Fake names, fake email addresses and firms set up in hours before being closed down in the blink of an eye are just some of the tactics deployed by criminal landlords and letting agents carrying out “rent-to-rent” scams.
Rent-to-rent, also known as Guaranteed Rent, is where an individual or company, known as the agent, rents a property from a landlord. The agent – or secondary landlord – will then let the property, often on a room-by-room basis, and manage it.
It’s a perfectly legal business model used by plenty of legitimate landlords who want a more hands-off approach, and for many there are few issues – especially if they are dealing with property management companies or local authorities.
But sometimes the “agent” is simply a person who has set up a limited company – something that can be done in hours by almost anyone.
These companies can dissolve and pop up again at will, putting tenants in a position where they can struggle to get issues resolved and could be evicted at a moment’s notice.
Operating in a shadowy and largely unregulated part of the private rental sector, charities told i they have seen examples of this type of scam going on for years.
Rent-to-rent set-ups can make it “extremely easy for people who want to evade their liabilities and take advantage of people – they can do it like taking candy from a baby,” Safer Renting’s head of service Roz Spencer said.
“It’s a playground for people who are beginner criminals, right up to very organised criminals who can do it.”
Tenants have reported having the locks changed on their home while they’re out, threats and intimidation, having their belongings withheld from them while some are living in dangerously overcrowded and unlicensed homes, according to London-based housing law advocacy service Safer Renting.
Meanwhile, some unwitting landlords caught up in rent-to-rent scams have faced prosecution after being unaware their property was being rented out illegally by another party.
Dan Wilson-Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, added: “Because it’s so easy to set up a company, it’s basically quite easy for a criminal landlord or letting agent to set up another company and rent out illicitly.
“If they get into trouble they can just dissolve the company and disappear, leaving the tenants potentially facing eviction.”
Safer Renting says “chains” of landlords and agents can be made to obscure who the real controller of the property is, and in some cases fake names might be used.
Without tenants being able to demonstrate who committed an offence, it is almost impossible for them to get any compensation.
‘I’m not sure who to bring my legal case against’
Nicholas is one such person who says he has been affected by this type of scam. He has been living in temporary accommodation for about a year after he was evicted from his home.
He had been struggling to pay his rent after losing his job in October 2022. At the time he was dealing with “stress” and “personal issues”.
Nicholas admits he was in rent arrears and in March 2023 he was issued with a notice of eviction. While this was legal, he says at this point he began experiencing “passive aggressive behaviour” and “intimidation”.
Letters were placed on every door inside the property and eventually the locks were changed while Nicholas was out.
He was told his belongings had been put in storage, and that he would need to both pay back his rent arrears and pay storage fees to get anything back.
He believes these actions were not legal. According to Citizens Advice, bailiffs need to be present and the landlord needs to obtain a court order.
“They were holding and are still holding my belongings to ransom,” Nicholas said. “Within those items are things which carry a lot of sentimental value.”
He said he has not heard from the company since November 2023, and he’s not sure whether his items are still in storage or whether they have been destroyed or donated.
He is now bringing a legal case for damages, illegal eviction and withholding belongings – but he is not sure who exactly he is up against.
Nicholas said his landlord’s agent had signed the tenancy agreement, but he appeared to be paying rent to a management company, and another company was also involved in storing his belongings.
‘Black hole of data’ on this type of scam
Little data is available on how widespread rent-to-rent scams are. Safer Renting says in the past five years, about 15 per cent of cases it worked on were likely to be rent-to-rent scams.
But Roz Spencer said there is a “big black hole of data” about what is going on in the private rental sector.
Many of those caught up in these scams are also thought to be non-native English speakers and those in vulnerable positions who may be less likely to come forward.
In some cases, the landlord and agent may be working together – but in other cases, the landlord is unaware of what’s going on.
Chris Norris, policy and campaigns director of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “We do find landlords who are prosecuted for not having licences because they let a property thinking it was a single let.
“The rent-to-rent company divided it into an HMO (house in multiple occupancy), which are regulated differently, and the landlord didn’t know they had to apply for a licence because all of a sudden there were five people living in that house when it should have been two people.”
He said individual agents are by far the most risky for landlords to do business with because they may not tell the landlord what they’re doing.
“People who rent out blatantly substandard property, people who are involved in these get-rich-quick style schemes around rent-to-rent, all of that knocks the reputation of good landlords out there who want to provide good-quality accommodation,” he said.
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