 Availability of the service

Our Data Suppliers' systems occasionally go down or return incomplete responses. If that affects your Check, section 11 tells you what you get.

6. What we ask of you

To get the benefit of a Check, you need to do these things:

Enter the VRM or VIN correctly, and check it before you pay.
Read the whole Report, including any notes and warnings in it, rather than one headline field.
Check the VIN on the Report against the vehicle and the V5C, as set out in section 4.4.
Run a fresh Check immediately before purchase if time has passed.
Inspect the vehicle, or have it inspected, and satisfy yourself the seller has the right to sell.
Tell us promptly if you think anything in your Report is wrong, so we can look into it while it is still fixable.

7. Optional extras

Alongside a Check you may be offered optional paid add-ons, either individually or as a bundle. They are never added unless you choose them, and each is priced separately at checkout. The description shown at checkout sets out exactly what that add-on includes, and forms part of your contract with us. In general terms:

Re-check. A further Check on the same vehicle, so you can confirm the position again closer to the day you buy. See section 4.3 for why this matters. You have 90 days from the date of your original Check to use a re-check, on whichever day within that period you choose. It covers the same vehicle and the same level of Check as the one you bought.
PDF report. A downloadable copy of your Report that you can save or print.
Video walkthrough. A recorded explanation of what the fields in your Report show. It is general information about the Report. It is not advice about the vehicle, not an inspection, and not a recommendation about whether to buy, and sections 4 and 5 apply to it in full.
Priority support. Your support enquiries are placed ahead of the standard queue. That is what you are buying: a place in the queue, not a guaranteed response time.
Extended Guarantee. Covered separately in section 12.

Add-ons extend or explain a Report. None of them changes what the underlying data says, none of them makes a Report more accurate, and none of them is insurance or an indemnity. Your rights in sections 10, 11 and 14 apply to add-ons in the same way they apply to a Check.

8. Trade packs, Credits and referrals

8.1 Credits and packs

You can buy Checks in bulk as a pack of Credits. Each Credit entitles you to one Check.

Credits do not expire. They stay on your account until you spend them. There is no monthly minimum and no use-it-or-lose-it condition.
A Credit buys the same Report as a single retail Check of the same type. Nothing is downgraded, throttled or withheld on larger packs.
There is no subscription. A pack is a one-off purchase. Nothing auto-renews and there is no notice period.
Credits are held against the account that bought them, and anyone signed into that account can spend them. Keep your account secure.
If a Check genuinely fails to return a Report, contact us and we will restore or refund that Credit under section 11.

If you are buying for a business, read section 18, which applies to you instead of the consumer provisions in these terms, and note the business-use provision in section 14.4 and the trade provisions in section 16. Those, and the rest of these terms, are what govern your Checks and Credits.

8.2 Referral rewards

We may run a referral scheme, under which you can earn a reward when someone you refer buys a Check. Rewards are currently given as retail gift cards at set referral tiers, and the tiers and values in force are shown in the referrals area of your account. Where the scheme is running, this is how it works.

When a referral counts. A referral counts once the person you referred has bought a Check and their payment has cleared. It must be a genuine referral of somebody else.
Each tier is separate. When you reach a tier you may claim that tier's reward once. Reaching a higher tier does not cancel a lower one you have already reached, and each tier can only ever be claimed once.
You may not refer yourself. You may not create or use additional accounts, email addresses, email aliases or payment methods to generate referrals, and you may not refer the same person more than once.
Cancellations and refunds. If the person you referred cancels or is refunded, that referral stops counting. If it had already taken you over a tier, we may reverse the reward or recover its value.
Abuse. We may withhold, reverse or cancel a reward, and suspend or close the accounts involved, where a referral is not genuine, where it comes from self-referral or duplicate accounts, or where the scheme is being abused in any other way.
Changes. We may change the tiers, change the reward, or withdraw the scheme at any time. That will not affect a reward you have already properly earned and become entitled to claim.

About the gift cards. A gift card is issued by a third party, not by us, and once you have it your use of it is governed by that issuer's own terms and conditions rather than ours. We are not the issuer and we are not responsible for the issuer's acts or omissions, for the goods or services you buy with it, or for what happens if the issuer changes its terms. If we are ever unable to supply the reward in the form advertised, we will provide an alternative reward of at least the same value.

