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Fraudulent registration of ownership means that someone falsifies the property owners’ signature on a transfer document for example a sales contract and then applies for and is granted registration of ownership by Lantmäteriet, Land registration.
Fraudulent registration is criminal and means that someone with the help of a falsified document applies for and is granted registration of ownership for a property that the individual in question does not own. The fraudulent registration of ownership is completed only when Land registration grants the application, and the new ownership is registered in the Land register.
Questions and answers
The purpose of the fraudulent registration is not to sell the property again. It is probably to use the fraudulent registration of ownership as a safety for a loan to obtain cash.
We understand the worry that property owners may feel when they read about the attempts for fraudulent registrations of ownership. We constantly work to improve the routines so that all the parties involved can feel safe and so that everything is done correctly with applications for registration of ownership.
We take the cases that are assessed as attempts for fraudulent registration of ownership very seriously. Special routines are followed when claims about fraudulent registration of ownership are made to us in an ongoing case or when Lantmäteriet for other reasons notice that an acquisition can be invalid. These routines mean that among other things a thorough control of the conditions is made in the specific case.
If there are any uncertainties personal contact is made with the owner of the property to clarify if the transfer in question is valid. The case is not processed further until the conditions have been clarified and if there are remaining inadequacies a new registration of ownership is not granted for the property /site leasehold.
Depending on the conditions in the specific case our decision can be rejection, refusal, or further postponement for the question to be solved in court.
Since 2016 Lantmäteriet is connected to the service Mina meddelanden (My messages) where you can receive mail from government agencies and municipalities digitally instead of on paper. The mail is collected in a safe digital mailbox, and you open and read it easily with the aid of your Swedish electronic identification.
There you can receive information digitally from Lantmäteriet regarding certain registration cases. Among other things the electronic notification that is sent out the moment a case regarding ownership change is registered (given a case file number). This electronic notification is sent out to the registered owners of the property / site leasehold who are connected to Mina meddelanden.
We call it an electronic notification because it is a notification that is only sent out digitally. An electronic notification is also sent out to the registered owners of the property / site leasehold when an application for mortgage is registered.
In 2010 a routine was implemented through this a notification is sent to the previous registered owner of the property / site leasehold when an application for registration of ownership is granted or declared dormant.
This routine is used in the cases where an application for registration of ownership is received from a private submitter. The purpose of the notification is that the registered owner of the property / site leasehold shall gain the knowledge about the decision and be given the opportunity to react and submit an appeal if it is a matter of fraudulent registration of ownership.
If a fraudulent registration against all odds is completed the registration of ownership can be returned to the correct owner by appealing the decision to grant registration or by bringing the case before the court. The state has also taken on an extensive responsibility to reimburse a property owner where registration of ownership of their property is fraudulently obtained.
Fraudulent registrations of ownership are uncommon and historically there have been about five attempts per year.
Lantmäteriet is the agency that receives applications for registration of ownership, makes decisions on them and registers them in the official Land register.
A fraudulent registration of ownership is completed only when Lantmäteriet grants the application, and the new registration of ownership is made in the Land register.
If you want to know the status about your property, then if you have a Swedish electronic identification, you can use our self-service Min Fastighet (My property). There you can find among other things information about the registered owner, how the property was acquired, mortgages, rights and if an application for registration has been registered by Lantmäteriet.