We do a regular series of blogs on scams operating in the property world, and a common scam that has hit the news again today is where the “Landlord” or “Agent” renting a property doesn’t actually own the property or have a right to rent it out. Most commonly this seems to be an existing tenant moving on, and trying to make some extra money before returning to their home country rather than professional scam artists, but in the latest news item professional scammers broke into an empty house, and proceeded to rent it out to unsuspecting tenants who have now lost well over £7000 between them.

The scammers broke into the Victorian house in West Hampstead, after advertising flats on the Gumtree website, and proceeded to rent out flats in the house to three groups including one couple, Daniel Simpson and his girlfriend Cristina Monachello (pictured), who are expecting their first baby and who lost their £2,500 life savings in the trick. A group of four women paid the conmen £2,240 and a couple from New Zealand paid £2,400. Meanwhile the genuine owner of the property is living in France blissfully unaware that his house is being used as part of a fraud.

What can you do to protect yourself when trying to rent a flat? Well certainly take time to read through our series of articles on renting scams.

For this particular scam your first line of defence is to recognise a scammers fingerprints as it were. They don’t have a place where they can be traced to, and don’t tie up with other people. They also don’t want to invest much money because very few people will actually fall for their deceit so they rely on the same statistics that power spam – large numbers which land the occasional big reward. Free adverts on Gumtree, Craigslist and other sites cost nothing, a free Hotmail eMail account can be set up in seconds. Also note that scammers may well reply to a “Wanted” Ad. that you yourself have placed. All this contrasts with when you are dealing with a reputable Landlord or Agent – they will behave in a fairly predictable way. They may be cautious (Landlords get scammed too!), but become familiar with what is normal, & what is abnormal. If things are not proceeding in a normal way your alarm should be ringing. So don’t just communicate with a Landlord at the rental property – expect to contact them at their office or home.

Remember that it is a legal requirement for a Landlord to give a tenant an address where they may be contacted. This may be an Agent, or their own office, but failing that it should be their home address.

If you are unhappy with your initial investigations, or wish to proceed cautiously there are simple cheap checks that you can commission. Land Registry will provide details of the registered owner of the property online for a fee of £4, it’s cheap, instant, and should resolve any doubts that you have. If the person renting the property to you isn’t the owner they should know who the owner is, and have a good explanation as to why they aren’t the owner.

If you want to go further than just establishing the ownership of the property then for £24.95 you can use Rentchecks (a leading provider of data & intelligence to the property rental industry) to check the suitability of your prospective landlord before entering into an agreement. The check confirms that a prospective landlord is the legitimate owner of the property being let, and will also confirm that mortgage payments are being met.

Landlord Authenticity Certificate

I’d just like to leave you with the thought that the most telling sign of a scam is one that people choose to ignore out of desperation or greed. Because you aren’t actually going to get anything for your money scammers can make the flats advertised  unrealistically cheap and rely on people’s greed to overcome their caution. Scam Flats are always cheaper than genuine ones.

If a flat seems too good to be true, the most likely explanation is that it IS too good to be true.