Tax. A referral reward is not a discount on something you have bought. It is a reward for introducing a customer to us, and depending on your circumstances it may count as taxable income in your hands. Any tax on a reward is your responsibility, not ours, and if you are unsure you should take your own advice. We do not deduct tax from rewards and we do not give tax advice.

9. Price and payment

9.1 What you pay

You pay the fee shown on the website. The price shown at checkout is the total price you will pay for the items you have selected, inclusive of VAT where VAT applies. There are no compulsory additional charges added later. Payment is by credit card, debit card, or another method offered at checkout, and is taken in advance. We do not accept cash or cheques.

9.2 Chargebacks

If you ask your bank or card provider to reverse a payment for a Check we have already supplied, and the reversal is not the result of an error by us or of fraud on your account, the fee remains payable and we may treat it as a debt due to us. We may suspend your account, and any unspent Credits on it, until the position is settled.

This does not affect your right to cancel under section 10 or to claim under section 11, and we would much rather you used one of those. Both are faster than a chargeback, neither puts your account at risk, and section 11 is deliberately wider than the law requires. If you are unhappy with a Check, please email us before you go to your bank.

10. Your right to cancel

Because you are buying a digital service at a distance, you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

Many providers ask you to give that right up at checkout in exchange for getting the service straight away. We do not ask you to do that. You keep your full 14 day cancellation period.

A Report is generated the moment you buy it so that you can use it immediately, and at checkout we tell you that by continuing you are asking us to start now. That is why the Report appears at once.

What this means in practice:

If you have paid but no Report has been generated, you can cancel and get a full refund.
Because you asked us to start straight away, if you cancel after your Report has been generated the fee for that Report remains payable. In other words, you can cancel, but you still pay for a Report you have already been given. This is what those Regulations provide for where a service has already been supplied at the customer's request.
If you bought a pack of Credits, unspent Credits can be cancelled within 14 days of purchase and refunded in full. Credits you have already spent are treated like a Report above.
Add-ons you have not yet used can be cancelled within 14 days and refunded.

None of that is the end of the matter. Section 11 sets out a money-back promise that we offer on top of your legal rights, and it is deliberately wider than the law requires. If a Report genuinely did not help you, or did not give you the detail we said it would, we would rather refund you than stand on the strict position above. Just ask us.

To cancel, email support@carowl.co.uk with your name, order date and what you are cancelling. A clear statement is all we need, though you may use the model cancellation form in the Regulations if you prefer. We will refund you within 14 days of accepting your cancellation, to your original payment method.

11. Our money-back promise

In addition to your legal rights, we will refund your fee in full if:

we cannot generate your Report at all;
your Report comes back empty, or materially incomplete, where records should have been available for that vehicle; or
the Report we gave you did not accurately reflect what our Data Suppliers gave us.

You have 30 days from the date of your Check to claim under this promise, unless you bought the Extended Guarantee, in which case section 12 applies instead.

To claim, email support@carowl.co.uk with your name, the date of purchase, the VRM or VIN, and what went wrong. We will reply within 5 working days and pay any refund to your original payment method within 7 working days of approving it. Where you paid with a Credit, we will restore the Credit or refund it, whichever you prefer.

If you are simply not happy

The three grounds above are the ones we commit to refunding. They are not the only reason we will ever refund you.

If a Report genuinely did not help you, or did not give you the detail we said it would, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. That applies even though the Report was delivered exactly as described. We would far rather refund a £20 purchase than have you feel short-changed by it.

This is a goodwill commitment that we apply sensibly, rather than an automatic entitlement to a refund on request. The one thing it does not cover is being unhappy with what the Report found. If it correctly told you a vehicle carries outstanding finance or a write-off marker, it did exactly the job you paid for, and it did it best on the occasions you least wanted to hear it.

What is not covered

The promise does not apply where you entered the wrong vehicle identifier, or where the Report is accurate and complete and matches the vehicle you searched. It does not cover the situation in section 4.2, where the underlying record simply was not there at the time. Your legal rights are unaffected in every case, and the 30 day period above does not limit them.

12. Extended Guarantee

The Extended Guarantee is an optional paid add-on. It does one thing: it extends the time you have to claim under section 11 to 12 months from the date of your Check. That applies to both parts of section 11: the three committed grounds, whose window is otherwise 30 days, and the goodwill promise, whose window is otherwise 14 days. The grounds for claiming, and the exclusions, are exactly the same as in section 11.

