Help! Fraudsters sold my house!

A nightmare scenario - property owners find that their property has been sold without their knowledge. Or a second mortgage has been taken out against the property behind their back. They knew nothing about it.

It's essentially ID theft, which is something that we're all aware of. What we don't stop to think about though is what can be done to our properties if someone obtains a fake ID.

How can this happen, and what can you do to protect yourself from it?

Fraudsters try many different ways to profit from property or mortgage fraud, and may try to pose as owners of a property in order to sell that property to an unsuspecting buyer. They will then disappear with the sale proceeds leaving behind a very difficult situation for the property owner and the buyer.

There are other similarly horrifying scenarios

A fraudster may manage to take out a mortgage against a property without the owner knowing. The fraudster disappears with the mortgage money leaving the homeowner with a big problem. This may only come to light some time later when the new mortgage lender takes action for non-payment and threatens to repossess the house.

Certain properties are more vulnerable to fraud, for example where the owners live away for long periods, or properties without a mortgage. There have been situations where owners have returned to their property after a period away, to find that a new 'owner' has moved in having 'bought' the property from a fraudster.

Solicitors, the Land Registry and mortgage lenders have in place extremely tight procedures to guard against property fraud, but there will always be a small number of cases where fraudsters are successful.

In 2024-25, 86 fraudulent transactions were identified by Land Registry out of a total of around 4.5 million transactions.

So although the numbers suggest that you shouldn't lose too much sleep over this issue, you certainly don't want to be one of the few owners who suffer. Land Registry does provide a state-backed guarantee, but it's much better to be safe than sorry by taking steps to discourage fraudsters in the first place.

What can you do to protect yourself?

There are ways in which you can increase your protection against this sort of fraud and the Land Registry has produced a useful guide setting out the steps you should take at https://www.gov.uk/protect-land-property-from-fraud

There is one thing that all property owners should do, and the good news is that it's free.

This is to register your property with Land Registry's 'Property Alert' scheme. You can sign up for up to ten properties, and you will then receive notification if anyone tries to deal with the property at Land Registry. Further information is available here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/property-alert-service-proves-popular-in-the-fight-against-property-fraud

Land Registry's You Tube page has very helpful videos of steps that you can take to protect yourself Property fraud - YouTube

Land Registry also publishes a useful series of Public Guides, and Public Guide 2 available from the Land Registry's website explains how to keep your address for service up to date. This is the address that the Land Registry will use to contact you if they believe that something is being done with your property behind your back.

You can also register what is known as a Restriction against your property which provides an extra layer of protection against fraud.

Finally, you should check that your property is actually registered at Land Registry. Many older properties aren't, and this is not a safe situation for an owner. It can be difficult to verify who truly owns the property and the absence of a central register increases the risk of fraud and disputes. If documents are lost, damaged or destroyed, proving ownership of property becomes extremely difficult and opens doors for fraudsters. Overall, unregistered land reduces security and creates uncertainty, inefficiency and legal vulnerability for owners, making it a poor system compared to registered land.

We hope that this article has encouraged you to take steps to protect your property. Please also let friends and family know what they can do. None of us wants to be caught out.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these issues or anything else related to property, please feel free to contact the Chattertons Residential Property Team - we'll be happy to help.