Fraudsters attempted to hijack dozens of properties last year by impersonating legitimate homeowners, new figures reveal.
HM Land Registry recorded 55 cases between April 2025 and March 2026, highlighting the ongoing threat.
In such cases, the fraudster may try to sell the home to an unsuspecting buyer, take out a mortgage secured against it, or transfer ownership using forged documents.
Properties that are mortgage-free, rented out or left empty for long periods are often considered particularly vulnerable targets because the genuine owner may be less likely to spot suspicious activity until it is too late.
The widely reported case of Reverend Mike Hall illustrates both the reality and impact of owner impersonation fraud. In 2021, fraudsters used stolen identity details and forged documentation to impersonate Hall and sell his mortgage-free property in Luton for £131,000 without his knowledge.
By the time he discovered what had happened, ownership had been transferred, the house had been emptied and renovation work had begun. Although HM Land Registry eventually restored his title, it took years of legal action before he regained possession, highlighting how weaknesses in identity verification can enable high-value fraud with significant consequences for homeowners and unknowing buyers.
Home buying and selling consultancy, Novus Strategy, says the best solution to combating fraud is to verify a homeowners’ identity to a high standard, such as through passport NFC chip verification, and do it only once. The effectiveness and security of verification services rests on the accreditation of third parties to trust frameworks, where authenticity travels with a signature. That verification can then be available to other trusted parties to reuse, turning it into evidence that flows through the property transaction.
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 provides the statutory foundations for trusted digital identity through the DVS Trust Framework, while industry initiatives such as CFIT's Coalition 4 are implementing the way identity is reused across the property transaction process.
Pete Gatenby, AI practice partner at Novus Strategy, said: “Owner impersonation fraud may be rare but it’s a high-impact crime. The concern is that AI can generate increasingly convincing fake documents, meaning they are less likely to be detected by verification processes designed for an earlier generation of fraud. That means today's figures may understate the real risk we’re facing in the coming years.
“A key challenge is that no single organisation has visibility of the entire property transaction journey or a complete view of owner impersonation risk. HM Land Registry sees suspected fraudulent registration applications, Action Fraud records payment diversion cases, and incidents involving forged identity documents or fraudulent conveyancer certification are not separately tracked, creating a fragmented landscape.
“Identity and ownership are checked in isolation, at one desk, at one moment, with no shared, reusable, audited record of who was verified and how.
“This is essentially the basis for Horizontal Digital Integration (HDI). By enabling verified identity to move seamlessly between estate agents, brokers, lenders, conveyancers and HM Land Registry, HDI reduces the need for repeated checks and the opportunities for fraud.”
