Scope: written for buyers in England and Wales; Scottish property law differs in places. This is general information about a legal area with real consequences, not legal advice. On a significant purchase, take advice.
Buying used is normal in hire. Fleet renewal, filling a gap in a category, taking ex-hire kit off another company at a sensible price. Most of it is fine.
The problem is what happens on the small proportion that is not, and it is worse for a hire company than most buyers realise.
The legal position, which is less friendly than people assume
The starting rule in English law is nemo dat quod non habet: nobody can pass better title than they have. Buy from a thief and you get nothing, regardless of what you paid or how honestly you acted. The machine goes back to its owner and you are left pursuing a seller who has generally disappeared.
Most people vaguely know there is an exception, because they have heard of it in relation to cars. Part III of the Hire Purchase Act 1964 gives an innocent private purchaser good title where they buy a vehicle in good faith from someone holding it under an unsatisfied hire purchase or conditional sale agreement.[1]
Two things about that exception matter, and both go against you.
It applies to motor vehicles. Not to plant generally. An excavator, a telehandler or a lighting tower is not what the Act is aimed at.
It protects private purchasers. A trade or finance purchaser is expressly excluded. A hire company buying a machine for its fleet is trading, so even where the item is a vehicle, the protection is not available.[2]
So a plant hire business buying used has neither route open to it. That is not a reason to avoid buying used. It is the reason the checks below are worth the twenty minutes they take.
Stolen and finance checks
For cars, the familiar answer is an HPI-style check against DVLA data and the finance registers. Plant has no vehicle register behind it, so the equivalent is a specialist database.
The Equipment Register holds the largest database of stolen plant and equipment in Europe, taking registrations and reports from manufacturers, dealers, insurers, finance companies and police forces. A check tells you whether an item is recorded as stolen or carries outstanding finance, and TER issues check certificates evidencing the due diligence you carried out.[3][4]
Two limits worth understanding.
A clear check is not proof of clean title. It means the item is not on the databases searched. Unreported theft exists and identifiers can be altered.
Outstanding finance is the more common exposure. A machine sold by someone who does not own it outright can be repossessed by the finance company whatever you paid. That is a separate risk from theft, it is far more frequent, and it is the one where the absence of innocent purchaser protection bites hardest.
Always run the check on the number taken from the machine itself, never the number in the advert.
Verify the identity of the machine
Any check is only as good as the identifier you feed it.
| Check | What you are looking for |
|---|---|
| Serial or PIN plate | Present, original fixings, not drilled, riveted over, painted or recently replaced |
| Stamped chassis number | Matches the plate, with no grinding, filling or restamping |
| Engine number | Matches the documentation and is consistent with the machine’s age |
| Secondary identifiers | Manufacturer’s hidden or duplicate numbers where they exist, consistent with the visible ones |
| CESAR triangular plate | If fitted, verify it and check the registered owner matches the seller |
| Hours and wear | Consistent with the stated year, and with wear on controls, seat, pins and bushes |
| Paint | No overspray around plates, no recent respray concealing a former livery |
| Telematics | Whether a manufacturer system is still active and registered to someone else |
A resprayed machine with a fresh serial plate is not automatically stolen. It is automatically worth more questions.
That last row is often overlooked. Manufacturer telematics such as JCB LiveLink stay registered to an account, and a machine still reporting into someone else’s platform is a question that needs an answer before you pay.
Check the seller and the paperwork
Confirm the seller has the right to sell. That means a purchase invoice or finance document in their name, a company that exists and matches the bank details, and a written settlement figure from the finance company if the machine is on finance.
Pay by traceable means, to an account matching the company name. Cash is not checkable later and neither is a payment to a personal account for a company sale.
Get a written invoice identifying the machine by serial number, stating the price, naming both parties and confirming the seller has clear title and that the machine is free of finance. It costs nothing and it is what you will need if anything goes wrong. It also gives you a contractual claim against the seller, which may be the only remedy you have.
Imported machines need more checking, not less
Stolen UK plant is exported, which means the reverse trade carries the same risk in the other direction. Machines arriving from Europe are a legitimate and substantial part of the used market, but the checks are harder.
TER’s coverage is strongest for UK-reported items, so a clear check on an import proves less than a clear check on a machine that has spent its life here. Ask for the machine’s history before it arrived, an export document or purchase invoice from the country of origin, and evidence of who imported it and when.
Be alert to a machine whose paperwork begins at the point it entered the UK. A history that starts at the port is not a history.
