9 months into a 12 month AST, and I’ve just learnt that my “tenant” has never lived in the house, but has been illegally subletting it all of this time through Airbnb and Booking.com. Given its high demand location in Stratford E15, and what I’ve seen online about its availability dates for holiday bookings, I’m guessing its pulled in nearly £40,000 for this scammer.
What tipped me off? The managing agent wasn’t able to get access for the usual first quarter property inspection (and has been fobbing off my enquiries on this until last week when I escalated to the board directors of the agency), the rent is 2 months in arrears, the tenant has always been very difficult to contact and has simply ignored my own requests for site visits, and checks by an obliging neighbour highlighted empty garbage bins on days when they should have been full if the house was inhabited.
A quick search online and voila - there is my house, advertised to take 4 people (despite my local council licencing laws permitting 2 people only). And when I phantom booked it on both sites, I was able to get booking confirmations for 8 people!! Significant modifications have been made internally, nearly all of my furnishings have been changed out, and I can see from the online reviews and photos that there’s been damage beyond what will be covered with the tenancy deposit.
Just to add to the saga, whilst I used the OpenRent tenant check & referencing service prior to agreeing the tenancy, when I called the tenant’s noted employer this week, they didn’t know her, which implies the written reference supplied by her “boss” at that company (who I’ve since learnt is just an administrator) is fraudulent.
With all our UK laws geared for tenants, I have to sit about frustrated and twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the section 8 process to work its way through. We’d already served a section 21 a couple of weeks ago - the tenant has been repeatedly late with payments (prior to simply not paying at all) and I figured I just didn’t want to renew. In the meantime, the “tenant” (who manages 8 other properties according to the holiday let website) appears to be part of a group pulling this scam on other local landlords - since I issued a “cease and desist” notice the booking listings have altered from her name to another person (who has used a celebrity photo as part of his own “profile” details).
I’ve notified the Met Police and Newham Council and my local MP - no answer from any of them. I’ve notified the CEO and board directors for Airbnb and Booking Holdings (the parent company of Booking.com - no answer from them and pro forma unhelpfullness from the “customer services” teams. My next step - find some journalists who can make some noise on this.
Has anyone had a similar situation where they’ve been able to reclaim their property sooner when fraud can be easily proved. I’ve got an arsenal of screen shots for evidence, a properly worded AST contract signed by all parties and witnessed by the managing agent, I’ve got the passport ID for the tenant, and all notices to date have been served correctly.
And does anyone have any ideas on how a legal list of bad tenants could be setup?
Has anyone had success in notifying Equifax?
I have a bad feeling that this tenant has pulled this stunt before, and will do so again…