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#Post#: 122040--------------------------------------------------
Implications of land registry title fraud on a property im
buying
DIR By: HarryPotter1542
Date: June 16, 2026, 6:11 pm
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This is a bit of a hypothetical, but my solicitor is being very
non committal and the potential consequences of title fraud on a
property I am buying is weighing on my mind.
For context, I am in the process of buying a house which costs
the best part of £1m. Purchasing this involves selling my own
mortgage free property and adding hundreds of thousands of my
own cash to the pile in order to fund it.
The vendors I am buying from don't live in the UK. They have
been renting their property out, but it is now vacant entirely,
which means previous tenants and/or anyone else really would
have potential access to the address to collect post or
documents that might allow them (in a hypothetical worst case
scenario) to perform identity theft upon the current owner, and
essentially sell the property to me fraudulently.
Now, I have no indication that this is the case, and obviously
the vendors solicitor (who is a reputable UK based firm) would
be doing their due diligence to verify the identity of the
person instructing the sale, but none the less, I have been
thinking about what would happen if that title was sold to me
fraudulently.
I suppose I'm interested in what the process would be, and what
party would be most implicated, would I as the person duped into
buying, be homeless and moneyless or would the theoretical
defrauded current owner be the ones in a predicament, with me
being the official owner of the property?
I have read many pages online but most talk about how to protect
your own home from title fraud, not what happens if you're the
buyer who buys a title obtained through fraud.
I have seen reference (on the Land Registry) site to a paragraph
that implies that it would need to be the defrauded owner who
would pursue compensation from the land registry to be made
whole, but I can't seem to find much clarity.
I do realise this is a tiny risk. But it's my entire life that
will be going into this purchase and I could not take the worry
if something like this happened.
Is anyone aware of the legal recourse (would solicitors be at
fault?) Or any sort of insurance or indemnity policy that I
could purchase for peace of mind?
Appreciate anyone who has taken the time to read this far and
comment.
#Post#: 122212--------------------------------------------------
Re: Implications of land registry title fraud on a property im
buying
DIR By: andy_foster
Date: June 18, 2026, 9:24 am
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That's an easy one. If you have to come here for mostly
unqualified legal advice because you can't get a straight answer
out of the solicitor you've instructed him, you need to instruct
a solicitor that you can get a straight answer out of.
#Post#: 123731--------------------------------------------------
Re: Implications of land registry title fraud on a property im
buying
DIR By: davidmcn
Date: July 4, 2026, 5:42 am
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One of the main points of a land register is that you can rely
on it without having to investigate the previous transactions,
so the short answer is that a (innocent) buyer gets good title,
and the "real" owner is left claiming their loss from the Land
Registry.
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