Dear Sir or Madam,

The use of so called "Gifted Deposits" has been widespread and is
common knowledge. By falsely entering an inflated sale price on the
land registry to create a "gifted deposit" house prices will appear
higher than they actually are.

FoI Request

When making available statistics which are then used by various
third parties to make assertions house price falls or gains within
given time periods are these figures corrected for actual sale
price or quoted as the inflated sale price that was used to make a
deposit appear.

For a solicitor to falsely enter a sale price would be as I
understand fraud, moreover to apply for a mortgage by falsely
declaring the sale price of a property would be conspiracy to
defraud by all parties involved.

How many gifted deposits have you reported to the Authorities and
what authorities were they.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Watts

Dear Mr Watts

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request received on 1 December 2008 about "gifted deposits". I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act and will endeavour to reply to you within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Legal Services
Land Registry Head Office, Lincoln's Inn Fields WC2A 3PH

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Dear Mr Watts

Thank you for your information request about 'gifted deposits'. Land
Registry does not hold any statistics on the use of discounts or
incentives in transfers and leases and therefore is not in a position to
report to Authorities.

The use of discounts and incentives is not illegal but can be used by
fraudsters as a means of getting inflated loans from a lender. The Council
of Mortgage Lenders introduced a new requirement that conveyancers must
now disclose to lenders when a discount or incentive is used. And, as a
result, Land Registry changed its practice on entering the price paid in
the register where a transfer reveals a discount or incentive. Currently
the net (lower) price is entered.

Land Registry recently published an article in Landnet, which is a
magazine for our practioners explaining that all we need to know is the
net price. Please click here to download that magazine. Page 6 is the
article:

[1]http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/l...

Yours sincerely,
Gill Miles
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Legal Services
Direct Line: 020 7166 4442
GTN: 7 3504 4442
Email: [email address]
Land Registry Head Office, Lincoln's Inn Fields WC2A 3PH
P Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this
email?
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Dear Miles, Gill,

I am trying to ascertain how much of your data is crass because it
was recorded improperly by those responsible for entering property
sales data.

Your figures are being used to make assertions on property values
going down (currently) however if they are distorted then at best
they are crass and whatever assertion is made is therefore crass.

What date did " The Council of Mortgage Lenders introduced a new
requirement that conveyancers must now disclose to lenders when a
discount or incentive is used." this way can see what is reliable
to some extent and what is pure crass. When was this applied to
your data.

There also remains the question of shared equity, a hyper-inflating
product championed by Gordon Brown, again what figure is being
entered here the 25%/45%/75% share that the purchaser is buying OR
the full value of the property. what is the consistency of this
data.

Can any figure on the Land Registry be trusted and if so from what
date and who guarantees this?

Yours sincerely,

Mr Watts

Dear Mr Watts

Thank you for your email which no longer falls under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. However, I will endeavour to answer it.

Land Registry staff do not distort 'price paid' figures on the registration of applications. Land Registry is, in essence, a registration department and will enter 'the price paid' for the property as stated on the application documentation. If staff are unable to identify the net price from the documentation lodged, they will send a requisition for this and any overpayments of registration fees will be refunded. The 'price paid' entry in the register is exactly that: the sum paid by the purchaser to the seller. Further information about 'price paid' can be found by downloading Practice Guide 7:

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/l...

With regard to changes in The Council of Mortgage lenders practises may I suggest that you contact them directly. Land Registry met with then early 2008 and discussed the use of discounts and incentives.

Referring to your last point, a registered title is a title underpinned by the State.

Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Legal Services
Land Registry Head Office

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