| Landlords: Be Vigilant |
|
Some landlords recently found themselves in hot waters with the police when their own personal homes were raided for alleged drug offences including the properties they rented out.
The people who they had thought of as excellent tenants were found to be only paying in advance to prevent the landlords from paying a visit to the property. The properties were being used as drug factories. Increasingly more and more fraudulent scams are being commiitted against unsuspecting private landlords who generally tend to have neither the time to check out the tenants fully before renting out their properties nor have a close air to the ground in terms of rental scams. Just because a prospective tenant can come up with the rent or payment in advance does in no way or shape mean that they will be good tenants.There are a number of rental scams (such as benefits, loan scam, overpayment scam and a whole lot of others) that you as the landlord should be aware of and take the necessary precautions to protect you and your asset. Be very careful when potential tenants offer you money upfront for many months in advance or contact you from overseas that they want to rent your property for their child or partner and offer to pay you before seeing the property. You might be walking into one of the known scams. Renting out your property to the wrong tenant(s) has the potential to leave you seriously out of pocket in the long term. You could end up with massive repair bills, serious rent arrears, damage to your property and can make your whole experience of renting out properties a bitter experience. Fraudstars tend to target landlords that advertise properties directly through websites like craig list, gumtree and the loot. You can protect yourself from falling for these scams by taking the following measures. 1. Advertise your property through the right channels that attract better quality of tenants 2. View as suspicious any responses to your adverts that are from abroad especially if you have not advertised your property as a short let or holiday let. 3. Check carefully that phone numbers that prospective tenants leave for you to call them back on is not a premium phone number that could run into hundreds of pounds just for a 10 minute conversation 4. Ensure you keep yourself up to date with what is happening in the property world by reading articles from sites such as http://www.investmentproperty-secrets.com 5. Carry out full reference checks using appropriate bodies to do this for you before you rent out your property to any tenant. 6. Use a reputable letting agent if you can. Fraudsters tend to avoid using properties that agents market. 7. Try to avoid as much as possible that mails addressed to you do not go to properties that you are renting out. |