Expats renting out their homes through an online letting portal are falling victims to scammers subletting their properties.
AirBnB is a popular online letting site for short and long term lets for homes all over the world.
However, fraudsters are cashing in on the site by letting a home for a weekend and then advertising the property to let on other web sites.
They then hand the keys over to an unwitting tenant who has paid a substantial deposit.
Expats are then discovering a queue of tenants at their door demanding access for long-term lets or that a tenant has moved in.
Trashed homes
In some cases, several tenants have handed over deposits of £1,500 or more to the bogus landlord who has fled with the cash.
One scam landlord victim with a luxury flat in Kensington, London, had five tenants who lost £8,500 in deposits to fraudsters who let the property for four days and then advertised the property on web site spareroom.co.uk.
Another landlord in New York let an apartment through AirBnB only to find the family she thought were renting the home for a stay in the city turned out to be party organisers who trashed the property, leaving a repair bill of almost £1,500.
Others have had valuables stolen and tenants claiming squatting rights.
AirBnB explained they are investigating how to screen would-be tenants better.
“Our web site has handled lettings for more than 20 million guests and very few are not good experiences for the guests and landlords.
Tenants fleeced
“We ban guests involved in abuse of our site and have not had these problems in the past.”
However, banned guests can easily set up a new account from a different computer address under a false name and carry on fleecing potential tenants.
Many AirBnB landlords also discover their standard home insurance does not cover any claim for damages if they are renting out their home. They are then left out of pocket for paying for any repairs.
In the UK, landlords letting for six months or more also need to protect deposits in an approved scheme and will soon have to check their tenants have a right to live in the UK before agreeing a tenancy.
No official landlord checking service is available in the UK. Besides paying for a copy of the properties title from the Land Registry, any other inquiry is likely to draw a blank.
