CPS Homes

Can someone really sell your property without you knowing?

Insight from our Director of Operations, Nikki Lewis. Keep up with our latest landlord tips by following him over at The Cardiff Letting Agent.


Imagine discovering somebody had stolen your identity and sold your house while you were away, and Land Registry showed you weren’t the owner anymore.

That genuinely happened only a few years ago, so here’s a quick and free way to set up an alert so it doesn’t happen to you.

The victim here was a Vicar, who owned a house in Luton but was working in North Wales at the time. His neighbours called to say they’d noticed somebody inside, and by the time he arrived, builders were ripping the place apart and the person inside told him he was trespassing.

It took around two years to get his name restored to the Land Registry, and almost four years to recover possession because people were living there under what they believed was a tenancy.

Property fraud is rare, but landlords are particularly exposed because they don’t live in the properties they own, may not see post sent there, and might not notice suspicious activity until it’s too late.

So here’s something every property owner should do.

Land Registry has a free Property Alert service. You can monitor up to ten properties and receive an email if certain applications or official searches are made against them, like an attempt to transfer ownership or register a mortgage.

It doesn’t automatically stop the transaction, but it gives you the opportunity to spot suspicious activity and act quickly.

Good property management isn’t only about collecting rent and organising repairs. It’s also about helping landlords identify risks they might never have known existed.

This takes minutes to set up, costs nothing, and could protect your most valuable asset.

If you have questions about rent increases, landlord responsibilities, or tenant rights in Wales, feel free to get in touch with me at nikki.lewis@cpshomes.co.uk.

03 August 2026

The information contained within this article was correct at the date of publishing and is not guaranteed to remain correct in the present day.

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