Archive

Estate agents working with international individuals can face a significant risk of encountering money laundering activities. The complex nature of cross-border...

Homeowners are becoming more concerned about property fraud, research suggests. A freedom of information request has shown a 26% increase in the number...

The wife of a jailed banker has agreed to forfeit a house in Knightsbridge worth approximately £14m and a golf club...

Estate agents submitted 30% more Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) SARs last year, research suggests. Analysis by...

Given the rise of conveyancing fraud, client compliance platform Thirdfort is urging conveyancers, lawyers and estate agents to offer more secure...

THE property sector has embraced technology and the enormous benefits that it can bring. Never was this more accurately demonstrated than during...

Regulated firms across all sectors will be well aware of Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and their importance in combatting financial...

Fraud poses a significant challenge for residential conveyancers, with criminals often attempting to exploit the transaction process for money laundering purposes. The...

2023 was the highest year on record for ‘rental scam’ searches in the UK, with an increase of 11% from 2022...

Financial crime within the property sector is on the rise and the stats are alarming. According to data from Apex Bridging,...

SPRING cleaning is an annual ritual for many households, but firms in the property sector would do well to spend some...

Propertymark is hosting two important webinars this week to keep agents informed of important industry regulations. The agency trade body is hosting...

The Register of Overseas Entities has hit the 30,000 registration milestone. The register, which is administered by Companies House, came into force...

Homeowners in the East Midlands, North East, North West and Scotland may be at higher risk of property fraud, research suggests. Anti-money...

The recent cyber attack on CTS left around 80 conveyancing firms across the country commercially paralysed as the harm to their...

Fraud in the lettings industry is reaching unprecedented heights. Now, more than ever, there is a need for a revolution in...

A new product has launched that protects homeowners from the growing threat of property-related frauds. Title Guardian is an app that monitors...

In this interview, Riccardo Dawson, Chief Operating Officer at Alto and Chris Hutchinson, CEO of Canopy discuss the benefits of their...

It's emerged that Homes England and HMRC have explored possible fraud within the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme. This formed part of...

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has welcomed two new non-executive directors to its independent board. Louise Baxter, head of the National Trading Standards...

As money laundering compliance marks its twentieth year, more and more estate agents are being fined for breaches of HMRC’s ID...

The National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) and Gumtree have teamed up to help fightback against fraudsters, particularly when it comes...

Tackling economic crime is part of the day job for estate agents. But how can the latest digital ID tools help...

Increasing numbers of homeowners are signing up to a property alert scheme to protect against fraudulent property transactions. New figures obtained from...

A man has been jailed for fraud after conning potential property buyers out of nearly £16,000. Jaspal Singh Juttla, 64 of Northwood...

Property fraud is a significant risk for agents, particularly as fake IDs become increasingly prevalent, and the economic climate remains challenging....

The Bank of England last week announced the completion of Project Meridian, a digital synchronised settlement prototype that aims to digitise...

Home-movers are being warned to be on alert for ‘Friday afternoon fraud,’ which experts claim is becoming more common since the...

The Residential Logbook Association (RLBA) has launched the first iteration of its register, which aims to speed-up transactions and stop property...

Two of the biggest challenges facing the property industry right now are fraud and money laundering. The scale of these activities is...

Buyers should be mindful about the rise of so called ‘Insta-agents,’ a property body has warned. The National Association of Property Buyers...

Scammers are “bombarding” homeowners with fraudulent offers on green energy or insulation to allegedly boost their property value and cash in...

In this guest feature, Dillon Darbar, counter fraud manager at Network Homes, sets out why estate agents need to be aware...

HMRC has fined estate agents over £500,000 for anti-money laundering (AML) breaches in the past two months. Yet despite property managers...

Agency-backed risk management platform Thirdfort has partnered with insurance brokers Mint to provide policyholders with access to anti-money laundering (AML) and...

Leeds Building Society has pledged to honour any mortgage offers and support borrowers during this period of market uncertainty. It comes as...

Over the last five years, the Government has introduced a range of measures to regulate the property market, particularly in the...

Agents are ‘wrongly’ relying on hard copies of identity documents to verify people’s identities in anti-money laundering (AML) checks, new research...

Increasing numbers of homeowners have signed up to a free Land Registry alert scheme to protect against fraudulent property transactions. Figures obtained...

The current challenges facing the conveyancing sector have put the industry in the spotlight. Here, property expert Colum Smith, Chief Vision...

Agents are being given the chance to learn how to improve their anti-money laundering (AML) processes from a veteran police investigator. Rightmove...

PropertyHeads has relaunched its valuation and insights tool as Mouseprice Pro in the UK after a period of major investment and...

The fast-moving property sales market is increasing the risk of fraud, an anti-money laundering expert claims. Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder of risk management...

We are all acutely aware of the surge in demand for rental properties in and around the capital in the months...

In this latest ‘Women in Property’ edition of the Natter, I check in with Collette Allen, who was recently appointed as...

Speedy property sales may not be as good as they seem, an industry figure has warned. Recent figures released by Rightmove indicate...

In this guest piece, Colum Smith, a property expert at law firm Taylor Rose MW, sets out why speedier transactions could...

