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Adflow Marketing - Land Registry Search Service New Anti-Fraud Measures Introduced by LRThe Land Registry (LR) will now insist that anyone not using a solicitor (or licensed conveyancer) in a property transaction will have to submit a ‘Certificate of Identity’ form and photograph before they can register any dealing. The information required on the form includes a date of birth, National Insurance number, telephone numbers and addresses for the previous five years - plus a signature. Whilst this is designed to stop fraudulent activity including Identity Theft, the actual form submitted, with all this valuable information for fraudsters can be obtained ‘as of right’ under present legislation. (Land Registration Act 2002 - LRA2002). To see why this new rule has been introduced we need to look at the evolution of the of the ‘Open Registry’. Prior to 1990 the land registry was a closed book. Only the owner of the property or a lender with a registered charge could apply to see an ‘office copy’ of the register. This secrecy made it very easy for a particular type of fraud against banks and building societies very popular among the criminal classes in the late eighties. Opening of the registry to general inspection put paid to this type of crime, but as crooks are ever inventive, presented them with new opportunities. A computerisation process of registers and title plans was undertaken and in the mid nineties, registers became available on line to Key Number holders with the LR. (Adflow Marketing was one of the first companies to get on-line access to registers and have been providing a full search service ever since). The problems with fraudsters really began after the Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA2002) came into full force and the LR opened a public web site where a simple Register View of a register could be purchased along with other documents. The criminally intentioned could glean enough information (including the signature of the owner) from the documents to make a fraudulent transfer of the property. There is anecdotal evidence that this has cost the LR millions of pounds in compensation and something had to be done. In November 2007 the LR removed all documents (other than registers and title plans) from the public web site. Now, from March of this year, anyone making an application to transfer property from one owner to another and not using the services of a solicitor will have to submit Form ID1 with the application. As you will see from the opening paragraph, Form ID1 contains some very useful information for the Identity Thief and, guess what, Form ID1 is available for inspection by any member of the public under LRA2002. The LRA2002 confers a ‘general right of inspection’ for almost any document held by the LR unless one applies to make the document an ‘Exempt Document’ by using Form EX1. (More forms! More expense!) More details of this and of exempt documents on our web site. ( www.land-registry-searches.com ) The LR will take steps to have the Act amended to make Form ID1 exempt from the general right of inspection but until that time anyone acting on their own behalf would be well advised to pick up a copy of Form EX1 when they get ID1. Or better still get your local solicitor or licensed conveyancer to do the job for you. You will have to pay him/her anyway to countersign the ‘Certificate of Identity’. Ah, perhaps I have just seen the method in this madness.
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