House "stolen" and sold

spo2

I actually know of a case similar to this - divorced couple had a house that the wife was living in, she faked his signature and remortgaged (I don't know the details of this), then defaulted. House was repossessed and sale agreed before the husband found out. Luckily the sale wasn't far on and was able to be stopped. However the house was later sold with the husband and the bank as joint vendors

stuart45

I remember a case years ago where the fraudsters took out a really large loan(millions) on some land. Although it was a fraud the court ruled that the real owner still owed the money to the bank.

GDB2222

For anyone interested:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rectification-and-indemnity/practice-guide-39-rectification-and-indemnity

Section62

I wondered whether a Form LL restriction would help protect against this type of fraud.  I think it might, but would still depend on the conveyancer spotting they were dealing with a fraudster.

There's also the natch of having to pay for the conveyancer's additional work.  Maybe this is an area where a regulated (maximum) charge for providing a certificate would give people the confidence that registering a LL restriction on their property won't land them with a big bill down the line.

I also think that the rules need to be tightened up so that ID documents (like photo driving licences) have to have additional supporting documents/evidence if they have been recently issued (i.e. less than a year old, say).  If it is that easy to obtain a driving licence in someone else's name then it can't be relied on as proof of ID. One barrier to fraud then would be making the planning/preparation process so long for the fraudster that it wasn't economically viable.

jbainbridge

I imagine the LR alert only occurs 'after' the transaction is complete .. how useful is that??

daivid

spo2 said:

I actually know of a case similar to this - divorced couple had a house that the wife was living in, she faked his signature and remortgaged (I don't know the details of this), then defaulted. House was repossessed and sale agreed before the husband found out. Luckily the sale wasn't far on and was able to be stopped. However the house was later sold with the husband and the bank as joint vendors

I'm sure there was a thread in this forum a few years ago along similar lines about one half of a separating/ed couple turning up after a sale had been completed and causing issues for the new owners.

Thankfully the statistics as mentioned in this thread suggest it is extremely unlikely to happen to any of us, which makes me wonder if there is much more to the story currently in the news as on paper this is a very profitable and from the article quite straightforward crime to commit. 

Mojisola

jbainbridge said:

I imagine the LR alert only occurs 'after' the transaction is complete .. how useful is that??

Email alerts are sent when official searches and applications are received against a monitored property

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

hilr

user1977 said:

hilr said:

1. it is a personal tragedy for the victim. For most people their home is their single most valuable asset

Nobody's lost their home. Read the story.

The remainder of your doom-mongering is just a load of nonsense. 20 cases a year is not "spiralling out of control". You're about 40 times more likely to be murdered.

Read the story indeed. "Once the house was sold to the new owner for £131,000 by the person impersonating Mr Hall, they legally owned it."

The original defrauded owner does not received his/her property back. They can sue the solicitors, which can take years and cost an arm and a loeg. They can apply for compensation from the Land Registry.

The fraudsters may well have sold the property at below market value in order to get a sale quickly and pocket the cash. It is unclear what the level of compensation would be, and it might be difficult to prove the market value at point of fraud.

Current figures are irrelevant, what counts is the rate of increase.

The sums are significant - £1.1M in the Mischcon case - great incentive for fraudsters. 

p00hsticks

daivid said:

spo2 said:

I actually know of a case similar to this - divorced couple had a house that the wife was living in, she faked his signature and remortgaged (I don't know the details of this), then defaulted. House was repossessed and sale agreed before the husband found out. Luckily the sale wasn't far on and was able to be stopped. However the house was later sold with the husband and the bank as joint vendors

Thankfully the statistics as mentioned in this thread suggest it is extremely unlikely to happen to any of us, which makes me wonder if there is much more to the story currently in the news as on paper this is a very profitable and from the article quite straightforward crime to commit. 

I think the main thing would be that the fraudsters would need to be able to gain access to the owners id and to the property itself, in order to show potential buyers around, which in practical terms means that they'd concentrate on properties that are being rented out or left unoccupied. I'd suggest that owner / occupiers are unlikely to be targeted as it would simply be to difficult to arrange viewings without suspicions being raised...

GDB2222

Luton is not the most expensive town, but £131k is very very cheap for a three bedroom house there. You have to wonder why it was quite so cheap?