Roskachevo warns against online rental fraud

Before the summer season scammers have activated, who deceive people, willing to rent an apartment through the Internet. According to the research of THE METERS service in April of this year, more than 10% of publicly available rental offers are of dubious nature. Often such ads can be identified even while you are viewing them: for example, there are not many pictures, the photos are poor or of poor quality, the price is suspiciously low, only very general information is given, and the text of the ad shows emotional manipulation. Often the fraud is already in the process of renting. Here are some of the schemes that scammers use to mislead their victims.

WHAT SCHEMES ARE USED BY CROOKS?

• Prepayment. The tenant asks for an advance payment, he is supposed to be on a business trip at the moment, but you have to send him a small amount as a pledge of intentions seriousness. The scammer is ready to provide a scan of the passport and an extract from the cadastre to confirm his possession of the property. Many people don’t know that you can get it on any property without even owning it. The scammer usually has nothing to do with the apartment. After receiving the money, he disappears. Such transfers are not documented, so it is unlikely that you will get your money back.

• Unscrupulous realtors. They place ads for luxury apartments at a discounted price. Here is a game on the greed of the potential victim and the desire to take advantage of the bargain as soon as possible. Swindlers insist on 50% payment and conclusion of a contract. If you read the contract, it is clear that it is not for rent, but only to look for it. As a rule, the price of this service is equal to 100% of the monthly rent, so you end up paying twice as much. In the process of the deal, the client is rushed and distracted so that he or she doesn’t read the contract. In the end he may not get what he wants, if he agrees in writing, that he pays for “information services”, which can be understood as anything, for example, a list of options that do not fit the original conditions of the ad.

• “Owner.”. Such personage, the pseudo-owner of the apartment found on the internet rushes the new tenant saying that he needs to pay the deposit and the first month’s rent right now. For example, due to the fact that just before the apartment looked another candidate, and need to get ahead of him. As a result, the property documents turn out to be false, and the tenants soon find the bewildered real owner on the doorstep, and the one to whom they gave the money, disappears.

• Renting out the apartment to several people at once. As a rule, a realtor declares that the apartment is to be prepared for moving in, i.e. the keys will be handed over tomorrow, or the keys are handed over at once, but the lock is changed. The next day in front of the apartment there is a line of tenants, sometimes dozens of them, none of whom are legal tenants.

Advice from Alexander Borisov, Deputy Head of Roskatchestvo, an expert on consumer rights protection, on how to avoid online rental fraud:

HOW TO AVOID ONLINE RENTAL SCAMS

Alexander Borisov, Deputy Head of Roskatchestvo

“Always read carefully what you sign. Don’t sign without consulting your lawyer friend what you don’t understand, if you feel like you are not being sold what you want, or if the subject matter of the contract is described in a very vague way.”

• Make sure that the contract clearly states the conditions under which the tenant can be evicted from the apartment prematurely, as well as the procedure for reimbursement of repair costs, the rules for the return of the deposit, and so on.

• Carefully read the description of the apartment and the information about the title documents.

• It is better not to rent an apartment in which the tenant has additional obligations for repairs in exchange for example, to reduce the cost of renting .

• Check details such as the address you are looking at and the address written on the documents.

• The owner of the apartment should be in possession of documents that prove their ownership rights. You should not trust any relatives, third parties, or representatives. You should have the original documents of title on the apartment sale-purchase agreement, donation etc. on hand.d. .

• Be sure to check the apartment on the Rosreestr website, asking the landlord for an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

• Do not give in to emotional manipulations, e.g. when they rush you, insist on an urgent payment, do not let you read the agreement or when the offer is suspiciously advantageous for example, a good apartment close to the center of New York may not cost the same as its equivalent in the bedroom community .

WHAT TO DO IF THE UNPLEASANT SITUATION HAS ALREADY HAPPENED?

Taking into account that in actions of pseudo landlords/realtors there are signs of corpus delicti of the crime provided by art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the RF, it is necessary to apply to the police with a statement about the crime. In accordance with Art. 151 CPC of the usa it is this law enforcement agency which carries out investigation under the above-stated article. In a criminal case you should file a civil claim for recovery of stolen money.

Have decided to give up? Then you should understand that you let the criminals continue down this road and continue to deceive people.