Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa December - January 2014 | Page 28

LETTING

BY JOHN ROBERTS
Seeing an advertisement for dramatically reduced
rentals may signal a fly-by-night agent reaching out to
the heart and not the head in the hopes you will not
think too deeply beyond securing a cheap holiday.

Holidays
Are Here

Beware the letting scammers

S

chool is out, work deadlines have been
overcome and the time arrived for that longawaited, diligently-earned summer holiday.

whose sole purpose is to lure you into paying a
deposit on a property or holiday accommodation
for which they have no mandate.

The horror then is arriving at the holiday home, paid
for in advance to a seemingly legitimate agent, only
to find another family has the right to be there. Your
money and the supposed agent have long disappeared.

After that money hits their bank account, there is
no hearing from them again.

Media reports abounded last Christmas
about people scammed out of their holiday
accommodation. On arrival they found either the
property was not what they had been led to believe or
other people were staying there and they were out of
pocket and accommodation.
Unfortunately it is symbolic of people’s gullibility
on money matters. In a fast-moving consumer
environment where social media has shortened
response times and broadened international exposure,
it has also made people more susceptible to scams
operated by unsavoury individuals.
Society is bombarded with “get rich quick” schemes
via their cellular telephones or from rich foreigners
wanting assistance in bringing their funds into the
country. The property industry is not immune to these
cases with the more resourceful schemes operated by
fly-by-night letting agents - the same ones who secure
your money for a holiday house they actually have no
rights to let out.
Fly-by-night agents are most likely ones you will
never meet; whose offices you have never visited and
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Typically these agents lure unsuspecting clients
by falsely advertising holiday accommodation via
the Internet. They claim to be acting on the behalf
of the owner and, because going on holiday means
getting away from home, the chances are the
property is not around the corner for you to check
or to contact the owner directly.
Some warning signs that the arrangement may
not be legitimate is if most of the communication
is done electronically to a generic address like
Google Mail or via a cellular telephone number. A
landline number gives you a physical address, while
a cellular telephone used in this instance is probably
pre-paid and dumped.
The adage that if something is too good to be true,
it probably is, holds merit too.
While consumers are increasingly more savvy and
know what they want, typically at what price, there
needs to be a measure of reality - head over heart.
Holiday season rentals are more expensive than
out-of-season rates and consumers need to be
aware of what would be a realistic daily price asked
for the property.
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