Ormerods Solicitors Croydon Wimbledon Reigate

Fighting Property Fraud - Are you at Risk?

Since Land Registry did away with paper Land and Charge Certificates there is now no such thing as title deeds. When a property is sold, an official copy of the title is obtained from Land Registry and sent to the buyers' solicitors. No other original documents need to be produced to prove title to the property. After completion the buyer just has to register the transfer with Land Registry to become the new registered owner of a property.

Many people believe the lack of original documents and the fact that the registers of every single registered property in England and Wales can be viewed by anyone upon payment of a small fee, has made it much easier for fraudsters. How can you fight against property fraud so that you do not become a victim:-

- Make sure the Land Registry has an up to date address for you. If you don't live in a property you own, write to Land Registry to give it an up to date address where it can contact you and keep Land Registry's records up to date. If Land Registry has to write to you it will use the address it has on it's records and if this is not correct you may not receive formal notifications sent to you
- When you move from a property arrange postal redirection and keep an eye open to make sure you are receiving the correspondence you expect
- Don't ignore any letters you receive from Land Registry. If it does serve a notice on you, you only have a very short time to respond to it and if Land Registry doesn't receive a response to the notification sent to you the register for your property could well be altered to your detriment.

Submitted by Celia Perry on Tuesday 28th April 2009