Land registry fraud?

artyboy

If this business is 'dodgy', I wonder if it has led the council to believe that the OPs house is an asset of the business, and no one at the council has bothered to check. 

Sarahspangles

You AND the Council are the victims here. The main thing is neither of you wasting your time by waiting to establish this in Court. I would write to the Council explaining you have no connection with the individual or business proving your own credentials so far as you can.

If it’s not your Council then there’s no point involving your local councillor, and I doubt the Ombudsman will get involved - you’re not experiencing some issue as a citizen/service user of that Council. You’re collateral damage in a fraud case.

The difficult bit is establishing who to address your letter to. I would write to the Director of Finance or Chief Finance Officer and copy in the Head of Legal Services. Otherwise you’re just talking to some revenues officer who has to follow a set process and hasn’t yet reached a point where he/she has to escalate.

Jude57

Sarahspangles said:

You AND the Council are the victims here. The main thing is neither of you wasting your time by waiting to establish this in Court. I would write to the Council explaining you have no connection with the individual or business proving your own credentials so far as you can.

If it’s not your Council then there’s no point involving your local councillor, and I doubt the Ombudsman will get involved - you’re not experiencing some issue as a citizen/service user of that Council. You’re collateral damage in a fraud case.

The difficult bit is establishing who to address your letter to. I would write to the Director of Finance or Chief Finance Officer and copy in the Head of Legal Services. Otherwise you’re just talking to some revenues officer who has to follow a set process and hasn’t yet reached a point where he/she has to escalate.

I couldn't agree more, except that I'd go further for my own peace of mind. If the distance isn't too great, I'd be requesting an appointment with the Head of Legal Services and take along my photographic ID, a copy of the Land Registry entry of my purchasing the property and any other evidence that proves I'm not the party they're seeking to pursue, have no connection with that party and that I expect written confirmation within 10 business days that the Council will not issue further correspondence to my address. It would be worth the time and effort to me to resolve the matter once and for all and face to face is often best in these situations. Be prepared for the Head of Legal Services to delegate the meeting to a minion but that's not a problem because they'll have authority to handle the matter.

From the Council's point of view, very (very, very) often people will claim to not be the person the Council are seeking, never received any paperwork, know nothing about the matter etc. I have reason to know this and to also know that Council legal departments are tenacious in seeking payment of funds due which, given that it's public money, is in fact a good thing. Unless you're genuinely not the right person and it's not the right address, in which case, you'll be rightly worried and I'd advise you take action to resolve it before it gets to legal proceedings.  

If you can't get an appointment or don't want to/can't get to the Council offices, I'd certainly still write (on paper via snail mail) to the Head of Legal Services and copy in the Councillor who has oversight of that department. The names and contact information of Cabinet Members and their responsibilities should be on the Council website and if you can't find them, ring the Council and ask to speak to the Chief Executive's department who will be able to give you the information. You don't need to live in the Council area for the Cabinet Member to involve them because they are responsible for their departments and the staff of that department are answerable to them.

I'd hope that, having seen the evidence OP can provide, the Council will look elsewhere, but in the unlikely event that proceedings are issued, I'd advise OP to attend Court with aforementioned evidence. If OP can also produce evidence that they've used their best efforts to resolve the situation, the Judge is very likely to be unhappy with the Council and will likely make that plain. I can't imagine any scenario where a Charging Order would be issued against the OP's property in the circumstances as set out here. But why let it get that far? Again, it's public money and the OP can, relatively easily, resolve matters. Should they have to? Possibly not but as they're the ones who can provide the evidence, why not?

Miri_J

I have heard of this land registry type fraud. There was a case in Wales where a whole load of companies were being registered to one street and it was causing terrible problems for the people there. I don't know if this article is of any help to you? It doesn't help with how to deal with the local council but it does suggest how to deal with the land registry issue. What if someone has registered a company at my address in the UK? - Uniwide Formations

There's also this on the government website: Report a company using your personal details without your permission - GOV.UK

This may be the BBC article I was thinking of, it's a very common scam and there are calls for something to be done about it. Bogus companies scam: 'We never knew our home was on the list' - BBC News

MysteryMe

user1977 said:

MysteryMe said:

I'd write to the registered office of the company and state that they do not have your permission to use your address and that they are to commence the amendment of the land registry entry within 14 days.

Or what?

Also, the council have already tried the registered office, so I doubt the OP is going to have any better luck. If there's anybody there, it might be someone in a similar position to the OP!

You are missing the point.

It is in the best interests of the OP to demonstrate that having become aware of their address being used without permission they have taken steps to notify the offending party to cease doing so.

No one on here is naïve enough to think a scam company is going to take a blind bit of notice, that's not the point. The point is the OP covering their bases if the council continue to use their address to communicate with the ltd co and worse case scenario send bailiffs out. At which point I would make a formal complaint against the council via my MP.

If the letter comes back undelivered or not known at this address then companies house should be advised. It is an offence under the Companies Act to not have a valid address for service.

trix-a-belle

Do you have a mortgage on the property? If so your mortgage company won't take kindly to someone else trying to lodge a charge against the property so you may want to speak to them and let them know whats happening, they may have some additional clout or ideas on steps to take.

GDB2222

bedruzenka said:

badmemory said:

It might be an idea to pay the fee to land registry to notify you if there is any attempt at action on your property.  Sorry I can't remember the name of it but the fee is quite small.

I’m already registered for the alerts.
thanks

You can also register for alerts on the commercial property - the one you are complaining about.  I'm not sure it helps much, but it won't cost you anything.

GDB2222

Miri_J said:

I have heard of this land registry type fraud. There was a case in Wales where a whole load of companies were being registered to one street and it was causing terrible problems for the people there. I don't know if this article is of any help to you? It doesn't help with how to deal with the local council but it does suggest how to deal with the land registry issue. What if someone has registered a company at my address in the UK? - Uniwide Formations

There's also this on the government website: Report a company using your personal details without your permission - GOV.UK

This may be the BBC article I was thinking of, it's a very common scam and there are calls for something to be done about it. Bogus companies scam: 'We never knew our home was on the list' - BBC News

We had a tenant  who registered a company, with the registered office in his flat. Fair enough, I suppose.

But after he was arrested by the police, and remanded in custody long term, his brother (who lives in Albania) took over the company. He left the registered address in our flat. I have complained to Companies House, but they have not yet taken action. 

Grizebeck

GDB2222 said:

Miri_J said:

I have heard of this land registry type fraud. There was a case in Wales where a whole load of companies were being registered to one street and it was causing terrible problems for the people there. I don't know if this article is of any help to you? It doesn't help with how to deal with the local council but it does suggest how to deal with the land registry issue. What if someone has registered a company at my address in the UK? - Uniwide Formations

There's also this on the government website: Report a company using your personal details without your permission - GOV.UK

This may be the BBC article I was thinking of, it's a very common scam and there are calls for something to be done about it. Bogus companies scam: 'We never knew our home was on the list' - BBC News

We had a tenant  who registered a company, with the registered office in his flat. Fair enough, I suppose.

But after he was arrested by the police, and remanded in custody long term, his brother (who lives in Albania) took over the company. He left the registered address in our flat. I have complained to Companies House, but they have not yet taken action. 

And they are unlikely to either 

ian1246

Contact your mortgage company. They might take interest in someone threatening their interest.