It was recently reported in the press that the Reverend Mike Hall had been away from home working and had received a call from his neighbours concerned that there was someone in his house. When he returned to his house in Luton he discovered it had been stripped of its furnishings and building work was well underway, unbeknown to him his identity had been stolen and used to sell his house and bank the proceeds from the sale.
Rev Hall told the builder it was his property only for the builder to leave and return with the father of the new owner telling him he had bought the property in July. The police were called and after checking with HM Land Registry online it showed the name of the new owner, at which point the police said that it was a civil matter.
Rev Hall was shocked that the police didn’t believe a criminal offence had been committed although now an arrest has been made on suspicion of fraud.
Although the crime of stealing somebody’s house is uncommon it is not unheard of. In the last 5 years HM Land Registry have paid out £12,500,000 to victims of property fraud where the Land Registry have changed the name of the owner or added a mortgage incorrectly. HM Land Registry offer a free property alert service to help protect your property from fraud, you can sign up at https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/
How it works
You can:
- monitor a property if it’s already registered with HM Land Registry
- monitor the property of a relative; you don’t have to own a property to set up an alert
- choose up to 10 properties to monitor
You will receive email alerts when there is certain activity on the properties you are monitoring.
