Recently, fraud in the rental of residential real estate has become widespread. Fraudsters use various deception schemes. We will tell you in this publication how to avoid falling for the bait of cunning scammers.
Basic schemes for deceiving gullible citizens when renting housing:
- Renting one property to several persons;
- Renting out an object that does not belong to the fraudster or is not leased by him;
- Delivery of a property without actual provision of housing
- Promise to select real estate for the purpose of hiring.
To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, you need to check Is the person renting out the apartment its owner?. If it is not, then you need to clarify who the owner is, what relationship the lessor has with this person, whether he has a notarized power of attorney from the owner or a lease agreement, which indicates the possibility of subletting the property and written permission to rent it out (if the agreement contains a similar requirement).
In addition, it is advisable to obtain from Rosreestr an extract from the unified register of rights to real estate and transactions with it. It will indicate the owner and existing encumbrances of the property, if any. The state fee for the extract is 200.00 rubles, the production time is 5 days. You can order it at Rosreestr or at the multifunctional center.
You will spend 200.00 rubles and you will know exactly who is the owner of the apartment.
Important! If the owner is not the person leasing it, then you need to check his authority, whether there is a power of attorney, a lease agreement and permission to sublet the property.
In addition, it is advisable to find out who is registered in the premises and actually lives. To do this, you can look at the house register or ask for an extract from the house register.
It is advisable that no one is registered in the apartment or only 1-2 people are registered, since registration gives the right to reside.
Important! Before concluding a rental agreement, you should read it very carefully and it is advisable to let a lawyer review it to see if there are any unfavorable conditions for you.
The contract must fully indicate the object that is to be rented, the condition that the property is not mortgaged, not sold, not encumbered, and that there are no rights of third parties to the object. The contract must also indicate that The landlord guarantees that there are no rights of third parties to reside in the apartment.
If you have become a victim of fraud: you paid money, but did not actually receive an apartment for rent, then you need to file a police report against the actions of the “landlords” regarding fraud.
Often, illegal schemes are used by real estate agencies when selecting options for renting residential premises. Thus, often information services for finding an apartment for a tenant are positioned as a rental fee. A potential tenant, delighted at such a low price for renting an apartment, immediately signs an agreement with a real estate agency, without going into details. Later it turns out that the owner still has to pay rent.
Scammers on Avito when renting out apartments
Fraudsters place advertisements for apartments for rent on various classifieds websites, including the most popular site, Avito.
Fraudulent advertisements are not difficult to recognize.
Firstly, scammers sometimes post photos of designer apartments taken from third-party sites, or just pictures.
Secondly, they indicate a low price in order to attract as many potential victims as possible.
Thirdly, for a fairly low price they offer a completely acceptable option, which in reality costs much more.
To recognize a scammer also when communicating, you can ask more questions about the property that is being hired, for example, when was the last renovation, where do the apartment windows face, which metro is nearby, shops, etc.
Important! If a potential landlord has difficulty answering these questions that the owner could easily answer, then you should be wary and it is advisable not to enter into a contractual relationship with this person.
In many cases, real estate agency employees take advantage of the ignorance of ordinary citizens, improperly inform about the service and impose so-called information services, while the potential employer thinks that he is paying rent.
If you have found an apartment option that suits you on the Internet, and the staff of a real estate agency deceived you and took money for their own services under the guise of a rental price, then you urgently need to write a notice of termination of the contract for the provision of services, send it by registered mail with notification and an inventory of the attachment or hand it over on purpose under seal and signature.
In your application, demand a refund of the funds paid, refer to inadequate information about the service and Article 10.12 of the Federal Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights. If the money is not returned to you, you can file a complaint with Rospotrebnadzor or directly with the court with a claim to recover the funds paid.
ATTENTION! Due to recent changes in legislation, the information in this article may be out of date! Our lawyer will advise you free of charge - write in the form below.
What do you need to know to avoid unpleasant situations, quickly find affordable and decent housing, and rent it correctly for a long time?
