More than 19,000 people have signed up to Land Registry’s free Property Alert service during its first year of operation.

The service provides an early warning of possible suspicious activity on someone’s property.

Tracey Salvin, Property Alert service manager at Land Registry, said: “The aim of Property Alert is to help people protect their home from fraudsters. There are many people who have no idea that someone could ‘steal’ their home from under them, but unfortunately it can and does happen. For example, someone may pretend to be you using forged documents and sell or mortgage your home.

“While this is not common, when it does happen it can have devastating consequences for the victim. Imagine finding out that someone else has sold or mortgaged your property without your knowledge and disappeared with the money, leaving you to pick up the pieces. That is why we’ve introduced a number of anti-fraud measures at Land Registry including Property Alert.”