Protect yourself from property fraud

How is property fraud defined?

In the realm of selling and buying houses and flats, property fraud is generally described as a fraudster who tries selling your home without any claim to the ownership, and without you knowing that the attempted unlawful sale is even happening.

This can most typically happen at properties where there is no full-time owner living in them or if the home is always vacant, or for houses for which no mortgage exists.

The HM Land Registry, a department of the UK government that oversees home registrations in England and Wales, says that since 2009 it has taken steps to prevent almost 280 fraudulent home registrations that had a total combined value of more than £133 million. That helps highlight just how costly property fraud has the potential to be.

What are the factors that increase the risk of property fraud?

On the HM Land Registry’s site you’ll find a helpful page dedicated to highlighting the risks of property fraud, including the factors that could make fraud more likely. These include:

• If you have had your identify stolen
• If you live in another country
• If your house or flat is empty
• If you rent out your home
• If you do not have a mortgage on your property
• If you have not registered your home with the HM Land Registry

What can be done to help prevent property fraud?

Thankfully, there are several relatively simple steps that you can take to guard against the risk of property fraud, and most of these will be either free or will not cost very much.

Put a restriction on your home

One prominent way that you can help to protect your rights over the property is by putting a restriction on the home’s title. Putting a restriction on the title prohibits HM Land Registry from officially registering any mortgages or sales on the home unless a solicitor or a conveyancer provides a signed certification that you submitted the registration request. That makes it very difficult for fraudsters to sell your home.

The cost of a placing a restriction on a property is free if you own it but don’t live in it, but if you do live in the house or flat then you can expect to pay £40 to issue the restriction.

Sign up for property registration alerts

HM Land Registry also offers the Land Registry Property Alert service, which is a free service you can sign up for, through which you will receive email alerts when certain activity occurs on your monitored properties, allowing you to take action if necessary.

This means that you’ll get an email notification whenever someone attempts to pursue any formal applications or other steps in the sale and purchase process against your property. These alerts can help you quickly respond to a scam while it’s happening.