Property Fraud Is Rising - Is Your Home at Risk?
New figures obtained from HM Land Registry this month show 55 confirmed cases of property fraud between April 2025 and March 2026, where criminals impersonated homeowners in an attempt to sell their property, remortgage it, or transfer ownership using forged documents. It sounds like a small number set against the millions of homes in England and Wales, but for the handful of families it happens to, the consequences can be devastating — and the experts behind the figures warn the true scale is likely far higher, since fraud attempts that are caught before completion often go unrecorded.
What Property Fraud Actually Looks Like
Property fraud, sometimes called title fraud or property hijacking, happens when a criminal poses as the legal owner of a property in order to sell it, borrow against it, or transfer it into someone else's name. It relies on forged identity documents and fabricated paperwork slipping past the checks a conveyancing solicitor and the Land Registry are supposed to carry out. The properties most at risk are mortgage-free homes, buy-to-let properties, and homes left empty for long periods — in each case, because the genuine owner is less likely to notice anything is wrong until a letter arrives about a sale or loan they never agreed to.
Why This Type of Fraud Is Getting Harder to Catch
Part of what's driving the rise is technology working against homeowners rather than for them. Forged passports, utility bills, and signatures that would once have been fairly easy for a trained eye to spot can now be generated convincingly using AI tools. Industry experts have also pointed out that no single organisation currently has full visibility across an entire property transaction — HM Land Registry only sees the applications that reach it, while separate bodies track payment fraud and forged documents in isolation. That gap is exactly where sophisticated fraud can slip through.
The Free Land Registry Protections Most Owners Haven't Used
The good news is that two of the most effective defences against property fraud are free and take minutes to set up. First, sign up for HM Land Registry's free Property Alert service, which emails you whenever there's activity on your title — such as a mortgage application or change of address — giving you an early warning before a fraudulent transaction can complete. Second, if you own a property that's empty, rented out, or mortgage-free, you can apply to put a restriction on the title, which means the Land Registry won't register a sale or mortgage without a solicitor first confirming your identity in person or via your conveyancer. Both protections are especially worth putting in place if you're a landlord, an owner living abroad, or have inherited a property you're not currently living in.
What a Conveyancing Solicitor Checks That You Might Not
When you buy or sell a home, your solicitor doesn't just process paperwork — they carry out identity verification on the other party to the transaction, checks that are specifically designed to catch the kind of impersonation fraud behind these cases. This is one of the clearest reasons why using a properly regulated conveyancing solicitor, rather than cutting corners on legal advice, matters just as much for sellers as it does for buyers. If something looks unusual — a seller who's reluctant to meet in person, or documentation that doesn't quite match up — a solicitor experienced in conveyancing is trained to pause and query it before money changes hands.
If You Think You've Been Targeted
If you receive unexpected correspondence about a mortgage, sale, or change of address on a property you own, don't dismiss it as a mistake. Contact HM Land Registry immediately and speak to a solicitor about registering a restriction on the title. Acting within days, rather than weeks, can be the difference between stopping a fraudulent sale in its tracks and having to unpick one after it's completed.
What Should You Do Next?
Whether you're worried about a property standing empty, want to put protections in place before letting a house out, or you're already dealing with suspicious activity on your title, it helps to speak to someone who knows exactly which safeguards apply to your situation. QualitySolicitors' first contact team can put you in touch with a local solicitor who can talk you through the practical steps to secure your property and give you peace of mind.