No more online property deeds?

The Land Registry has stopped it's online property deeds service.

I have used the service myself and it was very good. However, it appears that the service was open to fraud.

The fear was that people would register to use the site, pay for and download property deeds, and then use these to make re-mortgage applications without the property owner's knowledge.

Apparently, this was very rare - the figures cited are £12million paid out in compensation, against £870million collected in fees - but the risks were such that it was decided to stop the service.

It has also been pointed out, that many would-be fraudsters fall at the lender's hurdle, as the checks in place to prevent fraud, money-laundering etc, picked up erroneous applications. Which is good to hear.

Of course, people can still get deeds, but they must once again apply in writing to do so, as was the case before the online system.

Personally, I am fed up with all these things that are made so much more difficult because of the risk of fraud. Things that should make life easier - particularly through the use of online technologies - are just new opportunities to theives and fraudsters, and that means that we don't see the benefits of them.

However, I don't know the answer to the problem. I'm sure something could be done which would safeguard our individual data security, but I don't know how that might work. I am holding out hope though! If there are any boffins reading this who work on making the internet etc more secure, please know that your work is appreciated (at least by me).

Find out about flood risks before you buy

I hope you're not already affected by flooding. It can be a very unpleasant situation to be in, and my thoughts are with those people who's homes are currently at risk, and have experienced flooding in the past.

With the current flood warnings in force for a big chunk of the English coastline, I thought it would be a good idea to remind you to address this risky issue when you are thinking about buying your new home.

Of course, your conveyancer will check flood risks for you as part of the 'searches' which are done when you agree to buy a property, but don't wait until then to find out if your property could be at risk. Remember, by the time you get to conveyancing, you are paying for a professional service from the conveyancer, your mortgage has probably been agreed, and you have invested a lot of time, effort and emotion in the property you're buying.

The best thing to do is to find out about flood risk for the general area(s) that you are looking at buying in, before you even settle on a particular property.

You can do this for free on the Environment Agency's website.
Click here to go straight to the flooding section of the site.

By typing in the postcode or town of the area you're house-hunting in, you can very quickly see on a map the extent of any local flood risk, and any flood defences that are already in place.

Of course the site has lots of other information too - like a seach facility for local pollution risks. You can find out an awful lot of information about your neighbourhood this way, so I suggest you check it out.

Take care,

Tam