Beware of the rental scammers

Gardaí warn college students to be vigilant

STUDENTS and their parents are being advised to be wary of elaborate rental scams as the rush for thirdlevel accommodation approaches.

With the Leaving Cert results out next week, gardaí have warned that they usually see a spike in accommodation scams around this time of year.

The force said there were three broad categories into which these scams generally fall. In the first, the scammer claims to be out of the country and can’t show prospective tenants the property but requests that a deposit be paid upfront.

In the second, the scammer is living at the property and shows a number of people around, gets a deposit from several of them and then disappears with the money.

In the third, the transaction appears normal until the renter finds that the keys don’t work and the landlord has disappeared.

Gardaí warned prospective renters that they need to first establish the property exists and is available, and the landlord or agents are bona fide.

Sergeant Amanda Flood said the scammers carrying out these fraudulent acts tended to live in the property themselves ‘and what they do is they re-advertise it’.

‘They pretend to be a landlord, or an agent on behalf of a landlord, and show the people around. They have keys that work and show the property to a number of people. ‘There was an incident in Dublin city centre where an individual readvertised the property they were living in.

‘They showed it to a number of people and made off with their deposits and first month’s rent,’ she said.

In some situations, bogus landlords set a move-in date and say they will hand over the keys then, but this doesn’t happen. In other cases, they hand over ‘bogus keys’ that don’t work.

Sergeant Flood’s advice is that if it ‘sounds too good to be true, odds are it is’.

‘Have a look at the Residential Tenancies Board website for the rent index. Then parents and students should meet the prospective landlord together and get ID from them,’ she added.

‘If they have any suspicions, they should contact an Garda Síochána.’

In the recent past, there have been cases of international students who became victims of these scams after trying to secure accommodation before they arrived.

The Union of Students of Ireland also advises students to be cautious. Its president, Michael Kerrigan, said that students should always ‘visit the accommodation they’re hoping to rent before sending over any sum of money’ to a landlord.

‘Use cheques or bank drafts to pay the deposit,’ he added.

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