![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/10\/Property-scams.jpg\" "\\"Property")
<\/a><\/p>\nThere is once again an upsurge in scams within the Private Rented Sector. These come in various changing guises, some more serious than others.<\/p>\n
Common problems:<\/strong><\/p>\n Properties being turned into cannabis farms <\/a>or to house multiple foreign workers are still on the increase, though such more common abuse of a property should soon be spotted by regular inspection visits \u2013 especially if unannounced.<\/p>\n Problems to be aware of:<\/strong><\/p>\n More recent developments include people communicating with agents claiming to be the Landlord and giving a change of bank details so payments are siphoned into the wrong bank account. Any change of details should only be registered if they are in writing, the signature compared with the Landlord contract on the file and are known to have come from a confirmed source. Acknowledgement can be sent to the Landlord\u2019s known address or by calling the landlord on a telephone number you know to be theirs. Agents without a contract on their file are short of a significant document and if they do not have a signed Landlord contract on file how can they check the landlord\u2019s signature?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Summer problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n There have also been instances over the summer of people posing as agents and turning up at a joint agent\u2019s office, requesting keys for a property supposedly on the instruction of the landlord. Or posing as contractors the Landlord has instructed to undertake work to their property. Again a vigilant and well organised agent should obtain confirmation prior to releasing the keys.<\/p>\n Registration of ownership scam<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n Two variations on actual property \u2018theft\u2019 are also being reported. Firstly Agents are being contacted by potential tenants only interested in viewing or enquiring about empty property. This can be a sign of a potential fraud intended to transfer the ownership of the property away from the Landlord. Secondly there has been an increase in cases where the Land Registry has confirmed a property has been \u2018stolen\u2019 by tenants who identify there is no mortgage and transfer the title deeds into their name. If in response to the \u2018lender\u2019s consent\u2019 <\/a>enquiries at initial interview the landlord confirms there is no mortgage then the Landlords should be advised to ensure that their home address is the one used by the Land Registry for service of any relevant notice so they can be aware of any such attempt of transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Edwards There is once again an upsurge in scams within the Private Rented Sector. These come in various changing guises, some more serious than others. Common problems: Properties being turned into cannabis farms or to house multiple foreign workers are still on the increase, though such more common abuse of a property should …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[59,24,37,70,72],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1831,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/1831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}