We as a practice always advise our clients of the importance of keeping the Land Registry updated in the event of any change in correspondence address. When you purchase a property, your ownership of that property is registered at the Land Registry using your contact details at that time.

The likelihood is that in respect of any residential property, your address will be updated at the Land Registry when you move. However if you own business premises, agricultural land or investment property where you do not reside, it is vital that if you change address that you advise the Land Registry of your new contact details.

This has been highlighted recently in a case whereby a client did not keep the Land Registry updated when they moved house and have potentially lost the title to agricultural land that they owned as a result of an application being made by a third party. In such circumstances the Land Registry will write to the last known address of the registered owner to advise them of a claim. However our clients had already moved on and did not receive the very important correspondence from the Land Registry. If they had received it, they would have been in a position to challenge the third party’s claim against their land.

As they did not receive the notification, they now have to go to the expense and the stress of proving to the Land Registry that they did not receive the original correspondence in an attempt to overturn the Land Registry’s decision.

All applications made by third parties via the Land Registry will be notified to the registered proprietor by the Land Registry. However if your address is not up to date, then the Land Registry will not go any further than simply writing to your last known address.

Therefore, if you have moved house or are moving house, contact the Land Registry and advise them of any title numbers of which you are the registered proprietor so that the Land Registry can (free of charge) update their records. However if you would like to instruct us to do this on your behalf, please contact us and we will be happy to assist on (01267) 237441 or www.utk.co.uk

 

Recent reports in the National Press state that the scale of property fraud has hit record levels with over £100 million lost to property fraudsters in just the last 6 months in England and Wales, as ever increasing complex schemes have been used to defraud people moving house, their Lenders and their Solicitors.

Criminals are using their computer hacking skills to intercept e-mails and fool Solicitors and their clients into transferring large sums of money into fake accounts. Fraudsters also pose as legitimate owners of property. In some cases fraudsters have used private correspondence sent to an address to take on the owner’s identity before carrying out a sale with an unsuspected buyer and making off with the proceeds.

Unsuspecting Solicitors and people undertaking property transactions have been caught out. However there a number of actions you can take (or ensure your Solicitor takes) to ensure any risk is kept to a minimum including:

1. at UTK, we will always try and meet our Clients face to face and verify their identity and seek evidence of proof of address. By seeing the original documents of identity, including photographic evidence such as a passport, we can then compare this to the Client in front of us.

2. if you have provided your Bank details by e-mail, these should be verified by telephone. Likewise we will never advise any of our Clients of a change in our bank details via e-mail. If you are at all suspicious as to whether any e-mail has come from your Solicitor, you should always telephone to check. It is better to be safe than sorry!

3. undertaking a number of searches both on the internet and also via the Law Society and other Websites to check the identity of other Solicitors we are dealing with, as some fraudsters go as far as setting up bogus law firms in order to entice other law firms to send money to them on behalf of their Clients

4. undertaking regular checks of the internet and Law Society websites to ensure no fraudsters are trying to copy our identity or the identity of any of our individual Solicitors.

We do everything we can in order to protect both ourselves and our Clients and as members of the Law Society Quality Conveyancing Scheme, we keep up to date with all of the latest professional practices to reduce this risk as much as possible.

For further information please contact our Solicitors in our Property Department on (01267) 237441.

 

 

The March 2016 budget introduced higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on purchases of additional residential properties from 1 April 2016. If you are thinking about purchasing a Buy to Let/Investment property and are wondering how this will affect you, we have put together a few questions and answers to help you.

Why is SDLT being increased on Buy-to-Let homes?
With house prices rising, it is become increasingly difficult for first time buyers to get on the property ladder. The Buy-to-Let sector has been a controversial part of the property market for a long time, with people blaming landlords for the rising house prices. As such, George Osborne therefore turned his attention to private landlords in a bid to give first time buyers a chance to get on the property ladder. Read more →

Adam Bruce and Luned Voyle of Ungoed Thomas and King, were delighted recently to be asked to be the guest speakers at the spring meeting of the Carmarthenshire Chamber of Agriculture which was held at the Halliwell Centre, Carmarthen.

During his presentation Adam highlighted the importance of planning for the future of the farm and ran through the issues that need to be considered such as making a Will and ensuring that there is an up to date Partnership Agreement in place.

Luned then discussed the benefits of making a Lasting Power of Attorney. Mental Incapacity can affect anyone as a result of an illness or accident. Jointly held bank accounts, both private and business may be frozen until an Order from the Court of Protection is obtained. By making a Lasting Power of Attorney, authority can be given to trusted individuals to deal with your money and assets if you are unable to manage your affairs so that the day to day running of the farm can continue.

The event chaired by Mr Ogwyn Evans was very well attended by the local farming community.

For further details or advice on these issues, please contact Adam Bruce at adam.bruce@utk.co.uk or Luned Voyle at luned.voyle@utk.co.uk or tel. 01267 237441.