The Lemon Fool

This might be a new service. You can register with the LandReg to receive e-mail alerts when searches are carried out on addresses you have selected. These can be your home, any B2Ls, relatives homes, others. The aim is to help counter-act the likes of fraudsters or tenants selling a property they do not own. Given the articles I've read over recent years of fraudsters selling or mortgaging property they don't own registering seems like a wise idea.
https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/
I've just registered and it was simplicity itself.

Very useful DE! Unfortunately, we fried mars bar eaters are not covered. Does anyone know if Scotland has a similar service?

TP2.

I saw this and registered. Speaking with a solicitor, she mentioned that the alarm might be triggered on the day when contracts are exchanged and by the time you've got the email and acted, the deal is done, so to speak.

You can monitor up to 10 properties.

monabri wrote:... Speaking with a solicitor, she mentioned that the alarm might be triggered on the day when contracts are exchanged.

My bold.
I can see this applying if the exchange>completion is very fast, I've heard of cases when both happen simultaneously at one time ('within the hour'). But my understanding is that's the realm of the sharp end of property investors/dealers. I think the typical property transaction is still spread out over at least a few weeks.
- That said a professional buyer could complete without carrying out any searches. After all some such purchase property 'un-seen', presumably perceiving no possible issues worse than the purchase price already reflects.
I suspect it's the mass-market, those buying with mortgages, having surveys/valuations etc that are triggering search activity at the LR.

I registered my house a year ago when I bought it. I've had one red flag notification since then emailed to me - seems to me it was related to my solicitor paying the stamp duty on my behalf.

My info might be out of date, but the fraud cases I read about revolved around property being empty. This enabled the fraudsters to rely on postal from LR not being seen by the true owner.

How could someone switch the name on a property without giving the current owner notice? It seems to me that if the LR will change the name on the say so of a random third party, then there would be dozens of cases a day.

BTW, I also heard it suggested that keeping a small motrgage in play will protect you since the lender has a charge.


Arb.

DiamondEcho wrote:This might be a new service. You can register with the LandReg to receive e-mail alerts when searches are carried out on addresses you have selected. These can be your home, any B2Ls, relatives homes, others. The aim is to help counter-act the likes of fraudsters or tenants selling a property they do not own. Given the articles I've read over recent years of fraudsters selling or mortgaging property they don't own registering seems like a wise idea.
https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/
I've just registered and it was simplicity itself.

I've registered a property for the Land Registry e-mail alert and it does work and is useful. I've used it more as an alert to see how things are moving along (IIRC I got 3 or 4 for when selilng a house), rather than as an anti-fraud measure (but who knows if it might come in useful). As someone says, by the time you get the e-mail it might be a done deal, but at least you know about it pretty close to the time rather than 3 months later when some little anomaly elsewhere tips you off that something isn't quite right. Also, my experience of buying and selling is of a gap of about 2 weeks between exchange and completion. However, the last house I sold (as an executor) exchanged and completed on the same day. My solicitor said she was happy to do it that way, and set up for it (although did say it wasn't the norm). I (as exor) was just happy to see the house sold (it was vacant anyway). Had it been my own house that was selling, I might have been more nervous about the other side seemingly dragging its heels to exchange as the buyer in showing committment, but in this case, I was happy to sit tight.

JMN2 wrote:I registered my house a year ago when I bought it. I've had one red flag notification since then emailed to me - seems to me it was related to my solicitor paying the stamp duty on my behalf.

That was astonishingly generous of him!!