Checking a vehicle by its number plate in Slovenia: what you can and cannot find out

Short answer: a number plate on its own tells you little about a car from public sources. On the Slovenian police list of stolen vehicles you can check whether the car has been reported stolen. For technical data, mileage and technical inspections on eUprava, the Slovenian state portal, you also need the number of the registration document. Who owns the car is not public. The easiest way to check a car's history is by its VIN.

Why a number plate does not tell you a vehicle's history

Under the Slovenian Motor Vehicles Act (ZMV-1), number plates are tied to the vehicle. When the car is sold, the buyer can keep them or buy new ones, while custom-made plates stay with their owner. The same car can therefore carry several registration numbers over its lifetime.

The VIN (vehicle identification number) is a 17-character code the manufacturer assigns to a vehicle when it is built. It stays the same after a sale, a transfer of ownership or a change of plates. If you are looking for a car's history, the VIN is the code that stays with it the whole time.

What is public in Slovenia by registration number

The public register of motor vehicles on eUprava

In the public register of motor vehicles on eUprava, you choose the type of registration document and enter its number and the vehicle's registration number. The Slovenian ministry explains that this gives you all the technical data you would get from a personal lookup, except the owner. The eUprava guide for buyers of used cars says the register shows the mileage, the number of owners and the technical inspections carried out.

The registration document number is printed on the document, so you get it from the seller. The owner can see all the data about their own vehicle in Moja eUprava, the personal section of eUprava, including the mileage and previous owners. For this they need an electronic identity.

List of stolen vehicles

The Slovenian police publish a list of stolen vehicles on their website, which you can search by registration number or by chassis number (VIN). The police point out that the list is for information only.

The vehicle's insurer after a road accident

The Slovenian Insurance Association (SZZ) tells people injured in road accidents which insurer covered the vehicle on the day of the accident. Following a decision of the Information Commissioner, the SZZ public information centre has been restricted since 1 December 2023. You now send your request by email or post, with your name and surname, the registration number, the date of the accident and proof of the accident, such as a European accident statement. The service is not meant for checking a car before you buy it.

Open vehicle data

The ministry also used to publish data on registered vehicles and technical inspection results as open data on OPSI, the Slovenian national open data portal. Because of the Personal Data Protection Act (ZVOP-2) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it no longer publishes them until further notice. The last published data on registered vehicles is dated 30 June 2023.

Can you find out who owns a vehicle?

Not from public sources. The eUprava lookup shows everything except the owner, and the Motor Vehicles Act provides that personal data from the register is passed only to users authorised by law.

The Evoca report does not show the owner's name, address or contact details either. From the official records it shows only the owner's age and gender and whether the owner is a legal entity, and it also shows this data by year. Evoca does not decide or confirm who owns a vehicle.

How to check the seller

Ask the seller for an identity document and the registration document. Under Slovenian law, the vehicle's owner is also entered in the registration document. The holder of the registration document, who is also the vehicle's user, is entered in field C.1, and the owner in field C.2. For a leased car or a company car, they are often not the same person. Compare the name on the identity document with the owner in the registration document. If they do not match, ask why someone else is selling the car.

When ownership is transferred at a registration organisation in Slovenia, both the seller and the buyer must be present. If one of them cannot come, they need a certified power of attorney.

How to get the VIN when you only have an ad or a plate

Ask the seller for the VIN or for a photo of the registration document. The VIN is in field E of the registration document. The photo also gives you the registration document number for the eUprava lookup.

On the car, the VIN is at the bottom edge of the windscreen on the driver's side, where you can see it from outside, on a sticker in the driver's door frame, and stamped into the body, often under the bonnet. When you view the car, check that the VIN on the car matches the one in the documents. If it does not, that is a serious warning sign.

Because the VIN is visible through the windscreen, the seller has no reason to hide it. If they will not tell you, be careful.

What a VIN check shows

With the VIN, you can check the vehicle by its VIN in Evoca for free if it was registered in Slovenia between 2014 and 2022. The report shows:

• technical data: make, model, year of manufacture, fuel type, engine power and displacement, and engine designation,
• the date of first registration and the date of first registration in Slovenia,
• owner details from official records: age, gender and whether the owner is a legal entity, also shown by year,
• recorded mileage entries with dates.

If the two first-registration dates differ, the car was registered abroad before. We explain how to check the history of an imported car in our article on a vehicle's history from abroad, and how to read mileage records in our article on checking mileage.

The report does not include the service history. Detailed service records from Evoca partners are visible only to the service card holder in their digital garage, after they add the vehicle with the card and enter the PIN. If the seller has no service book, read our article on lost service books.

For the check, you enter the VIN and an email address. The report opens immediately, and the link to it that you receive by email is valid for 24 hours. You do not need an account.