What is property title fraud, and how do you protect against it?

Fraudulently transferring or mortgaging a property you do not own — by impersonating the owner, forging a transfer or using stolen identity documents — and it succeeds most often against properties with a specific profile.

Which properties are targeted:

Mortgage-free properties, because there is no lender monitoring the title and no charge to satisfy.

Empty properties, including those awaiting probate.

Rented properties, where the owner does not live there and does not see the post.

Properties where the owner is in care or has recently died.

Unregistered land, where no title record exists to be checked.

Properties where the owner lives overseas.

How it is done: forged identity documents used to impersonate the owner with a conveyancer; a forged transfer deed; a fraudulent mortgage taken against the property with the proceeds disappearing; or a tenant impersonating a landlord to sell the property.

What protects you, and the first two are free:

Register the property. Unregistered land carries no protection and no state guarantee. Registration is voluntary until a triggering event, and doing it deliberately is worth it.

Sign up for Property Alert, a free Land Registry service that emails you when certain activity — including an application to change the register — occurs against a monitored title. It does not block anything; it tells you in time to act, which is usually enough.

A Form RQ restriction, which requires a conveyancer or solicitor to certify that the person selling or mortgaging is genuinely you. Free if you do not live at the property, and a modest fee otherwise. This is the strongest single protection available and is under-used.

Keep your address on the register current, and register up to three addresses including an email — since the registry writes to the address it holds.

What happens if you are a victim. The register carries a state guarantee, and an innocent party who suffers loss through a mistake in the register may be entitled to indemnity from the Land Registry — which is a genuine protection and does not make the process quick or painless.

For buyers: the conveyancer's identity checks exist for exactly this, which is why they are onerous.

General information, not legal advice.