Proprietor Check

Property buyers are losing £25 million a year to bogus sellers in cases of property hijack. Property hijack occurs when a fraudster impersonates the legal owner of a property and sells it without their knowledge, intending to steal the proceeds.

As a buyer, there could be various warnings that the seller does not own the property, for example if they have little knowledge of the property or surrounding area; when you viewed the property it seemed empty and un-lived in, or they are in an unreasonable hurry to sell.

Proprietor Check is a detailed fraud search designed to highlight any areas of concern that the seller may not be the registered owner of the property.

Both the buyer’s and seller’s conveyancer work together to provide required information about the seller, and Proprietor Check performs background searches on this information. The results displayed by Proprietor Check offer an extensive look at the registered owner - and if their information is consistent with that of the person selling the property.