Buying a property is often the most significant financial decision of a lifetime. It is also fertile ground for fraud: fake developers, off-plan projects that never materialise, vendors with hidden litigation histories, sellers whose legal situation makes the transaction risky.
Conveyancing checks cover the legality of the transaction. They do not cover the integrity and background of the person or company you are signing with.
What your solicitor checks - and what they don't
Your solicitor verifies the legal validity of the transaction: title to the property, absence of undisclosed mortgages, planning compliance, legal capacity of the parties. This is essential. It is not a verification of the developer's or seller's integrity - their history, their previous companies, their disputes with other buyers.
A developer may have delivered poor-quality projects, be involved in disputes with previous buyers, or have previous companies dissolved under problematic conditions - without any of this appearing in standard conveyancing checks.
A developer's past: what doesn't show on the surface
A developer may operate under several successive legal entities with the same director. If one of those entities has a history of buyer disputes, unresolved defects or abandoned projects, these elements exist in registries and archives - but they do not surface in an ordinary search on the current company name.
This type of cross-referencing - on the director's name, their previous companies, available court decisions, signals in regional press and buyer forums - is what surfaces what the developer's commercial presentation will never show.
Property-specific warning signs
Several signals should alert you in a property transaction: a price significantly below market with no logical explanation, unusual urgency to finalise the sale, a developer who evades questions about their previous completions or references, and any request for payment outside the secure framework of a solicitor or notary.
These signals indicate that something deserves to be independently verified - before signing anything.
In a private sale
In a private sale, the risks are different but real: a seller in financial difficulty whose sale could be challenged, an unresolved estate, a price abnormally below market concealing a complex legal situation. Verifying the real context behind a transaction is not reserved for high-value acquisitions - it applies to any transaction where the risk of an unpleasant surprise is significant.
What we do
At YMV & Co., we carry out independent verifications on property developers and sellers for private individuals in the process of acquisition. Our report covers the full history of companies and directors, identified proceedings and reputational signals. It allows you to commit with full information - or to withdraw in time.