What is more important, analyzing information and asking the right questions? Or the ability to avoid pitfalls? This will be discussed in detail below.
Dear readers! Our articles talk about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique.
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Search through real estate agencies
People who are faced with the need to rent an apartment for the first time usually turn to an agency. It is advisable to find a trusted organization, ideally on the recommendation of friends. The tasks of a real estate specialist are as follows:
- Find an apartment according to the client’s requirements;
- Set a viewing period with the landlord;
- Accompany you to viewings of selected apartments;
- When drawing up a rental agreement, conduct all negotiations;
- Advise the client on contract issues;
- Check the owner's documents regarding the ownership of the property;
- Directly, as well as draw up a transfer and acceptance certificate, which will contain an inventory of the property of the apartment.
The cost of specialist services is 50-100% of the monthly rental price.
Demand creates supply, and these offers are not always fair. We invite you to watch a video about new methods of fraud when renting an apartment.
How to rent an apartment on your own?
When searching on your own, you will need to find an advertisement from the owner, not a real estate company, set a time yourself and tour the apartments you like. Of course, in such a situation there are pitfalls, but many people prefer.
What should you consider when searching on your own?
Checking the owner of the apartment
In order to ensure the legal purity of the property, ask its owner to provide you with the following documents:
- Evidence of ownership;
- An agreement confirming ownership of an apartment (for example, a purchase and sale agreement);
- Passport.
- In the case where the lessor is a representative of the owner, he must provide a notarized power of attorney confirming the right to manage.
Make sure there are no utility debts. It is necessary to check payment receipts and meters for electricity and water before you enter into an agreement.
Consent of all owners
If the apartment has several owners, that is, it belongs to them in shares, then consent is required from all of them (upon reaching the age of 14). The rental agreement must contain the signatures of all owners or the signature of an authorized person who has a power of attorney from them.
If you want to rent a room in a communal apartment, you will need the consent of your neighbors. The landlord must take care of this. He is also obliged to provide a document that states the procedure for using this apartment - that is, which room is assigned to which owner, which will save you from possible conflicts.
Correct lease agreement
A competently and legally correctly drawn up contract contains:
- Full name and passport details of the owner and tenant;
- Monthly rent amount;
- Conditions for reviewing housing fees;
- The largest number of visits by the owner of the apartment to inspect it, as well as the conditions of inspections;
- Persons who have the right to live together with the tenant;
- Apartment rental period;
- Conditions under which the contract will be terminated.
- The contract must contain a detailed description of the housing: address of the apartment, area and number of rooms, number of floors of the building.
Moreover, each contract is individual - there is no standard form.
We invite you to download the apartment rental agreement form: Download.
Inventory of property
The property inventory is an annex to the main lease agreement. The inventory indicates the property that is transferred to the tenant for temporary use.
The owner of the property can include in the inventory: furniture, household appliances, linen, kitchen utensils and dishes, carpets, etc. If the tenant loses or damages items not included in the inventory, the owner will not be able to return them.
Rules for renting an apartment
Check with the owner of the apartment about his right to rent out residential premises, study the documents for the apartment.
Find out where you can find it, and check your contact details (telephone, address).
Check the conditions for connecting to the Internet or, if it has already been established, find out the payment procedure.
When inspecting the apartment check the condition of plumbing and electrical wiring. It is important that the plugs are not knocked out when connecting a minimum number of devices (electric kettle, computer, washing machine). Also make sure there are no ants, cockroaches, bedbugs or other insects.
If any problems were found during the inspection, check with the owner of the property at whose expense the repairs and elimination will be carried out.
If you rent a room that is not locked with a key, or a bed, then you do not need to pay a deposit.
The windows of the apartment must be in good condition, otherwise in the cold months you will be blown out, and in the warm months the air conditioning will be difficult to operate.
Write down emergency numbers for emergency services.
In a copy of the agreement, note the monthly rent payment and require the signature of the property owner.
Decide on the furniture issue: will you use the owner’s furniture or bring your own.
