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Posted Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:04:53 GMT by John Claydon
As title. Last December a resident died, no relatives found. The property iincluding house & land now lies with The Bona Vicantia Dept.  Recently someone along with others well known to thew local authorities, have regulary been entering the property & nearby neighbours witnessed property being removed. There is a police crime number but the local constabulary appear to have no intereset, only the a local council official is taking this seriously & collating evidence, also requested that we & others contact the police (please refer to the previous statement Re police not interested). 
Current state of play. Apart from items removed from the site, the house was/is intact  & we believe that will include certain documentation, identifiers, bank statements, utility bills, etc have been removed from site. These suspects have now fenced off the site, erected a home made no admittance sign that states the name of the said property & also affixed a post box (to which we believe is to obtain/change the postal addressee/named owner, all the post office require is an address, a post code & evidence ie utility bills!). Unfortunately, the local council emplyee that is aware of things is on holiday, but things are moving fast. Its rumoured that these 'suspects' have carried out similar before & do have 2 property investment/sales/development businesses registered with Companies House. 
Is there some way that The land Registry can flag the said property, in order to investigate any claims for title deeds being made? 
Posted Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:32:39 GMT by Adam Hookway
John - you can report property fraud concerns - reportafraud@landregistry.gov.uk 
Action Fraud is a wider reporting tool - Action Fraud
Posted Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:02:18 GMT by John Claydon
 
I have reported and found that the property in question is 'Unregistered' thus compounding the situation (as previously noted, the property & contents were/ known to be intact, so one presumes any documentation available for any intruder).
I assume the proprty is by now officially  Bona Vicatia, therefor is the responsibilty of HM Government Legal department. 
But with nothing ever being in place to prevent access (its was not even gated/fenced) any adverse posession claims or squatting on the premises. 

My next question - Could my local authority claim the property?

Surely early speedy prevention measures costs are by far less expensive than legal fees, evictions, etc..
I am still waiting for a reply from the Local Authority that are fully aware & have been very helpful, but it appears they are limited and are simply asking nsome nearby residents to record evidence when safe to do so. 
In the meanwhile, no preventative measures are in place, not even an occasional physical official visitor presence or at least  maybe even some signage? 
 
Posted Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:15:15 GMT by Adam Hookway
John - Local Authorities may have 'special powers' with regards 'vacant properties' but that is more to do with ensuring housing stock is occupied for example. They would still be reliant on the legal owner, registered or unregistered either way
Any wider powers would be with regards their own land/property and not someone else's in my experience
If a legal owner dies intestate then 'bona vacantia' can play a part - Bona Vacantia - GOV.UK

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