Landlords - are you leaving yourselves open to a scam?

As you may know, if you have purchased property in the last 15 years it should automatically have been registered with Land Registry by your solicitor. (If you aren't sure it has, it is well worth checking!).

However, you need to safe-guard your registration from being tampered with.

All proprietors registered at the Land Registry have an ‘address for service’ – this is an address that the Land Registry use for official correspondence. They would use this address, for example, if they received an application that needed verification from a registered proprietor.

Examples would be a change of ownership or notification that the property is being sold.

If your address for service is out of date or, even worse, the address of the property that you have rented out, then it is possible that any official correspondence will not be passed on to you.

A tenant with a criminal mind is unlikely to pass on any official looking correspondence from the Land Registry. Such people may use the opportunity to steal your identity AND your property.

You can have up to three addresses registered, one of which can be an address abroad and one can be an email address (although do bear in mind that an address for service is in the public domain, so take care with the email address you use).

If in doubt, go for the ‘belt and braces’ approach.

A few years ago the Land Registry introduced a particular kind of restriction that you can enter against your property title. This restriction requires any application to the Land Registry to be accompanied by a certificate by a conveyancer that the person who has signed a document is in fact the registered proprietor.

Whilst this doesn’t protect against a dishonest lawyer, it is an additional layer of protection which may make all the difference.

Of course criminal tenants are rare - but why take the chance when it is so easy to prevent?

Estate & Lettings Agents that truly benefit their clients

Estate and Lettings Agency – the Third Way

As far as members of the public are concerned, there are only two models of estate and lettings agency.
The traditional & expensive model with a shop on the High Street or the new online agent, doing everything remotely and charging peanuts.

But there is a third business model which is taking hold in some areas and that’s the Home Agent.
Basically, the Home Agent works from an office in their home or garden thus reducing their running costs by around 50% (or more) compared to the traditional High Street agent. But because they are local, they can give the same local accessible service that a High Street agent can give.
The reduced running costs are passed on to their clients. Hence a win-win scenario:

Professional, local & face-to-face service but at a much reduced price

 

Pre-internet, there were only three ways to advertise a house for sale or rent.
a) the agent’s shop window;
b) the local newspaper;
c) the For Sale/To Let board

So to get the detailed information about a house, you had to go into the agent’s shop and get a copy of the printed details.
Now, ALL of this detailed information is available in a few clicks via property portals such as Rightmove.co.uk. And it seems that almost 90% of buyers and tenants first find out about that dream property in this way.

So, in 2014, the extensive use of the internet, social media, smart-phones and cloud technology mean that the High Street shop and its equally outdated accomplices, the printed details and the newspaper advert, no longer have much to do with selling or renting your property. The internet now rules!
Yes, they’re a great brand advert for the agent but why should their clients – remember them? Yes, they’re the ones who pay – why should they have to pay huge fees at least half of which are to cover the running costs of the shop, printed details and newspaper ads?

It’s so last century!!

So Sellers and Landlords, ‘Move with the times’! Stop paying for stuff you don’t need anymore. Seek out a Home Agent and give yourselves that win-win scenario: 'Online prices with High Street service'
Seek out Cass Properties - go on! You know you want to

Cass Properties - who are we and what are we trying to achieve for our clients?

Welcome!
Here's the video that my friends at Snap Media Productions shot for us when we started up in 2013.

Over coming weeks and months I intend to provide helpful an thought-provoking information on the property market for the area that we cover - Saffron Walden & a 10 miles around.

So please mark the blog sown for regular visits.
cheers
Steve Cass (MARLA)