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Happened to me. I paid rent for a couple of months to a lady that I thought owned the appartement. Then one day someone knocked on the door, asked who I was, wh
by jakobegger 8y ago
Happened to me. I paid rent for a couple of months to a lady that I thought owned the appartement. Then one day someone knocked on the door, asked who I was, why I was living in his appartement, and why his tenant stopped paying rent.
In retrospect, it was eye opening how gullible everyone involved was (myself included), and how little the police did about it.
For every appartement I've since rented I checked the official register to make sure my future landlord actually owns the place...
- jamescostian 8y ago> I checked the official register Sorry for the stupid question, but what does this mean? How does one check this?
- jakobegger 8y agoIn my country (Austria) there is a registry (called the "Grundbuch") where the owner of every parcel of land (and buildings, appartements, etc) is formally recorded. It costs about 10€ to get a record online. You type an address, pay 10€, and the website tells you who are the owners of the land and buildings at that address.
- ksaj 8y agoDoes it also tell you who is managing the property? At least where I live, renters deal with property managers, and very rarely the owners. It doesn't apply to houses and other single-home properties, but does for just about anything else.
- tonyztan 8y agoIn most (all?) states in the U.S., the local and/or state government has an official record of real property ownership. In some states it's available online; otherwise you may find it at the local courthouse, city hall, or county government.
- dopeboy 8y agoHow's that work? In every situation I've been in, the landlord opens the place for me, gives a tour, and eventually gives me a key.
- yen223 8y agoImagine the same thing, only it's the tenant showing off the place, not the landlord.
- manigandham 8y agoScammer rents a place normally with a monthly lease, then they rent to someone else while pretending to be the landlord. Scammer collects rent while not paying the landlord and leaves before/when they're caught. A big win is if the scammer gets full payment upfront, usually by leasing short-term to someone who only needs a few months. Landlord ends up no rent and new renter lost money and has no place to live. If scammer used a fake/stolen identity then it's practically impossible to do anything.
- dennisgorelik 8y agoWhy not trace renter's check that scammer cashed out through the banking system?
- jhfdbkofdcho 8y agoGeeze man, I’m sorry you had to go through that.