Paperless conveyancing has led to a sharp increase in fraud-
conveyancers acting for both the sellers and buyers of a fraudulent
property purchase held to have breached their duty of trust to the
buyer.
Some readers will recall that Max Hastings recently wrote about
how his wife (who was the sole owner of a valuable un-mortgaged
property in West London) was almost the victim of an awful fraud.
In fact, the Land Registry spotted an inconsistency and thwarted
the fraudsters. However, unfortunately since paper Land and Charge
Certificates were abandoned in favour of an electronic register,
there have been a number of successful frauds where conmen pose as
the true owner of a property and by the time the fraud is
discovered the funds have been sent out of the jurisdiction and
become untraceable. A number of cases have been commenced in the
courts seeking redress from the professionals involved and from
their insurers.
