Watch this BBC Fake Britain story on the growing problem of fake landlords taking advantage of innocent home-owners and tenants.

Landlord Property Investment blog has some great tips for tenants who want to make sure they are not dealing with a fake landlord HERE.

The websites that allow private landlords to advertise homes to rent are currently full of fake rental flat advertisements!

Look at this fake ad above. We know this flat doesn’t really exist because you would never get a four bedroom flat for that price in Bayswater W2. So make sure you know the prices in the area you are looking to rent in. You can run a check at London Rent Map. If the rent is incredibly low then don’t even bother contacting the advertiser.

You should also try and Google the description of the property. Con artists are so shameless they will copy the text from some estate agent’s ad. For example, the text in the ad above coincidentally also describes a flat for sale by estate agent Foxtons.

Here is what happens when you answer one of these ads, via Billings Gazette:

When people call about it, the scammer says he or she lives out of town and asks the prospective renter to wire first and last month’s rent along with a security deposit. They then usually promise to send the property keys upon receipt of the money, but they never arrive. When you pay for something with a credit card or check, there’s at least some sort of trail. But when you wire the money, they pick it up and, poof, it’s gone.

September is the most active month for scammers as there are a lot of people desperately looking for rentals. Read more about all kinds of London rent scams…

Letting agents have come up with a SAFEagent mark that makes it easy for tenants and landlords to identify agents who are in Client Money Protection insurance schemes. This means that the agent has a separate designated client account where your money is held completely separate from the operating funds of the firm.

There are several Client Money Protection insurance schemes operated by ARLA/NFOPP, the Law Society, NALS and RICS to which agents voluntarily belong. The scope of these schemes varies and you should always ask your agent for full details of the scheme of which they are a part.

Find a SAFE agent.

Police are looking for two men in connection with a £25,000 rental fraud.

Their names are believed to be Tawfikur Rahman and Shofiqul Islam, and both are thought to be of Bangladeshi origin. Detectives want to speak to them after fraudsters set-up a fake rental agency.

The agency appeared to have an office on London Wall and a luxury apartment to rent in the Aldgate area.

But both had been rented short-term, and the company disappeared days after customers handed over their cash deposits.

Det Sgt Mark Simmons said: “Clearly this fraud has left victims significantly out of pocket, and one was actually made homeless, with a removal van of belongings but nowhere to take them to.

“Our concern is that these men could strike again in another part of London. They are clearly convincing salesmen, with a well-rehearsed routine, and it’s important that the public are on their guard.

“We’d ask anyone who might know the whereabouts of the two men we want to speak to in connection with this investigation to contact us.”

Victims had responded to adverts on the Gumtree website offering flats for rent in the Aldgate area, and arranged viewing appointments.

They met with the ‘rental agent’ at Aldgate tube station to view the flats, only to be told that the advertised property had been let, but an alternative one was available.

The victims were then invited to serviced offices in the City, where the suspects were renting a small office. They handed over cash deposits of around £2,000 each, signed lease agreements and made arrangements to collect the flat keys.

But when they returned to collect the keys to move into their new home, the agency had vanished without trace, leaving victims homeless and out of pocket.

If you have information on the whereabouts of these two men, please contact City of London Police.

Hello,

I’m doing some research for a BBC Radio 5 live programme and I’m looking into private rent fraud.

This particular scam is sometimes called ‘Let and Run’ or the ‘Runaway Landlord’. It involves prospective tenants being tricked into handing over a deposit and a month’s rent to ‘fake landlords’, who pretend to own properties they may have gained access to through a variety of methods, either by taking out a short term rent themselves, or taking copies of the keys during a viewing. The ‘fake landlord’ then disappears.

I’d like to speak to anyone who has experienced this either as a tenant or a landlord, or anyone who suspects this may be occuring in their area. If you have heard any reports of ‘let and run’ scams occurring recently, have suspicions or have been affected by it yourself, please email me at jenny.wotherspoon @ bbc.co.uk or telephone 0161 244 3784.

