I’m reaching out for some advice regarding a property I’m looking to rent through OpenRent. The landlord has shared various documents with me, including ID and a passport, but I’ve run into some red flags that I need help understanding.
Land Registry Issue: The documents I’ve seen don’t match the details in the Land Registry. The most recent updates (from 2022) show a different name as the owner of the property. The landlord explained that the title has been updated due to mortgage-related changes, but this doesn’t make sense to me because it doesn’t explain the ownership discrepancy.
Direct Payment: The landlord is also insisting on payment outside of OpenRent and refuses to use an escrow service (like RentNow). He prefers to receive direct payment instead, which makes me uneasy as I thought using a trusted payment platform would ensure security for both parties.
Use of DocuSign: The landlord is using DocuSign for the tenancy agreement, which I know is a legitimate service for signing contracts, but I’m aware that scammers also use this platform to create fake documents.
Given these concerns, I’m wondering if anyone has experienced a similar situation or can provide advice on how to protect myself in this scenario.
Could this be a scam, or are these issues something I should expect in certain rental agreements? How should I verify the landlord’s ownership of the property, and should I trust him if he refuses to use escrow? He did share his ID, but it just feels off as instead of saying “let’s use an escrow (rentnow) he says " if you do not feel comfortable you can go via an agent” which usually is something scammers would say.
Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
well done for doing your due diligence. The refusal to use OR for payment is the biggest red flag. Personally, given that I only know what you’ve written here, I wouldn’t risk it.
Although you can legally let a property that someone else owns, the LL really should be showing you the ID of the owner and establishing beyond doubt what their relationship is to that person. It sounds like the LL is not addressing your concerns, and if they’re not willing to do that at this stage, how likely are they going to be to address concerns like a broken boiler or a water leak?
My opinion differs to that of the above. The biggest red flag to me is the discrepancy of the owner registered with land registry. It’s not possible for the land registry to have a different owner than the actual owner (and therefore the person that has the mortgage on the property) so his explanation of it being to do with a mortgage change seems somewhat off to me.
With regards to not accepting payment through OpenRent/Rent Now, I don’t accept payment through either because I don’t want to pay OR for the privilege and I’m sure other landlords are the same. Doesn’t make them a scammer.
Biggest question, is have you met the landlord in person?
To be honest, given the concerns you have, it sounds like the property is not the one for you as there should really be trust on both sides.
please note, I’m not saying you are wrong to have concerns and it’s great to see that you’ve checked up on the landlord
Many landlords, myself included only use Openrent for advertising and referencing, but this does not mean that its unsafe to pay them directly.
I would drill down a bit further on the land registry issue, but my understanding is that there is a huge backlog of changes of ownership waiting to be registered and HMLR are many months behind. Another option would be to ask the landlord to show you the insurance certificate for the property. This is generally good evidence that they own/manage it.
I wouldnt necessarily have a problem with Docusign per-se, but I would want to meet the landlord face to face and ask questions and be satisfied on the other issues before handing over any money.
Thanks everyone. Obviously, I want to ask these questions because scammers make lifes of genuine landlords difficult as well.
Update: The bank he claimed to have a mortgage with has confirmed that no loan exists under his name, meaning the mortgage statement he shared with me was not genuine. I have provided all evidence to OpenRent, and he is now under investigation.
Also, I saw the flat, but he was not there in person.
However, he has my ID and some personal information. What should I do?
How would you have that information as the bank would not be allowed to tell you either way due to GDPR?
If you have the title deed from land registry, that would usually show who the mortgage is with but as others have said, there is a significant delay with land registry processing sales so could it be that he’s recently purchased the house perhaps?
The landlord had shared a mortgage statement with the tenant and the tenant went ahead and notified the bank about potential scam and shared that mortgage statement to confirm if that statement was genuine or not. The bank confirm
That the statement was not from that bank aka not genuine (falsified)
As the tenant shared the bank statement that was shared by the landlord, with the bank, after the bank requested to see it, there was no GDPR breach as that “landlord” doesn’t have a account with that bank so no GDPR to breach. All that was confirm if the statement shared was genuine or not genuine. Nothing else was shared.
And that itself along with the not aligned names on the title, the refusal of using an escrow, etc reason enough for fraud.
I would beg to differ. Discussing someone else’s accounts full stop would be a breach of GDPR. It’s the same as someone phoning me asking if Joe Bloggs rents a house from me. Without the permission of Joe Bloggs, I cannot confirm nor deny.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear: The prospective tenant was given a mortgage statement. It’s not a GDPR breach for the bank to acknowledge that the mortgage statement does not relate to a mortgage with that bank i.e. is false.
Edited to add that you are right that my generalisation of confirming that something doesn’t exist was not a correct statement. I meant it to apply in this particular case.
They didn’t share anything with me that was not already shared by the landlord himself.
All that was confirmed was if the document was genuine or not, which has no effects on the “landlords” privacy.
The bank is now investigating it themself and openrent has now blocked the listing.
well good for you for actively dodging that bullet. This is a great example of how Ts should check things over before parting with any cash or signing any documents.
Ok That’s fair enough but in fairness that’s not what you said. You originally said the bank confirmed ‘that no loan was registered under his name’, which if they had done, would be a GDPR breach.
Anyhoo, I’m glad that the listing as been suspended if it is being investigated and kudos to you for doing your due diligence and following through to make sure nobody else gets burnt
