We have compiled a comprehensive list of advice that will help you identify rental scammers as you search for the ideal property, and we’re ready to turn you into a true in-house rental expert.
Cash Transactions Are a Bad Start
Working with cash exclusively is the most common method of carrying out illicit financial transactions. Real money cannot be tracked, which is one of the reasons it is so appealing to thieves to use it.
So once you’ve given them the cash for a new, cozy location, they’ll have plenty of time to flee with your money.
A fraudulent landlord will always insist on payment in cash and, if you refuse, will move on to the next candidate.
Never use cash or wire transfers for things like a security deposit or paying the last month’s rent in advance. They frequently participate in renting schemes.
Never rent a property without visiting it first
Before signing a lease, every tenant should visit the rental property they intend to occupy. If your landlord makes excuses as to why this is not yet possible, you should be particularly cautious in your interactions with them.
Any landlord or property manager who intends to rent out the space is ordinarily willing to show it and attest that it resembles the photographs they posted online. Because of this, we advise that you always plan an open house visit and assess the actual property condition before moving forward.
This also applies to people who are seeking to find housing while working on the relocation to another city. In essence, even in this circumstance, you should make sure that your friend, relative, or trustee visits and inspects the landlord’s apartment.
Insisting on a house tour is a significant step towards a more open renting procedure and an excellent method to protect yourself against numerous frauds, even though many scammers really get access to the property.
Consistently sign a written lease
Even if the landlord is someone you personally know and trust, you should only ever consider a formal lease. To avoid some typical mistakes tenants make, we have already covered the verbal agreement in one of our previous publications. We encourage you to read it.
Oral agreements should not be used because, despite being legal in many places, they are difficult to deal with in the event of objections or disputes. An oral agreement will become a big headache if you want to seek legal counsel or litigate your matter.
Both the landlord and the tenant must sign any lease agreements.
When dealing with a tangible contract, you must ensure that:
- The copy is also signed by that landlord (the best way to achieve this is by signing the lease in the presence of each other right after you decide to rent the property)
- Getting a copy of the contract for you
You should find life much simpler and safer if you follow these two fundamental guidelines, but we’ll go over one additional point specifically related to contracts and paperwork later on.
Verify the Property's Owner
You should request ownership documentation, such as a title deed, before proceeding and signing the lease agreement. This will make it clear to you that everything included in the transaction is legal and that the person with whom you are working is fully authorized to rent out the property.
Avoid anyone who promises to show you the proof of homeownership after you sign a lease or pay a deposit; a true homeowner has no excuse not to show you these documents.
You should either be extremely cautious or, better yet, avoid renting this property if you see that the name on the title deed and the name on it do not match.
Make sure the owner is named in your lease.
By the way, this also holds true when there are two owners listed on the documentation for the property. You should in this situation request a formal statement from the second owner confirming that they are aware of the rental process and have approved the rental agreement.
It's Not Always a Good Idea to Sublet
The oddest thing about subletting is that the initial contract prevents you from feeling confident about it. If the initial contract expressly prohibits subletting or if the original tenant somehow violates the conditions of the lease, the landlord may have the right to evict you both.
Talking to the original tenant and working with them and the property management to include your name in the initial agreement is the easiest approach to avoid issues with subleasing.
Get to Know Your Landlord
Yes, we are the platform that enables eSigning the lease, online rent payment and collection, as well as online scheduling of the house tour. The owner of the flat and the person with all the rights to rent it out should be met once the tour has been scheduled and you arrive to see the apartment.
Any possible con artist will pass up the opportunity to show you around and any form of customer interaction, such as property tours and lease signings that a real landlord often enjoys.
Watch out for middleman scams
One of the most prevalent frauds is the middleman scam, which is particularly prevalent on classifieds-focused websites like Craigslist.
Basically, it works like this: you come across this ideal advertisement for a beautiful location, and the pricing seems to be extremely fair. When you phone, the individual who answers claims to be in charge of handling or managing this property on behalf of the owners.
The apartment is typically real, but they don’t have access to it. Instead, con artists locate this property on another real estate website, steal the photos and description, and then add all of this information to the Craigslist advertisement. The first month’s rent, security deposit, and any other payments that might seem fair must all be made upfront, and they insist on collecting them all upfront before taking your money and running.
Rental scams on Craigslist are widespread and are not going away anytime soon. In over twenty cities over the course of 141 days, over 29 thousand scam postings were found, according to the study “Understanding Craigslist Rental Scams.” As you can see, that’s a ridiculous figure, thus we advise avoiding middlemen services and dubious “managers.”
Conduct research
Therefore, do your homework and perform some simple online research before renting an apartment from anyone. You may start by searching for the landlord’s name, email address, rental property’s address, etc. on Google.
You should also think about using Google’s or TinEye’s reverse image search while looking for a place to rent. To locate the same or comparable results, you can save an image of the property and search using it. Sometimes the identical property will be posted in another city or even another nation since con artists just grab the photos of the real estate and post them on various websites.
Additionally, if this landlord is represented by a real estate firm or agent, be sure to read some ratings and comments about how they conduct business. If there is absolutely no information available on them, this should raise a red flag for you.
View the Price Trends in the Market
Always conduct research on the neighborhood or location where you are attempting to rent a place’s median rental cost. It will help you get a general idea of what kind of price is fair for the specific apartment you’re thinking about.
By using this easy approach, you can make sure that any advertisement with an oddly low price raises suspicions in your mind and prevent you from paying money to get an apartment that doesn’t exist.
Verify that the rental price is accurate.
In some circumstances, dishonest landlords have several opportunities to profit based just on your lack of attention. To prevent being a hostage of your leasing agreement, make sure all the information is confirmed before signing the agreement.
This might happen, for instance, when property management gives a tenant a certain rental price but then shamelessly alters the figures in the rental agreement. You’re in big danger if you signed the contract without realizing this important aspect because you essentially agreed to pay a different amount. Therefore, before signing the contract, make sure to read it completely and pay close attention to any numbers, such as the monthly rent amount.
Verify if the platform verifies its users before renting.
Nobody can guarantee the security of your transactions if you find a website that allows you to work with landlords or tenants that are not in any way verified.
Transparency is at the very heart of the entire rental process according to Rentberry. All lease agreements, rent payments, and other business dealings you have when renting a property are completely secure and encrypted.
There is nothing more reassuring than knowing that you can visit and have a tour of the apartment you locate on the platform with just one click.
Speak with the present or past tenants
Some landlords will be delighted to give you good references, but other times you’ll need to conduct a little independent investigation to learn this information. In any event, speaking with former renters can demonstrate more than just how dependable your prospective property management is. Additionally, you may discover how simple it is to get in touch with them, how quickly they respond to inquiries or problems with the property, and what sort of person they are in general.
Anyone willing to make a deal without knowing more about them is probably a scammer.
You must realize that everyone wants to feel safe and secure, not only tenants. For this reason, prospective tenants’ credit histories and background checks are typically reviewed by landlords.
Before renting from a possible landlord, you should exercise caution if they don’t care about tenant screening or references and rush to sign the lease or collect the deposit.
How to Respond After Being Scammed
However, occasionally even the most vigilant person could overlook one aspect and fall prey to a rental scam.