It is all too common for clients to e-mail and call their solicitors looking for an update, only to be told that the solicitors acting for them are waiting for said clients to provide proof of identification and address.
This applies even if the clients have previously used the solicitors currently representing them.
Solicitors are under a legal duty to take steps to combat money laundering and property fraud. If audits discover that they have failed to properly identify a client and their source of funds, they can be sanctioned by their regulatory bodies and prevented from representing clients using particular mortgage lenders.
Increasingly this is being done by e-mail and text so clients are able to provide the required information at a time of their choosing and without needing to call into the solicitor’s office.
However, it’s not simply for the solicitor’s benefit that clients are identified correctly.
Consider the recent case of the clergyman who invested in a property in his hometown of Luton, but because of his job, lived in North Wales.
After several years of occasionally renting the property out, it was now empty. Which is why after receiving a call from a neighbour informing him that he had left the lights on, he was concerned enough to make the journey back to Luton. Upon arriving at the house he was perturbed to find builders coming in and out. He was even more alarmed when, on entering the property, he was accosted by a man asking what he was doing in his house.
After years of diligent investigation by the erstwhile owner, the story was pieced together. Criminals had stolen his identity and used the empty address to have bills sent to and used to open a bank account sent to. In turn, they had been able to persuade an estate agent and a solicitor that they owned the property and sold it to an unwitting buyer, who bought it in good faith.
A number of years and unwanted renovations later, the clergyman has been able to persuade the Land Registry that his ownership be restored. Compensation has been paid and fortunately he had somewhere else to live whilst all this occurred. However, he was not able to move straight back in. During the period in which the property was once again empty, squatters moved in and had to be evicted.
If the solicitors acting on the sale had used an online verification of identification and address, years of stress and inconvenience could have been averted. This would have highlighted discrepancies in length of ownership of the property.
Moreover there would have been far less work for all concerned; and ten minutes spent completing proof of identification and address requirements would seem to be time well spent.
This article appeared in the monthly newsletter of Lewis Francis Blackburn Bray solicitors.
Ian Clay
0114 272 9721
ian.clay@lfbbsolicitors.co.uk
www.lfbbsolicitors.co.uk