Since prices in the rental market are unstable, It is not recommended to sign a long-term rental agreement for a fixed price. If prices drop, you can find a cheaper rental option or ask the owner for a discount.
When signing the contract, the apartment owner must give you a set of keys. Check them out. Remember that it is illegal to demand payment for keys.
Typically, the duration of the contract is one year minus one day. This is in the interests of the apartment owner, since such agreements are called short-term and reduce the tenant’s ability to illegally move in co-tenants. If you wish to extend the contract, sign the appropriate agreement one month before the expiration date.
Try to find a common language with the apartment owner and neighbors, maintain good relations with them.
In the Moscow rental market, there are frequent cases of deception and misunderstanding between residents and owners. The only way to avoid problems is to be armed with knowledge of the difficulties that can be expected when looking for and living in a rented apartment.
Rental fraud
Providing false or outdated information about rental apartments - one of the ways of deception. There are a huge number of housing search agencies on the market, and some of them are actually scammers. Most often they work according to the following scheme: for a “moderate” fee, the agency provides a list with telephone numbers and addresses of apartments. In fact, it turns out that most of them have either been given up a long time ago or have not been given up at all. There is no point in making a claim to the agency: the information (service) is provided, no one will return the money. It is very simple to distinguish such an organization from a real estate agency: in the second case, the price of the service is 100% of the monthly rent and is paid only after the required option is found. News agencies charge less for their “services”.
Re-letting of short-term rented housing for the purpose of deception - the most popular method of rental fraud. You can often see advertisements for apartments for rent on lampposts, bus stops and information boards, and the prices of such offers are an order of magnitude lower than market prices. In this case, the deception scheme is as follows: the fraudster rents an apartment for a short period of time, after which he advertises. Trusting citizens come to look at housing. Under various pretexts, they are asked to pay a month's rent in advance and a deposit, and are given keys. When the victims arrive at the apartment with their belongings the next day, they may well encounter other “tenants” at the entrance. Another option is also possible: some time after moving into the apartment, the “real” owner of the apartment, who has just “left the zone,” or some “relative” of the tenant appears in the apartment, who declares his rights to the living space and demands that it be immediately vacated.
After the conclusion of the contract
When an apartment is the subject of a property dispute , employers can’t dream of a quiet life. There are times when the owner’s real brother returns from the “zone” or his ex-wife appears on the doorstep. In this case, the tenants find themselves involved in material disputes, and they themselves are to blame for this: when renting, it is imperative to check whether the apartment is privatized and whether its owner is the sole owner. If the apartment is owned by the municipality, you must obtain written permission to rent it out. Without such a document, any person registered in it has the right to prohibit it from being handed over. If privatized housing has several owners, you must obtain written consent from each of them to rent it out.
Sudden rent increase - a common way to “make money” from tenants. It happens that after two to three months the owner, without any reason, suddenly announces that the rental amount is increasing. In this case, he expects that residents will prefer to pay an extra few thousand rather than go through the hassle of finding housing and moving again.
Disputes about timely payment of rent often lead to the termination of the employment contract. There are cases when, having received a month's rent, the owner of the apartment “suddenly” forgot about it. “Memory problems” may be caused by the desire to get rid of the tenants (after all, according to the agreement, they can be evicted if they fall behind on the monthly payment) or simply by the inadequacy of the apartment owner.
The owner's complaints about the condition of the apartment most often occur when a tenant is about to move out. According to the terms of the contract, he must do this in a month, and during this time the owner often begins to make complaints about the condition of the housing. He may suddenly forget that the parquet floor was scratched, the sofa fell apart, and the upholstery on the door was torn long before the conclusion of the contract. Most often, the purpose of such claims is not to return the security deposit to the tenant.
Safe rental rules
1. Look for housing only through friends or with the help of professional agents.
2. Be sure to carefully check the owner’s passport and documents for the apartment, and give money only against a receipt.