To be completely clear about what it is not: the Extended Guarantee is not insurance, and it is not an indemnity against loss connected with a vehicle. It does not pay out the value of a vehicle, the price you paid for a vehicle, repair costs, or any other loss. The most it can ever return to you is the fees you paid to Car Owl Ltd for the Check and for the Extended Guarantee itself. It does not raise the limit in section 14.

Some other providers sell a separate product that indemnifies buyers against financial loss up to a stated amount. We do not offer that, and we do not claim to. If you want cover of that kind, speak to an authorised insurance provider.

13. If you think the Information is wrong

Tell us as soon as you can at support@carowl.co.uk. We will check what our Data Suppliers hold and, where the error is ours, correct your Report at our cost and re-issue it.

Where the error sits in a Data Supplier's own records, we will tell you which supplier holds the record and how to ask them to correct it, and we will raise it with them on your behalf where we are able to. We cannot change another organisation's records ourselves.

14. Our responsibility for loss or damage

14.1 What we are responsible for

Buying a Check gets you two things: the search we carry out, and the Report it produces. Both come with rights you have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and we do not seek to reduce either of them.

The search is a service. We will perform it with reasonable care and skill, as section 49 of that Act requires. In practice that means we will accurately report to you what our Data Suppliers give us, and operate the service with reasonable care.
The Report is digital content. So far as the Report is treated as digital content under that Act, it will be of satisfactory quality, reasonably fit for the purpose we describe it for, and as described by us, under sections 34 to 36. What we describe it as is set out in sections 3, 4 and 5: a record of what the relevant databases held at the moment of the search, and nothing more.

If we fail to meet either of those standards, we are responsible to you, and you have the remedies the Act gives you. Nothing in these terms restricts them.

14.2 What we are not responsible for

We are not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of the underlying records. Those records are created and maintained by the third parties listed in section 2. We have no control over what they record or when, and we do not independently verify them. If a record was missing, incomplete or wrong in a Data Supplier's database at the time of your Check, and we accurately reported what that database held, we have done what we agreed to do.

We give no warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the Information, and we do not certify the status of any vehicle. That applies however the problem arises, and it applies just as much where a record is absent altogether: the absence of a record is not something we can detect, correct, or be responsible for. Section 4.6 sets this out in full.

14.3 Limit on our liability

Where we are liable to you, our liability is limited as follows:

for all claims connected with a single Check, to the greater of £250 and ten times the fee you paid for that Check; and
for all claims you bring in any 12 month period, to the greater of £1,000 and the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the first claim arose.

A series of connected claims, or claims arising from the same cause or from a related series of causes, counts as a single claim for the purposes of the first limit. Any amount we pay under the first limit counts towards the second.

We are not liable for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable to both of us when you bought the Check.

14.4 Business use

If you use a Check wholly or partly for business purposes, we are not liable to you for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, loss of anticipated savings, loss of goodwill or loss of business opportunity.

If you buy a Check wholly or mainly for business purposes, you are not a consumer, and section 18 applies to you. It replaces the limits in section 14.3 with different ones. Where section 18 and this section 14 differ, section 18 takes priority for a business customer.

14.5 What we never exclude

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for:

death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
breach of your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. That includes the right under section 49 to a service performed with reasonable care and skill, the right under section 50 to a service that matches the information we gave you about it, and, so far as the Report is digital content, the rights under sections 34 to 36 to digital content of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, which section 47 of that Act does not allow us to exclude; or
anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights. You can get free independent advice from Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133 or at citizensadvice.org.uk.

14.6 Events outside our control

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, including failures of a Data Supplier's systems, loss of internet connectivity, or acts of government. If such an event prevents us delivering your Report, section 11 applies and you get your money back.

15. How Reports are delivered, and what you need

A Report is digital. It is delivered to your screen immediately after your Check completes, and we email you a link to view it again. If you have bought the PDF add-on, you can also download it as a PDF file.

To use a Report you need an internet connection and a current web browser. Reports work on desktop, tablet and mobile and need no special software. To open a PDF you need any standard PDF reader. We do not apply any technical restriction that stops you saving or printing your own Report.

16. Using Checks and the Information

16.1 You must not use a Check to trace or identify a person

A Report is about a vehicle, not about a person. It does not contain the name, address, telephone number or any other contact details of any keeper, owner or driver, and we do not supply that information to anyone. Where a Report mentions keepers at all, it gives dates and counts, never identities.

