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04 April 2012 / Kevin Dick
Issue: 7509 / Categories: Features , Fraud , Property
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The housing racket

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Kevin Dick follows the fight against conveyancing fraud
A recent story on Mail Online (ìFamily forced out of dream home after lawyers run off with their £400,000 life savings they used to buy property, 19 March 2012) carries a salutary reminder (if any were needed) that the risks facing house buyers can have very heavy consequences.

Requiem for a dream

The article quotes the case of an unsuspecting couple who fell foul to the greed of a highly unscrupulous solicitor in a conveyancing transaction that went spectacularly awry and robbed them of their dream home.
 
Everything seemed to be going well. The transaction was completed and the couple moved into their new home. Six months later, it transpired they owned nothing. The solicitor acting on behalf of the seller (who had also conveniently omitted to disclose the fact that the seller owed the bank huge sums of money) had absconded with the £400,000 the couple had paid for the property, forcing the buyers to vacate their home and leaving them with
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