Sold From Under Your Feet

We look at property fraud and how the Land Registry can help prevent it.

A recent example of property fraud

On 20 August 2021, Reverend Mike Hall was alerted by the neighbours of his property in Luton, that someone was in his house. On arriving in Luton, Mr Hall found that the house he owned was occupied by an unknown person who claimed he had bought the house.

Reverend Hall's identity had been stolen and used to sell the house without his knowledge. This is much easier for fraudsters to do if a house is not occupied by the owner and people who rent homes are particularly vulnerable to their tenant pretending to be the owner.

On checking the Land Registry, Reverend Hall found that the title register had been updated and showed the unknown person to be the registered proprietor of his house.