Property theft/scam in UK

[tinabee]

I saw this article and thought it may be of interest to those who rely on UK rental income

PROPERTY ALERT SERVICE: PROTECT YOUR HOME FROM BEING STOLEN

It would appear that unscrupulous tenants or other scumbags take out loans on rental or empty properties and then do a bunk with the cash.

Key message from the article "targets are often those who have rented out their home when they live abroad"

[Chancer]

I am aware of this and it would be good to take steps to prevent it but the homeowner is not the one losing any money or his property, the tenant doing a bunk with the money does not affect him/her at all apart from a load of aggravation of course.

Am a bit confused about the 1998 watershed, I thought the problem was with older properties that have never had the title registered which I thought was compulsory on all sales well before 1998, perhaps I am wrong, I bought mine in 1986 but its title was registered in 1958.

[idun]

Our house is old and the paperwork we have says it was first registered in 1910.

I know that if you go on the Land Registry web site you can take measures to ensure that your property remains 'yours'.

[Alan Zoff]

Registration of title is undoubtedly a good thing but was implemented in a rather haphazard fashion. It has been around for well over a century but only became compulsory in stages (depending on the Land Registry district), registration of all purchases being compulsory since 1990 and other transfers (e.g. gifts) a few years later. But if you acquired property before compulsory registration applied to your area, you might still be relying on a bundle of old documents to prove ownership and it can be very messy and expensive if you can't find them when you come to sell. People still get excited about the risk of losing their "deeds" when their title has been registered but unless they have other useful papers stored with them (e.g guarantees), there is not a lot to worry about as you can simply get a copy of the Land Registry entries to prove your title for a very small fee. Indeed, although initially the purchaser received a rather formal looking "Land Certificate", nowadays all anyone gets are one or two A4 sheets with copies of the entries and a copy of the registered plan. Boring but safe.