A motorhome is two things bolted together: a van, and a small house built on the back of it. A car check only ever looks at the first one. That's fine for finding out whether it's stolen or on finance, and no use at all for finding out whether the house is rotting.
The house is the half no check covers, and it's the half that gets missed because the paperwork for the van looks so reassuring. Here's how to check both before you hand over the money.
What should a motorhome check cover?
Two halves, and they're checked in completely different ways. The vehicle half (MOT history, mileage, finance, theft, write-offs, recalls and the base vehicle's known faults) is on the records, just like a car's. The habitation half (damp, gas, water, electrics and the habitation service history) isn't on any record at all, and that's the half where the expensive surprises live.
| What you're checking | Where the answer is |
|---|---|
| MOT history, mileage and advisories | The DVSA MOT history, free on the registration |
| Finance, theft, write-off | The same industry registers a car check uses, by registration |
| Recalls on the base vehicle and on the conversion | The DVSA recall checker, under both makers' names |
| Known faults on the base vehicle | The model's faults, and the cambelt or chain for its engine |
| Damp and water ingress | A damp test, and the seller's records of past ones |
| Gas, water and electrics | Habitation service history and certificates |
| How much it can legally carry, and whether your licence covers it | The weight plate and your licence |
What is the advert not telling you?
Paste the advert text and the registration. We read it against the car's DVSA MOT history and our known-faults database, then tell you what the seller left out.
Check an advert now (free) →Can you do an HPI check on a motorhome?
Yes. Finance, theft and write-off records are held against the registration, and a motorhome has one like any other vehicle, so a provenance check works the same way it does on a car. The MOT history works the same way too: put the registration into the DVSA MOT history service and you get every test since 2005, with the mileage and every advisory.
What the provenance check won't do is tell you anything about the habitation side. Nobody files a damp report or a gas test against a registration, so no check at any price has seen one. The records half's worth doing first because it's cheap and it rules out the catastrophes. It just isn't the whole job.
What's the base vehicle, and why does it matter?
The base vehicle is the van the motorhome was built on, and it's where the mechanical faults come from. Common ones include the Fiat Ducato and its siblings the Peugeot Boxer and Citroen Relay, the Ford Transit, and the VW and Mercedes vans. The habitation is the converter's; the engine, gearbox, brakes and chassis are the van maker's.
So check the base vehicle's known faults as you would on a van. If it's built on a Ford Transit with the 2.0 EcoBlue diesel, the cambelt runs in oil, and our data puts its interval at six years or 100,000 miles and the job at £2,000 to £6,000. Which cars have a wet belt has the detail. On a motorhome that does low miles, the six years can arrive long before the 100,000 miles do, so ask for the date of the last belt change, not just the mileage.
Being honest about our own data: we hold fewer documented faults for the common motorhome base vans than for the popular cars, so a short list on one of those pages means less is on record, not that nothing goes wrong.
Do motorhome recalls show up on the base vehicle?
Not all of them. DVSA files recalls by vehicle class, and special-purpose vehicles, motorhomes among them, have a class of their own, separate from the vans they're built on. So a motorhome can carry a recall from the van maker and a different one from the converter, and you won't find the second by searching for the first.
The GOV.UK recall checker searches by make, model and year rather than registration, so search it twice: once for the base vehicle (Fiat, Peugeot, Ford) and once for the converter's name on the habitation. A franchised dealer can confirm the base vehicle's recalls from the VIN.
How do you check a motorhome for damp?
With a damp meter, not with your nose. Damp in a motorhome is water getting in through a seal, a window, a roof light or a joint, and by the time you can see it or smell it, it's been there a while. The panels can look fine while what's behind them goes soft.
Ask the seller for their damp test records: when it was last tested, who did it, and what the readings were. Then either have it tested yourself before you buy, or press firmly around the windows, the roof lights, the corners and the floor near the door. Soft spots, staining and lifting trim are the tells, and if you find one, you've found the conversation you need to have.
Ask: when was the last damp test, can I see the report, and has any damp ever been repaired.
What is a habitation check, and does it matter?
A habitation check is the motorhome's service for the living side: the gas system, the water system, the electrics, the appliances and the damp. It's separate from the engine service and it leaves its own paperwork.
It matters because the MOT tests the vehicle, not the house. Nothing in an MOT is a damp test or a check of the habitation gas system, so a motorhome can have a long, clean MOT history and a habitation side that hasn't been looked at in years. A seller who can show you the habitation records year by year is showing you the half that a records check can't.
Ask: for the habitation service history, the last gas check and any electrical certificates, and treat "it's been serviced" as meaning the engine until they show you otherwise.
How much can it carry, and can you drive it?
Check the weight plate, then check your licence. A motorhome's got a maximum weight it can legally run at, and the difference between that and what it weighs empty is everything you'll add: water, gas, bikes, food, people. On some motorhomes that margin's small enough to matter.
The other half of the same question is your licence. Heavier motorhomes need a licence category that not every car driver has, so check what yours covers against the weight on the plate before you fall for one. It's a much worse thing to find out afterwards.
Ask: what's on the weight plate, and has it ever been re-plated up or down.
Which of these can a report check for you?
The records half, properly, and a good chunk of the habitation half from the advert, which is where most of the clues are. We don't hold records nobody else has: finance, theft and write-off data come from the same registers every check uses, and the MOT history is free on GOV.UK. What we add is reading the advert next to them, which on a motorhome is where the habitation story either shows up or goes conspicuously missing.
| What you want to know | What answers it |
|---|---|
| MOT history, mileage and advisories read against the advert | The free scan |
| Whether the advert even mentions a habitation service | The free scan scores it as a risk when it doesn't |
| Damp, habitation history, gas and electrics, and payload, each with questions for the seller | The Smart Check's motorhome section |
| Finance, theft or a write-off | The Provenance Check, which includes the Smart Check |
| Whether it's actually damp, and whether the gas is safe | Nobody's database. A damp test and a habitation engineer |
For someone looking at a motorhome advert, the Smart Check is the tier that does the job. Its motorhome section reads the advert for each part of the habitation side, damp and water ingress, habitation service history, gas and electric safety, payload and weight, flags what the seller hasn't mentioned, and turns each gap into a question to ask. It also covers the base vehicle's known faults with repair costs and gives you a figure to negotiate from.
The honest limit is the obvious one. No report can put a damp meter on a wall or test a gas system. What it can do is tell you which of those the seller's never mentioned, so you know what to test before you buy rather than after.
So what should you actually do? Before you drive to see it, run the free scan on the motorhome's advert and registration. It reads the MOT history against the advert and tells you if the habitation side's gone unmentioned, free, with no card. If you want the habitation questions spelled out and the base vehicle's faults costed, the free report upgrades to a Smart Check on the same link with nothing re-run.
