Help – someone has stolen my house!

We have all heard about cybercrime and identity fraud, but who has heard of property fraud?   How can a HOUSE be stolen?   It’s not what you think.   Here are the in’s and out’s…

Unfortunately, properties are more at risk than identity fraud and cybercrime at the moment.  Criminals may try to obtain ownership of your property by impersonating you.  They do this by using fraudulent documents to transfer the property into a bogus name. Once they have ownership of your property, they will try remortgaging the property without your knowledge or even worse, sell your property.  They will then disappear and where does that leave you?

If you are a Landlord, then you are more at risk of this type of crime.

You may now be thinking “how can I protect myself from the above happening to me?”

Well, it is quite simple really; here are the following ways that you can safeguard yourself from this happening to you:-

  • A restriction can be entered into the deeds to your house. The restriction will prevent the property being sold or remortgaged unless a Solicitor certifies that the application is made by you;
  • You can also add additional addresses to the title of the property whereby, if you are not actually living at the property, you can receive notification by post of any pending application in respect of the property;
  • You can sign up to Land Registry’s free alert service, where you can receive alerts should any application be received by the Land Registry in respect of the property that you wish to monitor.

To discuss how we can assist with a restriction, or to find out more about our fixed fee conveyancing quotes please contact our property teams on:

  • Kidderminster- 01562 820575
  • Worcester – 01905 730450
  • Halesowen- 0121 227 3850
  • Solihull – 0121 624 4000

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