National housing charity Threshold has warned people seeking rented properties to be careful of fraudsters following an increase in the occurrence of rent-related scams in the west of Ireland in recent weeks. The charity has seen a particular concentration of these incidents in Galway.
“Our Galway office has seen a marked increase in the number of rental scams being reported by our clients over the last few weeks,” said Karina Timothy, western regional services manager with Threshold. “Our advisors have been dealing with a number of cases in which those seeking rented accommodation have come into contact with people purporting to be landlords, but whose claims are ultimately exposed as illegitimate.”
One Threshold client, who has been living in Galway for the last 10 months and is looking for a new place to rent for her family, contacted the charity after becoming suspicious about a property. She responded to an advert on daft.ie for a property advertised for rent, including bills, at €1,140 per month. The property was also advertised on a number of other sites. “This rent would be approximately €400 less than current market rate, so it stands to reason that there would have been a large number of applications or expressions of interest for this particular property,” said Ms Timothy.
The prospective landlord replied, informing her that he was based in Spain and had a lovely wife and daughter. The nature of the reply appeared odd and prompted the client to investigate further. She then found that the images on the daft.ie advert varied greatly from those contained in a link the “landlord” supplied in follow-up emails.
Another, similar case in the Galway area recently involved a mother, also searching for accommodation in Galway city, for herself and her young child. She responded to an advert on daft.ie for a property in Salthill with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, which was advertised at €700 per month – far below market rates.
She received a response and from that point the supposed landlord communicated with her via WhatsApp, seeking a fee of over €70 for a viewing of the property.
“We would be very concerned that should our client not have become suspicious, she may have proceeded and inadvertently given the scammer access to her bank account,” Ms Timothy warned. “These circumstances – a landlord who lives out of the country and exceptionally cheap rent for a standard property – are classic red flags, but tenants are often under a huge amount of pressure to secure accommodation in tight timescales, and can even be faced with the risk of becoming homeless if they don’t find a new place to rent. In their desperation to secure a property it is understandable that they might overlook signs such as these. Threshold’s proposed property-specific Rent Register would allow prospective tenants to check the properties’ rent and registration history to determine their legitimacy.
“An important rule of thumb for renters to remember is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” she continued. “This is to say that renters need to approach all property adverts and correspondence from prospective landlords with vigilance and suspicion. If something seems off, do not provide any additional personal details, especially bank details. Review the materials and information that has already been supplied and try to spot inconsistencies. If in doubt, call Threshold and we can advise you on the next steps to take.”