3. Draw up a rental agreement and an apartment acceptance certificate, which must indicate:
- passport details of the tenant and landlord;
- characteristics of the apartment being rented (address, area, state of wear, furniture, etc.),
- the cost of the monthly rent and the time during which the lessor has no right to increase it;
- tenant rights (the ability to carry out repairs);
- the rights of the landlord (the number of visits by the owner of the apartment, the time and days on which they will take place), the time frame within which he can announce the eviction of the tenants.
4. Discuss all the important points in advance: who will repair the plumbing in the event of a breakdown, how payments for utilities and long-distance negotiations will be made, etc. This must be done even if the owner is your good friend.
Fresh renovation, cleanliness, a smiling and friendly owner and, most importantly, a very attractive price - all this is by no means a reason for a tenant looking for housing to immediately move into an apartment, much less pay a deposit three months in advance. The RIA Real Estate website has collected five expert tips that will allow you to learn about the intricacies of renting and not be left with your nose, and what’s more, on the street.
Check the documents for the apartment
There are several types of fraudulent activities on the part of landlords that all those who are looking for rental housing should be aware of.
For example, says Maria Baskova, head of the rental department of the ABC Zhilya company, in rental relations there is such a thing as subleasing of housing - when the tenant rents out the apartment to third parties, of course, without informing the owner. According to the agency's interlocutor, in this case the fraudster rents an apartment by the day, say, for seven days. During this time, he manages to resell it to several employers at a price significantly lower than the market price, but, having received an advance payment for several months, disappears. Failed apartment tenants are left without money and without housing.
The means of “self-defense” in this case are quite banal and simple. In order not to fall for a scammer, before paying money, make sure that the apartment belongs to the owner, insists Vadim Cherdantsev, senior lawyer of the Land. Real Estate. Construction practice of the Cliff law firm. "Such information can be obtained on the basis of an extract from the Unified State Register of Rights to Real Estate. To obtain it, you need to submit a corresponding request to the territorial division of the Office of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography or (Rosreestr), pay 200 rubles of state duty and wait only 5 days. In Moscow, you can also contact a multifunctional center; they are available in every district. Any citizen can request an extract," explains the lawyer.
When renting an apartment, the tenant also has the right to demand a passport from the owner, and, after checking the documents for the apartment, enter into a rental agreement with the owner of the apartment, which must specify the main wishes, requirements and responsibilities of the parties, adds Baskova. And, of course, you only need to give money against a receipt, she emphasizes.
How to properly draw up a rental agreement. Advice >>>
Specify the rental period in the contract
“In the spring-summer period, with the appearance of seasonal apartments on the rental market, there are owners who give out the rental of their seasonal apartment for an apartment that is rented for a long time. As a result, the tenant is forced, after a few months, to look for housing again and move,” leads Baskov is another example of a tenant being deceived.
In order to avoid such an unpleasant situation, you must immediately insist on concluding a written contract indicating the terms of hire.
By the way, Cherdantsev notes, if the term is not reflected in the rental agreement, it is considered to be concluded for five years. After the conclusion of the contract, the owner will no longer be able to simply kick out the tenant and terminate the contract. In case of any disagreement between the parties, the contract is terminated only in court, the lawyer clarifies.
Don't go to view an apartment alone
Be friendly, but keep your distance from the owner
As for the behavior of the employer, according to Baskova, there is no need to invent anything or specially adapt to the landlord, the main thing is to be calm and friendly. “Never react violently to possible changes in the price or rental terms; if you structure the conversation correctly and calmly, the result, as a rule, will be in your favor,” Baskova is convinced.
Gutsu advises the employer to treat the rented apartment as if it were his own, and not be afraid to nail down a shelf or call a plumber again. But what exactly is not needed, in her opinion, is excessive attention, tea parties and gifts to the owner of the apartment. As in any business, in rental relations it is important to show yourself as responsible, diligent, with a good memory, but at the same time “keep your distance,” the realtor notes.
Fraudsters use several schemes to deceive gullible tenants.
Inattentive and legally illiterate tenants often fall for scammers when renting an apartment. This is especially true for guests of the capital who come to Moscow for the first time. The editors of RBC Real Estate found out what schemes scammers use when renting out housing.
