IBC VIN Verify is a free search run by the Insurance Bureau of Canada. It answers one question: has a participating insurer branded this vehicle non-repairable after a flood, fire or collision. Run it first — it is the insurers' own list. Then enter the VIN here for the far more common history it does not record.
The repaired accident is many times more common than the non-repairable write-off, and IBC does not record it at all.
A vehicle written off, rebuilt and re-inspected carries a rebuilt brand, not a non-repairable one, so it passes IBC VIN Verify cleanly.
IBC covers Alberta, Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Brands applied in B.C., Quebec, Saskatchewan or Manitoba come from each province's own system.
A vehicle flooded in Texas, retitled and imported through the RIV carries no Canadian brand. Its American title and auction record is where that history lives.
The sequence of recorded readings, so a rollback shows up as a reading lower than an earlier one.
Each registration on record with the province and dates — including a move shortly after a damage event, which is how a brand gets left behind.
Before paying for anything, run the official checks — they are the authoritative records, and most cost nothing. Each one covers a single slice of the vehicle's history:
Shows whether a participating insurer has reported the vehicle as non-repairable after flood, fire or collision. Covers Alberta, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, and only insurers that take part in the IBC database.
Each official check stops at its own border: provincial registries cover their own province only, a stolen-vehicle hit says nothing about accidents, and a recall search says nothing about liens. None of them follows a vehicle that moved between provinces or came up from the U.S. Running the VIN here pulls cross-North-America records — accident and damage history, odometer readings, title brands, theft and lien records — into one report, so you can see what the official checks each miss.
Get the 17-character VIN from the registration, the dashboard plate at the base of the windshield, or the driver's door-jamb label. Check that all three match — a mismatch is a bigger problem than anything the search will tell you.
Open the IBC VIN Verify page, enter the VIN, accept the terms and submit. There is no account and no fee.
Read the result. A match means an insurer reported the vehicle as non-repairable, and under provincial rules a non-repairable vehicle can never be registered for the road in Canada again. Walk away.
No match is not a clean bill of health. IBC itself states that recently reported vehicles may not appear yet, that other flooded or burned vehicles are not in the database, and that coverage is limited to participating insurers in three regions. Enter the VIN above to see the accident, title, odometer and ownership records IBC does not collect.
Non-repairable is the end of the road: the vehicle can never be registered again. Most damaged vehicles never get there. They are repaired under a claim, or written off as salvage and rebuilt, and neither outcome is in the IBC database. IBC VIN Verify is a flood-car screen, not a damage history.
The database is built from reports by IBC members who take part, covering Alberta, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. A vehicle insured by a non-participating company, or damaged in another province, is simply absent. Absence is not evidence.
The terms on the search page state that recently reported vehicles may not appear right away, that other flooded or fire-damaged vehicles exist that are not included, and that a vehicle may have been incorrectly reported and not removed. The data is provided as-is. Treat a hit as decisive and a miss as inconclusive.
The service was launched in 2013 after the Calgary and Toronto floods to stop locally flooded cars re-entering the market. Vehicles flooded in the United States and imported afterwards were never in scope, and a large share of Canadian used stock came up through the RIV.
A 2019 SUV listed in Mississauga comes back clean on IBC VIN Verify. The full report shows an Alberta registration until 2022, a damage record in June 2021, a rebuilt brand applied in Alberta that August, and an Ontario registration three months later. Nothing in that chain is non-repairable, so IBC was right to show nothing — and the buyer would have paid clean-title money for a rebuilt vehicle. The free preview would have shown one brand record and one damage record before any payment.
See a full sample report| IBC VIN Verify | Vektracer free preview | Full report | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-repairable brand (AB, ON, Atlantic) | Yes — authoritative | Included in brand count | Brand, province and date |
| Salvage and rebuilt brands | No | Count | Each brand with province and date |
| Brands applied in BC, QC, SK, MB | No | Count | Each brand with province and date |
| Repaired collision and damage records | No | Count | Each event, with severity where reported |
| U.S. flood, fire and salvage titles on imports | No | Count | Title history by state, auction records and photos |
| Odometer readings over time | No | Count | Full sequence, rollback flagged |
| Ownership history by province | No | Count | Every registration with dates |
| Reported stolen | No — use CPIC | Count | Record detail |
Yes. The Insurance Bureau of Canada runs it at no charge. You enter the VIN, accept the terms and submit; there is no account to create.
It means an insurer declared the vehicle unfit ever to return to the road — typically after flooding to the bottom of the dash, a fire, or a severe collision. A non-repairable vehicle cannot be registered for operation on any Canadian road. It can only be sold for parts or scrap.
No. IBC states that its database covers Alberta, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Those four provinces run public auto insurers with their own records: ICBC in B.C., the SAAQ in Quebec, SGI in Saskatchewan and MPI in Manitoba.
Not necessarily. IBC's own terms say recently reported vehicles may not appear yet and that other flooded or burned vehicles are not in the database. The search only tells you the VIN is not on the participating insurers' non-repairable list. Accidents, salvage and rebuilt brands, odometer problems and U.S. history are outside its scope.
No. Salvage and rebuilt are separate brands applied by provincial registries when a written-off vehicle is repaired and re-inspected. A rebuilt vehicle passes IBC VIN Verify with no result. The full report lists every brand on record by province.
No. The database holds vehicles reported by Canadian insurers. A vehicle flooded in the U.S., given a salvage or flood title there and then imported carries no Canadian insurer report. Its American title and auction history is the only place that damage appears.
No. It is a single-purpose brand lookup. A history report compiles ownership, accident, odometer, title and theft records from many sources across Canada and the U.S. Run IBC first because it is free and authoritative for what it covers, then use a history check for everything else.
IBC is the national industry association for private home, auto and business insurers. VIN Verify was launched in August 2013, after the southern Alberta and Greater Toronto floods, so buyers could check whether a vehicle had been written off as non-repairable by a member insurer.
Enter the VIN to see which records exist. The preview is free.