Specification differences matter commercially too. Emissions stage, hydraulic configuration, hour meter units and attachment couplers can all differ, and a machine that will not accept your existing buckets is worth less to you than the price suggests.
Auctions and trade sales
Buying through an established auction house or dealer reduces risk without removing it.
Ask what checks the house runs as standard, and specifically whether lots are checked against the stolen and finance databases. Reputable houses do this and will tell you.
Then read the conditions of sale on title. Many state that lots are sold with only such title as the seller has, which is not a warranty of clean title. Some exclude liability for description and condition almost entirely on trade sales, and most limit the window in which you can raise a problem to days rather than weeks.
Online-only auctions deserve particular care, because the practical opportunity to inspect the machine and its identifiers before bidding is limited. If you cannot get someone to look at the plates in person, price that uncertainty in or do not bid.
Warning signs
None proves anything alone. Two or three together should stop the deal.
- A serial plate that is disturbed, replaced, or does not match the stamped number
- Paperwork that does not name the seller, or names a company that does not exist
- Pressure to complete quickly, or a price well below the condition and hours
- No willingness to let you run a check or photograph the identifiers
- The machine viewed somewhere neutral rather than at the seller’s premises
- Cash only, or a request to pay a personal account for a company sale
- A general online marketplace listing with a new profile and no trading history
- Missing keys, missing manuals, or an inability to explain the machine’s history
- Manufacturer telematics still active on somebody else’s account
Online marketplaces carry particular risk. A £25,000 JCB telehandler stolen in February 2024 was recovered in Cornwall after a dealer spotted it on Facebook Marketplace, checked it against TER and passed the listing to Devon and Cornwall Police.[5][6] That is the good outcome. The bad one is being the person who bought it the week before.
Record it properly on arrival
The checks are also the start of the asset record. When a machine arrives, capture the serial number, photographs of every identifier and plate, the purchase invoice, the finance settlement letter if there was one, and the check certificate.
That is the same information a theft report, an insurance claim, a compliance record and a future sale all depend on. It is also, in a business that buys several machines a year, the set of documents most likely to be sitting in an email thread rather than anywhere findable.
Frequently asked questions
Can I lose a machine I bought in good faith?
Yes. Under the general rule you cannot acquire better title than the seller had, so a machine bought from someone with no right to sell can be recovered by its owner or its finance company. Acting honestly and paying a fair price does not by itself protect you.
Does the innocent purchaser protection cover plant?
No, on two counts. Part III of the Hire Purchase Act 1964 applies to motor vehicles rather than plant generally, and it protects private purchasers, expressly excluding trade and finance purchasers. A hire company buying for its fleet falls outside it either way.
Is there an HPI check for plant?
Not in the same form, because plant has no vehicle register behind it. The nearest equivalent is a specialist database check, principally The Equipment Register, which covers stolen status and outstanding finance and issues a certificate recording the check.
Is a clear check a guarantee?
No. It confirms the item is not on the databases searched. Unreported theft and altered identifiers both exist, which is why physical verification of the plates matters alongside the database check.
What about outstanding finance?
A machine on finance can be repossessed by the finance company whoever is holding it. Ask for a written settlement figure and confirm it is cleared before or at the point of payment. This is the more common problem in practice, more so than theft.
Is it safe to buy plant on Facebook Marketplace?
It can be, but the anonymity of general marketplaces makes them attractive to sellers of stolen equipment. Treat a private online sale as needing more checking, not less, and never pay before verifying the identifiers on the machine and running a database check.
Does an auction protect me?
Partly. Established houses generally run stolen and finance checks, but conditions of sale often pass on only such title as the seller has, exclude description and condition warranties on trade sales, and limit the window for raising problems. Ask what checks are run and read the conditions.
What extra checks does an imported machine need?
History before it entered the UK, an export document or invoice from the country of origin, and evidence of who imported it and when. Database coverage is strongest for UK-reported items, so a clear check on an import proves less. Also check the specification actually suits your fleet.
What should I photograph before paying?
The serial or PIN plate, the stamped chassis number, the engine number, any CESAR plate, the hour meter, and the machine as a whole including livery. Those photographs tie a specific machine to your transaction.
References
- Hire Purchase Act 1964, Part III.
- DWF, “The nemo dat rule,” on the limits of the innocent purchaser exception including its exclusion of trade purchasers.
- The Equipment Register, “Services.”
- The Equipment Register, “Advice for equipment hire companies.”
- Construction Management, “Stolen £25k JCB loader listed on Facebook recovered.”
- Vertikal.net, “Facebook reveals stolen telehandler.”