According to experts, the first victims of scams are people who want to rent an apartment without intermediaries.
Don't go for cheap
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
“One of the variants of deception: the fraudster rents an apartment by the day, for example, for a week,” Maria Baskova, head of the rental department of the ABC Housing company, gives an example. “During this time, he manages to rent out the housing to another tenant at a price significantly lower than the market price. At the same time, the fraudster asks provide him with advance payment for several months, and then disappears. The deceived tenant finds out that the apartment has a different owner, who knew nothing about this scheme."
Carefully! Municipal apartment
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
Tenants who are trying to rent a municipal apartment can also run into scammers. The peculiarity of such an apartment is that several people can be registered in it and have the right to live there. One of the residents of the apartment rents it out, hands over the keys to the tenant and, having received money for rent, leaves. And after a while, another person registered in this apartment appears and reports that he will live here.
Apartment with relatives
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
Another, very similar deception scheme: according to documents, the apartment belongs to a relative who now lives abroad, and you are offered to sign an agreement with a person acting under a power of attorney from the real owner of the apartment, says Olesya Mandzyak, head of the residential real estate department at Delta estate. The power of attorney may be invalid, and the person who rented such an apartment can be easily evicted.
“Very often, landlords provide copies of property documents or old-style documents,” continues Olesya Mandzyak. “When signing an agreement, copies of property documents are provided under the pretext that the originals are not available at the moment (they are located far away in the country, in another city, in bank) or old-style documents (1993, 1998). But in fact, the apartment has completely different owners, which will become clear in the near future after moving into the apartment."
Mortgage rental
And with the development of housing lending, many apartments appear on the market, purchased with a mortgage or secured by a bank. If, when renting such an apartment, the tenant is not given permission from the bank to rent out the apartment, then the owner may likely have problems with the credit institution. In this case, bank security officers or bailiffs can evict the tenant at any time.
Information fee
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
Renters also often fall for a scam called “fee for information.” In this case, an agreement is concluded with a real estate agency and a fee is paid for contact information, which ultimately turns out to be unreliable. For example, scammers promise to find an apartment that is rented at very attractive rental rates. This is one of the oldest schemes that allows agencies to defraud tenants.
Most often, the contacts provided turn out to be fake. In the best case, the ad hides an object with a significant catch, for example, the apartment is for sale or requires serious repairs.
In the summer, with the appearance of seasonal apartments on the rental market, there are owners who tell the tenant that they are renting out the apartment for a long time, but in the fall they return to the city. As a result, the tenant is forced to look for housing again.
How to avoid falling for scammers
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
“To avoid becoming a victim of scammers when renting apartments, it is best to immediately ask the owner for a passport, and also check the documents for the apartment,” advises Maria Baskova. “You must conclude an agreement with the owner of the apartment, which should spell out the main responsibilities of the parties. Money is best give only against receipt."
Olesya Mandzyak considers it necessary to seek help from a qualified real estate agency, where competent realtors work who can help avoid various risks when renting an apartment. “Starting with the inspection of the apartment, you need to pay attention to all the details of what is happening. When signing the contract, the landlord himself (or all participants in the property) must be present, all original documents for the property and passports, as well as all the necessary certificates, must be provided,” says the expert.
In what cases can a tenant be evicted?
Photo: Depositphotos/everett225
It is worth noting that all issues that arise between the tenant and the landlord are regulated by the Civil Code, clarifies the managing partner of the Group of Companies “Assistance to Business Projects” Kira Gin-Barisyavichene. A residential lease agreement is more beneficial for the tenant - it has the opportunity to stipulate all the nuances of the lease.
By the way, according to the law, you can evict a tenant only in two cases. Firstly, if he has not paid rent for residential premises for more than 6 months, and in case of short-term rental - in case of non-payment of rent more than twice after the expiration of the payment period established by the contract. It is also possible to evict a tenant if he causes damage to the property, but only through the court. This means that the owner of the apartment does not have the right to put you out on the street at any time under any pretext.
Vera Kozubova
