Uncovering Hidden Assets with OSINT: Techniques for Locating Residences, Properties, and Other Land

Investigators often need to understand the assets connected to a person of interest, as well as to understand if they own or lease them. Asset tracing is usually focused on putting a value to the property owned by an individual, whether this is for seizure linked to crime, debt recovery, divorce proceedings, or another purpose. Often the most high-value assets connected to an individual, houses, flats, land, and other forms of property are often of interest to investigators. However, in the UK, it is not always easy to determine which pieces of property an individual lives in, and whether they own, rent, or just reside in that property. 

From holiday homes to business addresses, open-source intelligence OSINT allows investigators across fields—from law enforcement to journalism—to dig into various data sources to uncover addresses and locations connected to their subjects, revealing details about people and assets that might otherwise be concealed.

In this article, we’ll explore key techniques and datasets that can be harnessed to locate these assets in the UK, each relevant to fields such as police work, private investigations, legal cases, and insurance claims. By leveraging OSINT, investigators can follow a methodical approach to locate addresses, identify potential links to hidden assets, and support investigations into fraud, undeclared income, or missing persons.

Why Locate Assets?

Whether you’re a detective tracking the residence of a person of interest, an insurance investigator identifying possible fraud, or a private investigator handling divorce proceedings, locating assets is often a vital step in the process. Common motives include:

• Recovering Funds: Tracing assets in cases where individuals or entities have stolen goods or failed to fulfil obligations, whether in fraud, financial disputes, or bankruptcy. Beyond the property itself, high-value assets are often found at multiple properties connected to criminals, including vehicles, luxury items, or even unknown storage spaces.
• Investigating Fraud: Assets like undeclared rental properties or holiday homes can point to undeclared income, which might indicate broader fraud issues.
• Identifying Key Persons in Divorce Proceedings: In England and Wales, parties in a divorce are legally required to provide full disclosure of their assets and deliberate non-disclosure can lead to severe legal consequences. Locating undeclared secondary residences or rentals can reveal important financial details.
• Uncovering Criminal Networks: Linking individuals to properties can help reveal connections between multiple criminals, safe houses, or locations related to criminal activity.

Key OSINT Techniques for Uncovering Properties in the UK

Here’s how OSINT practitioners can identify and confirm properties using public and commercial data sources focused on UK persons and property:

1. Electoral Roll Data

The open register contains the names and addresses of everyone who has registered to vote in Great Britain but who has not opted out of the open register. Currently, about 60% of registered electors have opted out, meaning around 16.3 million people's records are available on the open register. Most people register to vote at their primary residence, making the electoral register a key source for associating addresses with individuals who live there. 

Electoral registers are maintained locally by electoral registration officers in each local authority, however, the open register can be searched nationally through commercial data brokers and other sources, such as Cradle.

2. Planning Permission Requests

When individuals apply for planning permission they do so based on the property they want to alter or on the location of the land they wish to build on, which means that addresses are present. In the UK, planning permission requests are publicly available and usually contain the name of the individual requesting planning permission. Investigating these records can help locate primary residences or even secondary assets such as holiday homes or rental properties owned by the same individual. For instance, planning permissions filed for property extensions or restoration can indicate ownership or residency details, valuable in tracking where assets are held. However, most planning portals only allow users to search by an address rather than the applicant’s name, meaning investigators already have to know which addresses are linked to their subject to effectively use this data.

3. Business Records

Businesses registered in the UK via Companies House must have a registered office address. Smaller businesses often use the address of an accountant, virtual offices, or the director’s home address, while larger businesses with a physical office may use the business address. Previous addresses remain on public record, so while an address may be updated, the original registered address will usually be available. These registered address can therefore reveal physical locations, including a business location or a residence. Investigators can search the Companies House website using the individual's or business’s name. 

4. Landlord Data

Rental properties are a frequent source of undeclared income, especially when individuals do not report rental earnings. In the UK, landlord data from HMO and selective licensing registers can help investigators determine if a person has property ownership that yields rental income. Local council registers, for example, often list properties requiring these licenses, which is essential information for tax evasion investigations or in divorce proceedings where undeclared income could impact settlements. To search rental data, learn more here.

5. Insolvency Records

Insolvency and bankruptcy records can reveal hidden assets and locations that people may not openly disclose. When someone declares bankruptcy, these records are publicly available and include an address for the person. Insolvency records can provide leads to track down hidden assets for financial recovery. To search this data, investigators can search for an individual's name on the Individual Insolvency Register, revealing possible financial difficulties and potentially unknown assets.

6. Land Registry

The Land Registry provides information on property ownership in England and Wales. Title deeds are documents that show the chain of ownership for land and property and can include conveyances, contracts for sale, wills, mortgages, and leases. Title registers can be purchased online for any property in England and Wales here for £3. Similarly, title sheets can be purchased for Scotland for £3. In Northern Ireland, the Index of Names can be searched for £5.

7. Sports Club Membership and Affiliations

Sometimes, a seemingly unconventional source like sports club memberships can reveal a person’s connection to certain areas across the UK. For example, affiliations with Saturday league football clubs may connect an individual to the town they reside in when other sources like credit data cannot. These memberships can offer subtle hints about where someone spends time, which may help determine their primary residence. 

8. Social Media

Social media can also reveal locations and assets connected to a subject of interest. Scanning sources like Facebook and Instagram, investigators may be able to find location check-ins that tie a person to a specific region of the UK. Additionally, this may also reveal lifestyle indicators that suggest unexplained income, such as lavish holidays and expensive vehicles and electronic goods. With the local area narrowed, investigators can then leverage other data sources or consider other methods, such as surveillance of the sporting location.

Putting It All Together

Identifying addresses through the UK data sets described above provides a window into the properties connected to a person of interest. Individually, each of these datasets may only provide part of the picture, but by cross-referencing these data points, investigators can identify every property connected to a subject.

Incorporating Cradle’s UK address datasets, such as planning permissions, insolvency records, electoral roll data, and landlord and business records, streamlines this process by allowing OSINT practitioners to access centralised data in one search. Cradle simplifies these asset searches, helping investigators quickly link individuals to hidden assets and locations across the UK.

Explore how Public Insights can support your OSINT efforts with a trial at cradle.publicinsights.uk.