Landlords have been warned to be vigilant against rising numbers of ‘highjacking’ property fraud cases across the UK, according to a London lettings agency.

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Marc von Grundherr, director of the lettings agency, clarifies that the term ‘highjacking’ is when a supposed ‘tenant’ uses fake documents and in many cases change their name by Deed Poll to ‘adopt’ the landlords name on the tenancy agreement.

Once the scam artist uses the fake documents and the landlords name they then quickly put the property up for sale with an estate agent.

Once the property is sold and solicitors proceed with conveyancing it is extremely hard to find any discrepancies so the sale is completed. The criminal receives the sale’s proceeds which is immediately transferred to an overseas bank account, leaving the legal owners without any chance of ever retrieving the money.

Another way these criminals target properties is by viewing details on HM Land Registry’s website which is open to anyone.

Von Grundherr advises landlords they can contact HM Land Registry to register an anti-fraud restriction on properties.

He says: “This means that any application to register a sale or mortgage on your property must be certified by a solicitor confirming they are satisfied the person signing the documents is the registered proprietor.  If not, the application will be blocked. This also acts as a deterrent to would-be fraudsters.”

Von Grundherr also offers further advice to landlords on how they can protect themselves further from property fraud.

Vigilant tenant referencing: Stringent and accurate referencing is of the utmost importance; however it can be a complicated process so it is a good idea to use an independent tenant referencing company to undertake the checks, as well as to safeguard against faked documents i.e. utility bills and bank statements.

Use a professional lettings agent: Let your property through a professional lettings agency that’s a member of an industry organisation of estate and lettings agents.