Property owners are potentially more at risk from the activities of fraudsters. They have more to lose and there are very real risks that the Land Registry property alert service is set up to counter.

Why consider this service?

Since 2009, HM Land Registry has prevented 254 fraudulent applications being registered by fraudsters. Common attempts to “steal” property Include selling or mortgaging your property without your knowledge.

How the service works

It Is possible to monitor up to ten properties already registered with the Land Registry or those of a relative – you don’t have to be the owner of a property to set up an alert.

An example of the type of fraud that can be countered by this service – as published on the gov.uk website – is reproduced below:

Mr Mills rented out his property in England while he lived overseas. He realised that absent landlords are more at risk of property fraud, so he signed up to our Property Alert service.

Sometime later he received an alert email informing him that someone had made an application to register a mortgage on his property worth over £300,000. As Mr Mills wasn’t expecting this, he contacted our property fraud line. As a result of Mr Mills alerting us to the fact that the mortgage request was suspicious, we investigated and prevented the application from being registered once we realised it was fraudulent. As Mr Mills’ contact details were out of date, we advised him to update them so that if we needed to contact him in the future, he would be sure to receive our emails or letters.

As a result of signing up to Property Alert, Mr Mills was able to spot suspicious activity on his property and his prompt action in alerting us meant we were able to stop the fraudulent transaction from being registered.

To set up an alert fill in the online application at https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/.

Basic terms and conditions of the service

• The property you want to monitor must be situated in England or Wales and registered with HM Land Registry
• You must create a Property Alert account to use the service
• You will receive a HM Land Registry email (please check spam inbox) to enable you to verify your email details
• You must then sign into your account to add a property
• Email alerts are sent when official searches and applications are received against a monitored property
• If you receive an alert about activity that seems suspicious you should take swift action. The alert email will signpost you to who to contact.
• You don’t have to own a property to set up an alert
• The same property can be monitored by different people.
• Property, especially flats/apartments, can be registered with two titles. Blocks of flats are often owned by companies (Freehold), and the person owning the individual flat (Leasehold). When registering for this service please choose Leasehold title for individual flats/apartments.
• You can use the service if you are not online. Call the Property Alert team on 0300 006 0478.

Source: DocSafe