All correspondence will initially be confidential, and I will be happy to answer any queries you might have before going further.

Thank you,

Jenny Wotherspoon
Trainee Researcher
Radio Current Affairs
BBC News
Manchester

While the majority of landlords are honest and responsible, unfortunately a small minority treat their tenants in a deliberately exploitative way, making their lives a misery. Shelter believes that this is unacceptable and has launched a national campaign Evict Rogue Landlords! to expose these practices. 

The charity wants prospective tenants to be aware of the most common rent scams they have uncovered during their investigation. Popular scams include:

1. Receipt rip off
A con artist will ask for money to be wired via Western Union as a sign of good faith that a tenant is serious about letting a property. The landlord will ask that funds are wired to the tenant’s friend or relative to demonstrate that they can afford the property. The landlord will ask for proof of receipt and will then withdraw the funds using the transfer details.

Never agree to wire money for a deposit, no matter how plausible the story. Most landlords should accept either a cheque or bankers’ draft.

2. Complete liability
Rogues may suggest that tenants can pay more rent each month instead of a deposit and that at the end of the tenancy they will receive this extra money back if there are no breakages. This doesn’t happen and the rogues are able to pocket all the additional money paid.

Although tempting if you’re short of cash, be wary of landlords who suggest these options. Having a properly protected deposit is the only legal way to ensure that your deposit will be handled fairly at the end of your tenancy.

3. Let and run
Con artists break into empty properties and then rent them out as their own. Unsuspecting tenants hand over large sums of money as a deposit and rent, at which point the con artists disappears. When the real owners of the property realise what has happened, the tenants are evicted because in the eyes of the law they are squatters.

Never hand over cash until you have been given the landlord’s name and a UK contact address — they are required by law to provide this. You can check who owns the property by searching on the Land Registry website and paying a small fee.

4. Duped into debt
Rogue landlords often charge extortionate amounts for hidden costs not previously discussed, such as fees for a tenancy inspection and then ‘conveniently’ forget to tell tenants about it. This means the tenant has a debt that they may not even be aware of. These debts increase over time and when tenants attempt to leave the property, they are lumbered with a huge bill that they are expected to pay — although they are not legally obliged to.

Ask for written confirmation of exactly what you will have to pay for over the lifetime of the tenancy. Remember you are not liable for a debt if you didn’t agree to it within the tenancy agreement.

5. Disappearing deposits
Although a legal requirement, some rogue landlords may try to avoid putting tenants’ deposits in a tenancy deposit scheme. This leaves the tenant in an extremely vulnerable position if there is a dispute. Rogue landlords often claim money handed over prior to entering the property was an administrative fee as opposed to a deposit.

Always ask which authorised deposit scheme your landlord will be putting your deposit into.

Evict Rogue Landlords!

Foxtons will not be happy to see this.

Careless scammers are copying their  property descriptions:

FAKE FAKE FAKE 2-bed flat in Chelsea for £150.

Foxtons original ad 2-bed flat in Chelsea for £650 per week.

So if you’re not familiar with the rental prices in London and you see a “real bargain” -  Google one of the sentences in the ad to find out in a second if it’s worth contacting “the landlord”.

PS! Visit Tenantista Zone to discuss fake ads!

Read all about it here – Online rental scam a nasty $1200 lesson

More about rent scams:
- Scamsters asking for proof of funds RoR
- BBC on Gumtree scams RoR
- Who’s your tenant RoR
- Scam Listsings a Growing Worry RoR
- Unbelievable RoR
- Deaf Lanldord From Vienna RoR

The Estate Agents Public Register can be browsed either alphabetically or by date. The list contains the names of individuals and companies with whom you better avoid making any deals in the property business.

We will have to keep an eye on that list to make sure that none of them appear on our London Letting Agents page.

