Customer service and operations

Indemnity

This year £3,516,061 was paid for 914 claims, compared with £3,928,258 for 894 claims last year.

The largest payment was in excess of £240,000 (including legal costs) in respect of loss arising from a fraudulent transfer of a registered title. Proceedings were commenced in the High Court to determine whether the transfer to the present registered proprietor was a forgery and, if so, whether the title should be rectified. The Chief Land Registrar was named as one of the defendants for the purpose of claiming indemnity. In the event, we accepted that there was sufficient evidence that a fraud had occurred and, following negotiations between the parties, we agreed that the register would not be rectified and that the claimant should be entitled to indemnity under paragraph 1(1)(b) of Schedule 8 of the Land Registration Act 2002.

We have recovered £28,360 under our statutory rights of recourse, compared with £56,235 last year.