Finding
an accommodation in Leeds is not an easy task for a student. In presence of so
many scam reports in the news it seems really difficult to find an appropriate accommodation at a reasonable rent free of scams. The news about scams in
housing and properties in Leeds are all over the newspapers. Students should
keep in view all the news and details relating to the housing scams in Leeds in
order to protect themselves from indulging in any such matters. According to the news there have occurred
numerous rental scams caught by the authorities involving the matters relating
to the students and other tenants that have been taken for ride.
According
to the latest advisory of the Federation of the Rental Housing Providers of
Ontario (FRHPO), the tenants, especially the students are warned against the
housing scams in which the scamsters tend to ride over the tenants by
presenting themselves in the disguise of bona fide landlords. There is not much
to worry about as there are certain steps that can help in figuring out whether
the rental offer is genuine or not.
FRPO
wants the students to consider the warning signs that can help you in judging
whether the rental offer is scam or true.
According to FRPO the most common warning signs visible from the
students housing scams are;
1. The scams mostly have poor grammar and contain
misspellings.
2. These scams mostly mention in their writings
GOD, cashier’s check, Western Union, money orders, wire transfer, doctor, and
reverend, Nigeria or the UK.
3. Most of the times the Landlords ask you to wire
them money directly through a bank that is not located in the town where the
rental property is located.
4. The email of the landlord comes from a free
email providing ID’s like Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail etc.
5. The reference of the landlord is another person
always in the case of wire transfer and the name of the bank account will be
different from the person who is pretending to be the landlord.
6. Tenant Scam includes a tenant who is willing to
pay money without knowing about and seeing the property.
7. Landlord scam mostly involves the landlord
asking you to send money without letting you see the inside of the property.
8.
The landlord will not accept the transfer of
money through credit card
9.
The landlord will not be able to show you the
inside of the property before you send him money.
10.
Mostly the name of the landlord claiming to own
the property mismatches the name of the landlord of that property in the real
estate county records.
11.
The price mostly is unbelievably low to be true.
12.
The landlord does not have a phone number to
call upon. In certain cases the scamers have the US based phone numbers, these
numbers can always exist in or around the city of the rental property.
When The Rental Fraud
Happens?
Most
of the times, the rental fraud happens when the possible tenants are tricked to
pay an upfront payment, in-order to rent a property.
There
is no existence of the property in reality or it already has been rented out or
in certain cases it is rented to several victims simultaneously.
The
upfront fee paid by the victim is lost and they cannot rent the said property
they felt they has secured and thought to rent.
Most
of the times the students become the target of the rental fraudsters while
looking for accommodation for University.
Rental
frauds are mostly in the form of advanced fee frauds
Self Protection First:
Do not pay money
upfront:
Before paying any amount make this sure that the person and
the said property exist in reality. The deposits are a standard act while
renting where as paying money for securing a room before getting it is not a
standard act.
Protect your Deposits:
Under the law while taking the deposit else to the “holding
deposit”, it is required to pay the money in the deposit scheme approved by the
department of communities and local government. For further details and
information about the scheme and the rights of the tenants visit the website of
the Department of the Communities and Local Government.
Use your common sense:
If you see that the rate of the property is too low and is
located in a fantastic place, it is not going to be true
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has issued
warning on 16th August 2012 as well to the students to watch out for
possible rental scams while they are looking for rental properties.
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