Land offered for sale without consent

fairplay_2

This is a bit of a strange one but I wondered if anyone else has had anything similar happen.
I was shocked to find that my own little piece of land was up for sale on a couple of property search sites !
The agent seems to be Monkey Lets Ltd. I cannot find any info on them and it is impossible to get them by phone as their number is constantly busy. It is being marketed by Sell Mine and if you go on the Sell Mine site it takes you to Home.co.uk so they are obviously connected. Maybe Monkey Lets is also connected. They are all in the Bootle - Prescot area.

I absolutely have no intention of selling so if anyone knows anything about these companies, I would be very grateful.

DVardysShadow

No idea on the companies. But I think their idea may be to find a buyer and then approach you. Is your land registered with the land reg?

As for the advertising, I would suggest you write to each one of them at their respective registered offices keeping copies, giving them 14 days to cease marketing.

Alternatively, borrow a friends phone and address and go mystery shopping to them yourself and find out what they are up to.

googler

Did you buy or inherit this 'little piece of land'

When did you acquire it? Is it a building plot?

phill99

This is similar to a few dodgy Estate Agents in the East End of London in the 1980's. they would find a run down commercial property, put their For Sale board on it, and then if they got an interested buyer, they would approach the owner. Very underhandedm but not illegal. (well it wasn't then, but not sure about now)

ammago07

I have just had a quick look online regarding this company. The website below is interesting reading, according to a few of the people on here say that Monkey Let Ltd is running a land banking scam.

whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/07797803731/12 (sorry I can't post links).

Also I did a quick check on companies house and Monkey Lets Ltd is dissolved but sends you to a website called sell-mine . co . uk(which to me looks like a dummy website). But when you look into it even further you see that they give a company name of Buy Land Inc with a company number of 07165902 but checking this out with companies house the actual name of the company is Genki Solutions Ltd which apparently is a company offering services in business and software developing environments.

Sorry got carried away with looking into this company.

All looks a bit suspicious to me. It sounds as though they are trying to get money out of unsuspecting people by selling them a piece of land that they would have no right to own.

Not sure what you can do though.

fairplay_2

Thank you so much for replies - all very interesting and most appreciated.
Nice to know there are such good people on here taking time and trouble to reply.
My best wishes to you all.

G_M

Contact the Land Registry.

I remember reading/hearing that there is a 'flag' you can get put on your Title to ensure you are alerted if anyone tries to sell the property/land. This is designed to stop people forging signatures, selling land they don't own and vanishing with the cash.

I may be wrong, but worth a quick phone call....

DVardysShadow

G_M wrote: »

Contact the Land Registry. ...

Agree. And if the land is not already registered, get it registered straight away.

jimpix12

Have you ever enquired online about how much it might be worth? Often that information is saved and bought.

fairplay_2

The land is registered and I have never sought to get a valuation.
Basically is it just farmland and pasture with a few trees.
Good point about flagging at the Land Reg - many thanks.

g_attrill

It may be one of those scams where the prospective tenant hands over the rent and a deposit and then the agent disappears. It could even be that they would start using the land and only realise it's a scam when you ask them what they are up to! They would be banking on you not having spotted it being up for rent. It might be worth enquiring but not telling them who you are, if it sounds dodgy report it to the police.