You must not use a Check, a Report, or anything in it:

to identify, locate, contact or trace any individual;
for any purpose connected with harassing, threatening, intimidating or pursuing any person, or with a personal dispute;
to enforce a debt, or to pursue anybody over a road traffic incident, a parking dispute or a similar matter; or
for any purpose that would breach the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 or the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

This is not a formality. If we reasonably believe a Check has been used for any of these purposes, we may refuse to carry out further Checks and may close your account under this section 16, and we will cooperate with the police or any other authority where the law requires us to.

16.2 Using the Information

The Information stays the property of Car Owl Ltd or our Data Suppliers. You may view it, print it, save it, and keep it for your own use, including showing it to somebody advising you on the purchase.

Unless you are a trade customer, you must not:

extract, copy or compile the Information into a database or other collection, whether by hand or using any automated means;
resell, republish or otherwise make the Information available to anyone else as a product or service;
sell, share or otherwise give anyone else access to Checks, whether through your account or otherwise; or
use any robot, scraper or other automated system to access the service.

These restrictions protect our Data Suppliers' rights as well as our own, and we are required to impose them. If you breach them, we may suspend or close your account and stop providing the service to you. We will tell you why.

If we close your account we will refund anything you have paid for and not received, including any unspent Credits. We will not refund where the breach involved fraud, an attempt to obtain Checks without paying, or conduct that was itself unlawful, or where the law prevents us from making a refund.

Trade and business customers. If you have bought a trade pack, Credits or a business subscription, you may use the Information for your own vehicle trading business, including giving an individual Report to a customer in relation to the specific vehicle it covers. You still may not build a competing database from the Information or resell Checks as a standalone product. Where you pass a Report to a customer, section 4 and section 5 apply to them as they apply to you, and it is for you to make that clear to them.

Third parties. A Report is prepared for you. If you show it to somebody else, they cannot rely on it and we owe them nothing. A person who is not a party to these terms has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce them.

17. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, email support@carowl.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to give you a final response within 8 weeks.

We do not currently belong to an alternative dispute resolution scheme. If we cannot resolve things between us, you are free to go to court under section 19, and you can get free independent advice from Citizens Advice.

18. If you are a business customer

This section applies where you buy a Check wholly or mainly for the purposes of a business, trade, craft or profession. If that is you, you are not a consumer, consumer law does not protect you, and this section sets out what applies instead. If you are buying as a consumer, this section does not apply to you and you can skip it. Nothing in it changes anything for a consumer.

18.1 Consumer protections do not apply to you

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not apply to your purchase. Terms implied by statute or by common law are excluded to the fullest extent the law allows.
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 do not apply to you, so you have no right to cancel under section 10.
Section 11, our money-back promise, does still apply to you. It is a promise we have chosen to make, it is part of your contract with us, and we honour it whoever you are.

18.2 Entire agreement

These terms, together with the description shown at checkout and your order confirmation, are the entire agreement between us about a Check, and they replace anything said or written beforehand. You confirm that you have not relied on any statement, promise or representation that is not set out in them. Nothing in this section limits our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

18.3 Our liability to you

Section 14.3 does not apply to you. Instead:

our total liability to you for all claims connected with a single Check is limited to the fee you paid for that Check;
our total liability to you for all claims in any 12 month period is limited to the total fees you paid us in that period;
we are not liable to you for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, loss of anticipated savings, loss of goodwill, loss of data, or for any indirect or consequential loss, whether or not it was foreseeable; and
you must bring any claim within 12 months of the Check it relates to.

Section 14.5 still applies. There are things we never exclude, whoever you are, and nothing in this section 18 touches them.

18.4 Your responsibility to us

You indemnify us against any loss, cost, claim or expense we incur as a result of your breach of section 16, or of your use of a Check or of the Information in breach of these terms.
You may not set off any amount you say we owe you against any amount you owe us.
Where you pass a Report to a customer of yours, you do so on your own responsibility. Section 16.2 sets out what you may and may not do with it, and section 4 and section 5 apply to your customer as they apply to you.

19. General

Privacy. We handle your personal data as described in our Privacy Policy, which also explains how to complain to us or to the Information Commissioner's Office about the handling of your data.

Transfer. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else.

Severance. If any part of these terms is found to be unlawful or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

Delay is not waiver. If we do not immediately insist on something you are required to do, or delay in taking steps against you, that does not stop us doing so later.

Governing law. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may instead bring proceedings in your own country's courts, and that country's law will apply.