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The Season of Goodwill is upon us, but landlords are being warned to watch out for fraudulent tenants. Whilst most tenants you will come across as a landlord are honest, inevitably there are a few who aren’t. The Perils of Identity Fraud
Identity fraud is where someone else steals yours or someone else’s identity in a bid to fraudulently extract money that does not rightfully belong to him or her. In the most common cases of tenant identify fraud a dishonest tenant will rent a property in order to steal the landlord’s identity. This is easily done if utility bills or other official letters are delivered to the rental property instead of the landlord’s home, which can happen if the landlord once lived there.
Fraudsters can then take out loans in the landlord’s name, or even try to sell the property from under his or her nose. Sounds unbelievable, but it does happen. Imagine how disconcerting it would be to drive past your property and notice a For Sale sign in the garden. This happened to one poor landlord—the tenant made £90k from the sale of the property, but thankfully was caught and subsequently jailed.
Minimise the Risk of Identity Fraud
The best way to prevent this from happening to you is to check tenant’s reference thoroughly and if you have any niggling doubts, trust your instincts and don’t take them on.
