The curious case of the stolen house....
I was listening to You and Yours on Radio 4 earlier today, which I must say was a very enjoyable listen!
The main item was about a guy who had his house stolen.
I know this sounds bonkers given that he owned the house and there are deeds attached to this, but his mistake was to own the house outright and then to rent it out and not check-in too often on what was occurring!
Basically the owner had his identity stolen and then the thieves applied for 'replacements' of the house deeds in his name and then used these documents to sell on the house to a third party, for 50% of the value of the property.
There is more to this particular story: the original owner did actually manage to get the house back into his own name.
However the guy who bought it from the original thieves had rented out the house, but the police then advised them to stop paying rent, meaning they ended up being squatters, but the actual owner couldn't get them out because the squatters had moved in three days before he took legal repossession of the property.
There might yet be further twists and turns as it seems there are deeper connections between the previous 'owner' and the now squatters, but ATW the poor actual owner is still not able to enter his own house because he can't get the squatters out!
Even though squatting residential properties is illegal - it's all a bit bonkers.
Key takeaway.....
Don't pay off your mortgage! Had this guy had even a tiny mortgage he would have had to have got the bank to agree the sale, that would have been enough for that not to have gone through!
So I think going forwards I'll leave at least £500 on the mortgage, and just reduce my repayments to £5 a month!
You can also apply to the Land Registry to not make any changes unless your identity is verified by a solicitor.
TBH I am amazed that later point isn't a thing already!
Bonkers!
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We do still have a small mortgage, but I hadn't realised that it could help in something like this. Maybe they need a blockchain for house ownership :)
Woah man what a nightmare. I never thought owning a house outright could be such a risk. Leaving a small mortgage seems like a smart idea now. Thanks for sharing this wild story bro I've learned a lot
Here in Australia, a person (no matter who that is) can neither but or sell a house without their identity having first been verified by a conveyancer/solicitor by way of a points system of photo ID and other documents. This is the case even for Australians living overseas who have to go to an embassy or consulate to get verified - the title simple will not transfer. Seems prudent.
It makes total sense when you're talking about such massive sums, I'm surprised it's even possible here!
Yeah, we take our system from Britain, common law, property law, the title system and so forth...it makes no sense that there's protection here and none for you folks over there; another thing for the government nutbags to look into.
Apparently, this is a bit of a thing in London. Selling properties you don't own with false documents.
I think I'm gonna hold on to a tiny mortgage for as long as possible!