Via The Rat & Mouse

Urgent statement: “mytenancydeposit.co.uk”
04 June 2009

MTD Secure Limited trading as mytenancydeposit.co.uk is NOT part of  Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (TDSL) (trading as mydeposits.co.uk).

This company does NOT operate a Government-authorised Scheme for the protection of tenants’ deposits within England and Wales. The three official Schemes are:

* Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited trading as mydeposits.co.uk
* The Dispute Service, also known as the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (www.thedisputeservice.co.uk)
* The Deposit Protection Service (www.depositprotection.com)

These are the ONLY 3 Schemes where landlords and letting agents can legally protect their tenants’ deposits.

The claim that “MTD Secure Limited is a company administering a tenancy deposit protection scheme by Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited under contract from Communities & Local Government” is NOT true.

Any letting agent and/or landlord using this company should be aware that their deposits will NOT be protected. You should immediately use one of the three Schemes above with which to comply with the law. Not protecting with one of the three Government-authorised Schemes can lead to penalties for the landlord.

If you have already deposited funds with this company, you should seek legal advice immediately.

We have recently received a few comments advising us to not promote letting agents who are known as dodgy.

If only we were experienced enough to be able to tell who truly deserves to be condemned!

Agent rating websites such as AllAgents.co.uk are full of reviews about agents. Buyers, sellers, renters and landlords are urged to rate and comment them to help other people make better choices. Now almost all reputable agents there have received some very poor reviews. Looks like any agent could become our worst nightmare! Even the agent we’ve had the most pleasant experience with has been referred to as dodgy.

If we don’t know the whole story, then we cannot be sure we’re not about to spread a rumour here that is untrue. The “well wisher” could easily be a competitor, could be leaving out some important details, or is just evil by nature. Just kidding with the last one.

We actually have condemned a few agents proved to be scammers. Remember Hot Lets?

There’s a comment on hold in our blog that says the agent we talk about has deceived them out of £2500… :S That is basically all they say, too.

By publishing this comment that contains such little information, we risk turning our blog into a toilette wall in the long run. Also, would we be in violation of the privacy law if we made accusations and named names without a court judgment or the accused one’s consent?

We have now E-mailed the person who left us that comment, asking if they could tell us the whole story. We’ll see where it leads us.

Here’s a piece of BBC Watchdog’s story:

Before he arrived in the UK, Emily had asked Lazaros to prove he had the funds to pay for the flat. To do this, she asked him to use Western Union to transfer the 1st month’s rent and the deposit to someone he knew – even to himself if he wanted. All Emily wanted to see was the receipt for the transfer which would show Lazaros did actually have enough money. So Lazoros transferred £660 to himself and sent Emily the receipt as she requested. When Lazaros discovered that his flat wasn’t for rent, and that Emily Brown didn’t exist, he went back to Western Union to retrieve his £660. But it had gone. Someone had already withdrawn the money.

Read more…

BBC has discovered the problem of the fraudsters advertising on Gumtree, deceiving tenants out of thousands of pounds.

See the video story HERE.

The problem really is more serious than we think. We are not hearing about those cases so much because as one victim confesses – she felt stupid and naive. Not many people would admit that.

We have talked about our own experience with those scams in HERE, HERE and HERE.

(Image: BBC)

Twitter from Bathori.

What could Gumtree and other classifieds sites do about the increasing number of scam ads in their accommodation section?

Even if we say we would never fall for those scam ads – filtering still wastes a lot of our precious time. The last time we tried to find a flat through Gumtree, we ended up contacting the professional letting agent just to avoid further headache. The first two replies from flat advertisers were scams, and our patience ran out.

It’s hard to protect people with just providing warnings, hoping everyone will read them carefully. The youngsters and foreigners are usually in a hurry to find a place to live. Many have no-one to talk to, no-one to ask advice from.

It’s also very unlikely you’ll hear someone confessing falling for a scam like that. Cry in a pillow is what they’ll do. That doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.

The scammers aren’t disappearing anywhere, so no use denying. In the 7,5 million people metropolis, the fraudsters know there’s always someone who’ll swallow the hook.

