I paid my holding deposit of £602 to landlord who stays in abroad through openrent link. She did mention that I’ll have a viewing which is 23/02/2023 and openrent will contact me same day.
No one has contacted me yet and I have mailed landlord back regarding that I’ll wait till Monday. Can anyone help me?
I fear you may have been scammed.
No deposit should ever be paid in advance of viewing. No credible landlord would ask for this.
Did you see an ad on Facebook? It’s full of scams.
I suspect it was a fake openrent website you went to.
What was the web address? I bet it wasn’t .co.uk?
Why do people do this? This is the age of scammers. Trust no one. Not the first and not the last sadly.
This is the website and yes she did say that it is refundable
That’s a link to google
Can you spell the address out. This forum may block the link.
IE use dot co dot uk etc
Then you can ask for a refund. Have you?
Yea it was a sacm, the link isn’t valid anymore. I have disputed the amount with bank as landlord has not been replying. Bank have mentioned that they are not sure if they will be able to all the funds back but will try. No time scale. In a loophole
Was it a Facebook ad?
Can you describe the method so others don’t get scammed.
Yea sure. It was a Facebook ad which was apparently posted by tenant. I dropped him a text on messenger stating if this property is available. He was like yes, I used to rent this property and I had to move houses. He was helping his landlord to get someone in the property and then provided me with landlords email. I was like okay alright.
I emailed landlord and she seemed sound, she mentioned about staying in Italy and how open rent works for her and manages her property. I thought open rent was a estate agent not like a official site where landlords post their adv. She shared hr scanned passport details and that’s where I felt it was legit. Later she sent me that link to make payment.
I was a bit hesitant why this rent is going to her directly instead of open rent. But I didn’t think to much. As soon as I transfered her rent, she mentioned that viewing is in 2 days. Someone from openrent will contact me to arrange timings. I was like okay and I did text her on thrusday regarding it just before my viewjng that can you please let me know the time as I have to take time off and I can let my manager know. She replied by saying idk but someone will contact. Waited till Friday, no one replied. Waited Monday just incase, no reply since then.
That’s when I realised it was a scam.
I usually don’t go ahead with facebook ads or other sites. This was my first time and yea
So sorry to hear about this. Property scams are very common at the moment with the shortage of property & cost of rent it’s easy for scammers to rush people into making payment without doing due diligence.
Some landlords do use Facebook but most of us stick to reputable sites like openrent Zoopla etc.
Never pay until you’ve viewed the property in person and then only one weeks refundable holding deposit.
If it is a scam you will not even get a holding deposit back. But not a whole month or deposit should be paid before a viewing and check who owns the property