Vicar returns home to discover fraudsters sold his house

Reverend Mike Hall was away from his Luton home when he was alerted by neighbours to someone carrying out building works inside his property, writes Ewelina Kippen, trainee solicitor with Greenwoods GRM.

.On his return, Mr Hall was shocked to find that the locks had been changed and his property was completely stripped of all furnishings and occupied by someone else. 

When Mr Hall approached the new occupier, he was told that the property had been sold and was now the registered in the new occupier’s name. How did this happen?

Mr Hall’s identity had been stolen and used by a fraudster to sell his house. His driving licence was duplicated and used to impersonate him and a bank account was set up in his name to receive the proceeds of the sale.

What steps can I take to prevent this happening to me?

HM Land Registry allows you to put an Anti-Fraud Restriction on your title to stop any sales or mortgages being registered against your title unless a conveyancer or a solicitor certifies the application was made by you. 

This is aimed at reducing the risk of property fraud by acting as a ‘burglar alarm’ and deterring fraudsters when they search for properties to target. You can fill in an application form to enter the restriction for which there is a fee of £40 – a small price to pay when your home is at stake. 

You can also sign up to get property alerts if someone applies to change the register of your property, for example if someone tries to use your property as security for a mortgage. This will not automatically block any changes to the register but will alert you when something changes so that you can take action. You can get alerts for up to 10 properties - there’s no fee.

Beware of fake landlords

A fake landlord is someone who will attempt to let a property by pretending to have the relevant authorisation, when in fact they have not. A fake landlord may conduct viewings, request a deposit and one or two months’ rent upfront, and give you the keys to the property, only to find that shortly after moving in the real owners return home.

Address for service of notices

It is worth considering whether the address for service you choose to use at HM Land Registry and in your contracts, leases or deeds, is an address at which you will actually be reached.

There is no reason why you cannot specify more than one address for service and one of them can be an email address. Bear in mind that property notices cannot generally be served by email so make sure the primary address is a postal address where you will receive correspondence promptly.

This is particularly important in, say, leases of branches of retail shops or offices, where staff may fail to pass correspondence posted or delivered to the premises on to the correct department or relevant member of staff at the organisation’s head office who deals with the organisation’s property and other important affairs. 

Take, for example, a charity shop which is staffed by different volunteers on different days of the week who may be ill-equipped to deal with incoming post or correspondence delivered by hand and who may not have all been given the necessary training.

Indeed, as far as the real property is concerned, HM Land Registry has issued an important reminder to registered owners to ensure that not only is the correct address for service noted against a property owner’s title in the first place but that the property owner must ensure the address is kept up to date