Fraud continues to pose a risk to homeowners and unfortunately it is a real threat. Here at LMS we are keen to reduce the risk of fraud and secure the process for all involved.
What is property fraud?
Property fraud can happen in many ways. For example, fraudsters may steal someone’s identity and attempt to acquire ownership of a property by using forged documents. The fraudsters may then raise money by mortgaging the property without the owner’s knowledge before disappearing with the money, leaving the owner to deal with the consequences.
We can provide homeowners with the necessary precautions they can take to reduce their risk of fraud and to secure the monetary chain for all parties.
HM Land Registry has launched a free service called Property Alert that allows you to monitor up to 10 properties.
Once you have signed up to the service, you will receive email alerts when certain activity occurs on your monitored properties.
How Property Alert works
You will need to set up an online account with HM Land Registry which is free and you will then be able to monitor up to ten properties.
Email alerts will be sent when HM Land Registry receives an application to change the register as well as for official searches (which can be sent to us up to 30 working days before the application is sent and ‘freeze’ the register until the application is received). You can then judge whether or not the activity is suspicious and if you should seek further advice.
For example, if you receive an alert that a bank has lodged a search on your property but you haven’t applied for a mortgage, you may want to seek legal advice, contact Action Fraud, or contact the bank in question to tell them you are the owner and have not applied for a mortgage. Investigations into the authenticity of the mortgage application can then begin much earlier in the process.
It’s simple and effective – Register here