Rental Scams in Self Catering Holiday Home Lettings
By Philip
Suter
Since
the middle of 2004 numerous owners of self catering holiday
homes who advertise their properties on the Internet have been
targeted on a rental scam.
The
scam works by the enquirer sending a cheque far in excess of
the requested sum, and then requesting a refund for the difference.
After repaying this the property owner will find that original
cheque has bounced or is bogus.
One
person in France had the experience of receiving a Euro Draft
that was actually twice the amount required. This was paid into
their bank. A few days later they were bombarded with emails
from the sender demanding the balance to be sent via a courier
postal company immediately.
Fortunately
their policy is not to send contracts before monies have been
cleared and actually in their bank account. Their bank informed
them that this would be fifteen days to clear the payment cheque.
Well fifteen days passed and just as they were about to send
the extra overpaid amount, they double checked with their bank
only to find that the whole cheque was false.
A
lot of people are initially taken in as the applicant makes
a very attractive offer. They want to rent the property for
several weeks in a quieter season when bookings are scarce.
The offer of rent sounds good particularly if the owner of the
property has a mortgage to cover.
Naturally
the applicant never appears as he/she only communicates by email.These
emails do not always make too much sense as the property owner
for example could have been advertising a four bedroom luxury
villa and the email will say that they want to rent a
room/apartment and even bring their own furniture.
Philip
Suter is a Director of JML Property Services - http://www.jmlvillas.com
a UK based company offering Insurance products on line and a
holiday home advertising service and management training with
in the uk. He is a very experienced property consultant with
over 30 years work in the Residential letting business and served
in the national council of ARLA. He is a Fellow of the National
Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and a Member of The association
of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)
Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Philip_Suter
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©jmlpropertyservices01/06
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