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Land Registry prevents £60m property fraud
The Land Registry has revealed that it has prevented over £60 million worth of fraudulent property transactions, as the Government body steps up its efforts to counter an increase in crime.
The Watchdog claims to have ceased 136 separate applications of fraudulent activity between September 2009 and April 2013 as the Body looks to cut down on phony applications on properties.
Six months on from the launch of Land Registry’s property fraud line, 505 calls and emails have been received – equating to around three calls a day.
The property fraud line is one of a range of measures that Land Registry employs to help prevent or detect property fraud and safeguard the most valuable asset that people own.
The line was launched on 5th February 2013 for owners to quickly alert Land Registry if they are concerned their property might be subject to a fraudulent sale or mortgage.
Property fraud can happen in many ways, with fraudsters always looks to attempt to acquire ownership of a property either by using a forged document to transfer it into their own name, or by impersonating the registered owner.
Once they have raised money by mortgaging the property without the owner’s knowledge they disappear without making repayments - leaving the owner to deal with the consequences.
Speaking on the announcement, Alasdair Lewis, The Land Registry’s Property Fraud Unit spokesman, said: “The frauds we have helped to prevent have saved those concerned a lot of grief and potentially money. We’re glad to see that the property fraud line has proved successful in preventing bad situations from getting worse.”
Mr and Mrs P are the owners of a holiday cottage they rent out via a lettings agency. When visiting the cottage they found some correspondence relating to credit cards and other financial matters addressed to someone else using the cottage’s address. This person had rented it a few weeks previously. Also, the keys to the cottage were missing from the key safe at the property.
Mr and Mrs P contacted the police and Land Registry’s property fraud line. Although there was, as yet, no other suspicious activity concerning their Land Registry information, the fraud line team alerted Mr and Mrs P to the fact their contact address was out of date. This would mean that if Land Registry needed to contact them – perhaps to tell them there was a mortgage in the process of being taken out on their property – they would not receive Land Registry’s letter. Mr and Mrs P were told how they could update their contact address, which they then did.
In the circumstances, Mr and Mrs P were also told about another Land Registry fraud protection option: the form RQ restriction. Any owner who is not living at, and does not intend to live at, a particular property can apply for one of these free of charge. The RQ restriction is designed to help prevent forgery by requiring a conveyancer to certify they are satisfied that the person transferring or mortgaging the property is the same person as the owner. It provides an additional safeguard against forgery by operating as a deterrent. Mr and Mrs P applied for an RQ restriction and their property now has this additional protection in place.
The launch of the property fraud line forms part of Land Registry’s on-going fraud prevention and detection techniques to safeguard people’s registered properties.
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