I am looking to rent my first property and came across this apartment in Manchester which seemed perfect, I contacted the lady and at first it was all okay. I have a lot of complex health problems and going through a lot at the moment so I am a bit slower in terms of responding. The lady stated she would be sub letting til August and then rent from the landlord after that however I had to contact universal credit which I didn’t get around too due to many appointments and as I was happy to rent I put down a £200 deposit. The lady then started demanding money from me on WhatsApp and now is refusing to refund me. I want to put this as an alert to others who may enquire into this property and go through the same thing so please be aware! I am now taking this up with my banks fraud team and a massive red flag too was the landlord kept changing the rent price every few days which was strange! Please do not rent this apartment I am 99.9% sure its a scam!
You should report this to Openrent. I believe the link is on the right just underneath what is shown in your screenshot.
Hello I am wondering if a landlord asks for my whatapp number to give more information there is this a red flag? I have decided not to have any enquiries for rental through what’s app
Many LL use Openrent only to advertise, and will then liaise separately & outside of Openrent re referencing, signing contract etc, so its highly likely that this might be legit.
Hey Ida, ohhh this is a big no no! from what I went through, the landlord should be contacting you via the phone and not whatsapp as it’s not as professional. Do everything via phone calls and direct emails.
Hi Karl, I really do appreciate this but the way she was demanding money and the fact open rent haven’t removed it leaving first time renters like myself more open to being scammed it’s quite worrying actually! I know some do sub-let prior to renting from the landlord but if it’s done via whatsapp and the person is constantly demanding money it’s a massive red flag!