To not realise people can steal houses?

[radiatorsz]

Read this story

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-59069662.amp

wtf!!!

How can this happen and how is it a civil matter? How can you stop this happening?

I've heard the piece a couple of times on the radio - was horrified.
they did say towards the end that houses with no mortgage are less likely to be subject to this.
Throroughly justifies my laziness in not pauing off the final £50ish of my mortgage, I'll happily pay £1 a month mortgage interest a monthe for that

Poster upthread said that this house was sold not having been advertised on Rightmove and not via an estate agent (though the article in the OP doesn't mention this) so, how did the buyer know the house was "for sale" in the first place?

This is what scares me about these conveyancing factories. They employ law grads, get 1 newly qualified solicitor to supervise them and pile the cases so high that it's unlikely a qualified solicitor will ever set eyes on them. Same with education law and personal injury. It wouldn't shock me of theyd used one of these firms and it came out that they were incompetent and negligent

We were having neighbour problems, they disputed our own tarmac driveway, anyway husband contacted land registry to see if any enquiries had been made on our property, and a solicitors firm had made a search on our property.
Husband contacted the solicitors, who the Land Registry named ( freedom of information) who refused to say why, or who their client was.
Weird damn neighbours

Surely though the most sensible thing to do if you have a issue with a property is to do a search on the land registry to get your facts straight, how is this weird?

Im left wondering how the real man in this situation will be able to get a mortgage/credit in future with this fraud in 'his' name in the background 🤔
Absolutely horrific for the guy.

If the vendor was unrepresented, the price was far too low, and it went through very quickly, the buyers conveyancers should 100% have picked it up. These are all red flags.

Completely agree with @hallygore. It's a massive risk. Although similar risk with more traditional firms which are in financial difficulty. I came across a transaction quite a few years ago now where the solicitors firm was going bust and hadn't registered any of the purchases. It was a real mess.

@Weredone - glad to see it got sorted in the end
BBC seem to be spearheading a campaign on the issue - worth your friends letting them know the details.

Solicitors do the usual electronic checks but if people want to pretend to be the real owners it's difficult to identify the fraudster .also they turn up with fake i.d

Wouldn't the photo on the DL show a different face to that of the purchaser... unless it was altered.

A similar thing happened to me. An estate agent cheated me out of my apartment. I have never been able to get back on the property ladder and will spend the rest of my life in expensive private rented accommodation.

The Ombudsman gave him a fine plus the money he stole from us which he never paid. The police investigated for a while but dropped the charges due to lack of manpower.

I will never have another home of my own and I have nothing to hand down to my children.

Meanwhile, this crook continues to operate like nothing happened.

They’ve arrested a man from Bedford in connection with the sale of the property.