A new service to help you protect your property against fraud

One aspect of identity fraud is for criminals to use stolen identities and forged documents to convince solicitors and mortgage lenders that they are in fact the owners of properties with the intention of either selling the property or obtaining a mortgage over it and running off with the funds.

In response to this and to help you protect your property against fraud, HM  Land Registry has introduced ‘Property Alert’.  It is a free monitoring service by which they will notify the registered owner of a property of any applications to register dealings with that property.

You need to make an application  to the Land Registry to subscribe to this service. When an alert is received, you can then decide whether this is a legitimate application or a potentially fraudulent one. Although property alerts will not prevent criminal activity from taking place, it will give early warning to the property’s true owner.

To subscribe to the service go to: https://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/property-alert