Protecting yourself from property fraud

The BBC recently reported that HM Land Registry has paid almost £7m from their indemnity fund to victims of property fraud in the 2021-22 year. This is a significant increase from the previous year, where approximately £5.44m was paid.

Unfortunately, this indicates that the risk of being a victim of property fraud is increasing and should be taken seriously by property owners.

There are, however, several things that you can do as a property owner to help protect yourself from property fraud.

The first is to sign up to HM Land Registry’s property alert service. This allows you to monitor Land Registry activity for your property, so if someone applies to register a mortgage or change of ownership you would be notified by email. This would give you the opportunity to make the Land Registry aware of the fraud (or mistake) as quickly as possible. You can monitor up to ten properties with this service.

The second way to protect yourself is to register a counter-fraud restriction on your property. This can be especially useful if the property is vacant or rented out. In a recent case in Southampton, fraudsters took a tenancy of the property and impersonated the owner to fraudulently sell his property.

The counter-fraud restriction is helpful because it indicates that the property is at a higher risk of being targeted, this makes the legal professionals involved in the transaction aware that additional checks should be undertaken to make sure that the seller is who they claim to be.

If you would like to register the counter-fraud restriction on your property you can contact the Land Registry who should be able to assist you, alternatively if you would like assistance from a legal professional, please contact our Conveyancing Team who would be happy to help.