Tenant Law
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Beware the fake rental scamFriday, August 1, 2008
As reported on the website of KCBS/CBS5 earlier this month (link), an old scam has been resurrected in the Bay Area due in part to the current mortgage foreclosure crisis. Scam artists are breaking into vacant homes up for sale, changing the locks, removing the "for sale" signs, and then marketing the places for rent.
Victims of the scam see a place they'd like to rent, and then make deals with the scammers, often paying first and/or last month's rent and a security deposit in cash -- in exchange for a "lease" and keys. Only later do they find out their "lease" is a fraud and that they have no rental agreement with the owners. By this time the fraudulent "landlord" is long gone, and the victim is out of considerable money and may be put out of the home with very little recourse available.
Beware a landlord or rental agency which requires initial payments in cash. Also, as suggested in the article, it is prudent to check that the rental agency is licensed with the California Department of Real Estate (here) or check the property owner's name against records kept in the county recorder's office (in San Francisco, the office of the assessor-recorder is on the first floor of City Hall, and recent ownership records may be looked up quickly and for free on computer terminals set up there in the "public access" area of the office.)
Victims of the scam see a place they'd like to rent, and then make deals with the scammers, often paying first and/or last month's rent and a security deposit in cash -- in exchange for a "lease" and keys. Only later do they find out their "lease" is a fraud and that they have no rental agreement with the owners. By this time the fraudulent "landlord" is long gone, and the victim is out of considerable money and may be put out of the home with very little recourse available.
Beware a landlord or rental agency which requires initial payments in cash. Also, as suggested in the article, it is prudent to check that the rental agency is licensed with the California Department of Real Estate (here) or check the property owner's name against records kept in the county recorder's office (in San Francisco, the office of the assessor-recorder is on the first floor of City Hall, and recent ownership records may be looked up quickly and for free on computer terminals set up there in the "public access" area of the office.)
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