Alaska license plate lookup

What our Alaska plate search returns

The lookup turns an Alaska plate into the car’s VIN and decodes it for free: model year, make, model, engine and any open safety recalls. You can then order a history report on that VIN. The plate match comes from a commercial vehicle-data provider.

You won’t see the owner’s name or address. That information sits in DMV records protected by the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. § 2721), and only the state can release it, for the permissible uses the law lists.

Who issues plates and titles in Alaska

Both come from the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. The DMV says Alaska requires one plate on the rear of most vehicles; commercial vehicles over 10,001 pounds display it on the front.

Standard plates can’t be transferred to another vehicle. Only a plate assigned to you, such as a personalized or specialty plate, can move, and only to a vehicle you’re a registered owner of. When a car is sold, the DMV tells sellers with personalized or specialty plates to remove them, and the buyer is issued a new set at no extra charge. The seller hands over the title at delivery and files the Notice of Vehicle Sale for Transfer from the bottom of the title. The DMV says a bill of sale alone doesn’t transfer ownership.

Requesting a vehicle record from the Alaska DMV

Owner and lienholder details, and copies of past DMV transactions, are requested on Form 851, the Request for Research or Verification of Motor Vehicle Record. The form costs $10 per vehicle, one form per request, and the DMV asks you to allow 8 to 12 weeks.

You have to certify one permitted reason: you’re the owner of record, you have the owner’s written permission, you’re the manufacturer (for a recall, for example), an insurer, a business verifying information the owner gave it, a party to a legal proceeding, or you’re notifying the owner of a towed or abandoned vehicle. Wanting to know who owns a car you saw for sale isn’t one of them.

Junk, salvage and reconstructed titles in Alaska

Alaska uses junk as a brand. The DMV can issue a salvage title to a vehicle that has a current junk brand and hasn’t been reconstructed yet; that title shows the word SALVAGE in its upper portion. Salvage titles aren’t available for boats, manufactured homes or off-highway vehicles.

A car rebuilt to street-legal condition is titled as reconstructed. The owner files a Reconstructed Vehicle Affidavit (Form 829) listing where the frame, body and engine came from, with a DMV inspection (Form 811), the original titles of every vehicle used and bills of sale for major parts. Those papers are worth asking a seller for. See salvage title check.

Checks before buying a car with Alaska plates

• Compare the VIN from the plate search with the dashboard VIN, the door label and the title in the seller’s hand.
• On a reconstructed car, ask for the Form 829 affidavit and the parts receipts; the frame, body and engine VINs should be listed.
• Check that the odometer assignment on the title is complete. The DMV won’t transfer a title with an incomplete odometer statement.
• If the car was titled in another state before Alaska, check that history too. A history report shows title brands and odometer readings from every state; see odometer rollback check.
• Decode the VIN with our VIN decoder and see report prices on pricing.