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Accommodation scam: how to avoid them?
The housing market is very buoyant and lucrative since it meets a primary need. In recent years, it has greatly developed and there are many possibilities for renting an apartment or a house online; whether it is for a few days, a few months or even several years. Among the advertisements, it is common to come across scams and it is not always easy to detect them. Studapart has looked into the matter and gives you all its advice to avoid fraud!
5 tips to avoid housing scams
1. Find out about market prices
One of the best ways to guard against housing scams is to find out about rent prices in the city and neighborhood in which you are doing your research. Most of the time, scams are disguised as very attractive ads offering high-end services for unbeatable rent. Be careful if you find an ad too enticing.
2. Take a good look at the photos
In an ad, photos are important. Forget advertisements without photos, a serious owner will take care of his advertisement in order to make potential tenants want to settle in his accommodation and give himself the best chance of renting it quickly. Conversely, an ad with photos worthy of a decoration magazine is also suspect. It is common to be fooled by the photos of an ad, if you have any doubts, think of the reverse search in Google Image by dragging the photo of the ad into the search bar, if you find it elsewhere there are chances you are being scammed. Also beware of spelling mistakes and turns of phrase.
3. Do not send money until you have signed the lease
There is no reason to send money to a landlord or an agency, and even less to give cash, before having visited an accommodation and having signed a rental contract. If the landlord asks you for money to book a visit or to block the accommodation, go your way.
4. Check that the accommodation exists using Google Maps
You fell in love with an accommodation and perhaps even had a first contact with the owner. A simple reflex to adopt before moving forward in the process is to type the address of the accommodation in Google and to ensure, via the Street View function, that the building does indeed exist in the place indicated. You can also compare it with the photos in the ad.
5. Do not give your rental file before the visit
When you get in touch with an owner, you can cite a few elements of your file: your professional situation, your years of seniority in your company, specify if you have a guarantor, etc. These details may possibly reassure him before offering you a visit, but do not send him your rental file before having visited the accommodation and signed the rental lease. Some fraudsters take advantage of real estate ads to steal identities.
Find accommodation with complete peace of mind with Studapart
By choosing to rent your accommodation with Studapart, you have access to a community of owners whose accommodation meets specific quality criteria. The ads available on the platform are all checked before they are put online and our teams ensure that they are faithful to reality. Thanks to this, you will even be able to book your accommodation without visiting it. By deciding to rent with Studapart, you also have the possibility of being assisted throughout your procedures by a support team, available 6 days a week and in several languages.