We like Gumtree too much to give up using it so we’re hoping their team is working on the solutions as we speak. Perhaps a simple IP registration notification could scare some? Or should all private landlords go through some sort of digital or physical authentication process?

Here’s the reply the tenant received for another E-mail today:

Thanks so much for getting back to me and i really appreciate for having interest in my flat and here is the address Regent St London, W1B 5SP,(oxford circus),the flat is just 5 minutes to the nearest station in oxford circus station.Rent is £1200 per month include all bills with council tax and the security deposit is £1000.Utilities include:  double glazed windows, low voltage lighting, wooden flooring throughout, luxury fitted fully furnished  kitchens with integrated appliances, bathrooms with power showers, balconies,fully fenced yard, these apartments are available furnished,electricity, gas,internet access.security cable phone, ideally located with 2 bedroom king size and cable TV and fully  equipped with TV, VCR, DVD and stereo. There is a fully equipped kitchen with refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, coffee maker, pots pans and crockery is available for light cooking. There is a full size washing machine and a dryer.private flat not share FEATURES::Central Heating,Double Glazed,Laminate Flooring,Available Now Furnishing: Furnished apartment situated in Regent St London, W1B 5SP,(oxford circus):its fully furnished and fenced arround, DG, GCH, bath/wc, its laminated flooring, 24 hrs Security and Porter Service available and entry phone and intenet access in the flat.You can get back to me if you are still intrested so that we can proceed asap
Thanks

In addition to the odd description, the pictures above were attached to the E-mail. Yes, in that exact size. Yahoo.com E-mail account is another sign that says there is no doubt – this is a scam.

The first ad was gone the next day and we’ll not bother to look for this one.

Makes me sick to my stomach thinking these fraudsters are walking freely on the street.

We’re browsing letting agents’ websites.

We’ve just got our hands on a classic scam E-mail from the “landlord” of the flat that sounded too good to be true. Apparently our tenant (who has been browsing through listing every day during this past month) stumbled on a £250 Sloane Square flat on Gumtree…

Here’s the first reply from the landlord:

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail.
My name is Louisa and i am from Wien,Austria.
I had an aunt in London and after her death she left me her apartment
from London a few years ago.
Till last mounth the apartment was rent by some stutdents from Germany
and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent.
The price i want is 250 UK pounds per week and i do  not work with any
agency because they have big comision.
About the advance it is the price for the first 2 mounths.

If you want to rent it and you have the money i could came to London to
meet you in a few days but you must be sure you want to rent it.

I will wait for your
e-mail.

After asking for some additional photos/information, the second E-mail arrives:

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail.
Flat location is Sloane Court East, Sloane Square and it is fully
furnished and bills are included.
As i said i live in Wien and i must came to UK to meet you and see the
flat and i want the rent for the first 2

mounths in advance,that is 2000GBP.
If you have the money i could came in the next few days to make the
contract with you but first you must be sure

because 2 weeks ago a person from UK told me he is really interested and
he asked me to go to London to meet him

and sign the rent contract and when i arrived there no person showed up to
rent my place and i lost time and money

for nothing.
Please note that i am a deaf person and i could comunicate only via
e-mail and i can not afford to came again to

London for nothing,i do not want anybody to make again a stupid joke.
If you want i will send you more pictures of the flat to make your
decision but i want you to be sure you want to

rent it and i must be sure you have the money and you are a serious
person.

Also,i could came to meet only in the weekend,i could buy a fly ticket
for a friday night and i will be in London

to meet you on a Saturday.

I will wait for your answer,have a nice day!

***

The landlord is obviously working towards getting a payment before showing the apartment. Which doesn’t exist…

You might know this is a scam but hundreds of people are fooled every year, especially those who are new to London, don’t know the language so well, and need a place fast.

We’ll report the ad to Gumtree, who has warned users – If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Clown photographed by =alexander=