HM Land Registry are looking to deter property fraud
While property fraud is relatively rare, it can still pose a problem to landlords and property owners if they ever encounter it. This is especially true for landlords who may live some distance from their rental property. Property fraud is the name given when someone tries to steal your property, usually this comes in the form of a person pretending to be the home owner and selling or taking a mortgage out on the property.
Since September 2009, HM Land Registry has been able to put a stop to 254 attempted property thefts, which would have been valued at more than £117m, and now they’re looking to prevent even more potential property frauds by launching a free Property Alert service.
What is Property Alert?
Property Alert is a service that allows a person to monitor up to 10 properties, and they will receive email alerts if there are certain activities taken on the monitored homes. A property has to be registered with HM Land Registry to be monitored, and you aren’t required to own a property to monitor it, meaning you can also monitor the properties of your relatives.
Setting up a Property Alert couldn’t be simpler, and will only take a few minutes. First, you create a Property Alert account. After this, you’ll be sent a verification email which you can use to activate your account, then it’s just a case of signing in to your account and adding the properties you’d like to monitor. It’s worth noting that in order to monitor a property, you need to know that property’s address.
What information will Property Alert give
Any time there is a significant change to a property that you have requested to monitor, you will receive an alert via email, this includes when a new mortgage is taken out against a property. The email will provide you with the type of activity committed, the name of the applicant, and the date and time of the activity.
It’s worth remembering that receiving an email alert won’t necessarily mean that fraudulent activity is being committed, it is up to you to decide which activities are suspicious. In that vein, Property Alert won’t stop the fraud from happening, it is up to the recipient of the alert to decide whether or not the activity committed is fraudulent, and then take actions to stop it. However, the email will provide information on who to contact should you encounter suspicious activity.
While it’s possible that you will never encounter property fraud, this free service allows you to take the path of better safe than sorry, and could help you avoid the stress from property fraud.
You can also negate the potential of property fraud by selling and renting your property through an agency. CPS Homes is one of the largest lettings and estate agencies in Cardiff, and we have the experience and knowhow to guarantee your property is in safe hands with us. For more information about selling your property, or about our property management services, get in touch on enquiries@cpshomes.co.uk or pop into one of our three Cardiff branches.
The information contained within this article was correct at the date of publishing and is not guaranteed to remain correct in the present day.