Accountancy terminology can be a turn off to many business owners, understandably so given that the majority aren’t working in lettings...

Law firm Taylor Rose MW has acquired a stake in proptech firm SlothMove in an effort to help combat property fraud. SlothMove...

In a new column, solicitor Colum Smith, an expert in combating fraud at Taylor Rose MW Solicitors, explains why those looking...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a dramatic future income tax cut, changes to National Insurance thresholds and scrapping VAT on more...

The international reviews service Trustpilot has batted away criticism from a property website that it ignores breaches of its guidelines. Last week,...

The Mayor of London is demanding ministers take sanctioning Russian oligarchs seriously by moving immediately to seize assets that can then...

A row has broken out over a company which has made allegations about Trustpilot reviews of OnTheMarket. A company called KwikChex says...

We know that agents rely heavily on property software solutions to run their agency, particularly to ease the burden of administrative...

In the last two years digital Property Logbooks for our homes have moved from concept to reality with almost a quarter...

The outcome of the Ukraine crisis is far from certain, but one thing has become abundantly clear. The long-overdue Economic Crime...

Agents are being offered a free review of their compliance status between now and the end of March by a PropTech...

Alexander Siedes, CEO of Homeppl, reveals the top five ways people try and commit tenancy fraud and how to spot and stop...

The UK property industry has long been a target of fraudsters due to the low levels of transparency and the fact...

A long running dispute between reviews website allAgents and Purplebricks has come back to life - with a new twist. In 2017...

An hour-long webinar this week aims to inform agents how to deter property fraud by greater emphasis on compliance, due diligence...

As this is the first Natter back since the Christmas break, I should like to first wish all our readers a...

A warning has gone out to estate agents that “more and more” reports are being filed about cyber attacks on agencies...

A conveyancer has contacted Estate Agent Today suggesting that the Simplify Group IT data crisis could be the death knell for the company...

A new guide to help avoid property title fraud, where home ownership can be stolen, has been released by the Fraud...

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on all aspects of our lives, but undoubtedly one major negative side effect...

With tenancy fraud on the rise, landlords are increasingly wary. So, they want to work with agencies who do everything they...

Property fraud is on the rise and early in 2022 agents will have an opportunity to attend a webinar featuring a...

I’ve worked in financial crime for the past seven years, beginning my career as a white collar crime litigator in a law firm. I know that the...

Estate agents are being urged to ensure their compliance procedures are up to scratch after fraudsters stole a man’s identity and...

Despite the progress made in so many areas, particularly in terms of leasehold reform – although we are calling upon the...

Agents must have a robust plan in place in case they are subjected to a ransomware cyber attack, says the Guild...

The phrase ‘time is money’ is particularly pertinent for estate agents. Since the stamp duty holiday ended, the forecast drop in...

The owner of an estate agency in Sussex has been jailed for five years for what a judge has called “an...

A prominent law expert is claiming that a high profile case of property fraud, reported earlier this week, involved a “devastating...

A BBC investigation has revealed that a man’s house was sold and his furnishings removed without his knowledge, in the latest...

RICS has appointed a former civil servant with a 42-year career as its new audit committee chair. Mike Driver, currently president of...

The Pandora Papers - the biggest ever leak of offshore data - has revealed that the UK’s property market is being...

In the UK, 3.5 million households — which is over one-third of UK households — are either privately or socially rented,...

There’s been another step to make house sales more secure and speedier, with a pilot scheme starting next month. Five major identity...

Buyers are being warned about scams conning people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Law Society of England and Wales...

An alert has gone out to sales and lettings agents to be more diligent with their checking of data, and to...

In this thought leadership article, Videosign CEO Steven Tallant looks at electronic signatures and conveyancing and whether the time is nigh for the...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is trying to win back respect within the property industry with new Rules of Conduct...

The stamp duty holiday concluded at midnight, marking the end of the busiest period for the industry - all parts of...

The governing council of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has issued a public apology to the whistle blowers whose actions...

A PropTech firm backed by Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman has launched a new anti-money laundering (AML) tool for estate agents. Thirdfort has...

New figures from HM Treasury have revealed that businesses, including a number of major agencies, have returned £1.3 billion in furlough...

The independent QC leading a review into the governance scandal at the RICS says there was “no fraudulent or criminal misbehaviour”...

Regulators are warning the UK’s property, finance and legal sectors to be aware of the possible impacts of the exit from...

A news conference today is expected to reveal more details of the governance scandal which has engulfed the Royal Institution of...

The chief executive of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Sean Tompkins, is in talks to step down according to an...

The work of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team is “vital” it claims - and the case of the...

A banned West Midlands estate agent has today been sentenced to a custodial sentence of six weeks, suspended for two years, and fined £4,000 at Wolverhampton Crown Court after pleading guilty...

HM Revenue & Customs is reported to be targeting recent home buyers after a slump in income from property taxes during...

The independent QC asked to prepare a report into the financial conduct row at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has...

An estate agent with stomach cancer faces a prison sentence after pleading guilty of defrauding an 80 year old pensioner out...

The publication of a report following a controversial RICS investigation has been pushed back another month. Last month it was announced that...

A bankrupt builder from Devon persuaded pensioners to pay him £271,000 to construct a home - but his poor workmanship has...