Landlords-Are You Victims of Identity Fraud?

Latest Landlord News by: Madalena Penny

A tenant was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment last week for fraudulently selling his landlords properties.

Conman, Trevor Jones posed as his landlord. Keith Ferguson, The 60-year-old tenant then signed transfer deeds in his landlord’s name then used Mr. Ferguson’s driving license to obtain the funds raised through the sale of 2 properties owned by his landlord.

Although the tenant-landlord relationship between Trevor Jones and Keith Ferguson is somewhat unclear, with Mr. Jones claiming that he had agreed to take over mortgage payments on the property, never the less, how did the tenant have access to his landlord’s driving license?  And more surprisingly, landlord, Keith Ferguson only found out about the deception three years down the line after both properties had been sold.

Even the solicitors handling the sales were fooled by the conman’s scam, revealing how easy it is for tenants with deception in mind to pull off such elaborate hoaxes.

Fortunately, cases like this are in the minority, but still remain a significant number reminding the lettings market the importance of applying correct tenant referencing and relevant landlord awareness.

Astonishingly, there are still landlords who through naivety leave themselves vulnerable to identity theft, criminal damage, debt and rent arrears.  Usually, oversights of this kind are mainly made by accidental landlords (homeowners who are renting out their own homes while they themselves move elsewhere).

As a main provider of tenant referencing, Legal 4 Landlords have revealed a number of landlord oversights that have left landlords rendered victims to such crimes such as;

  • One landlord left a box full of personal data in their loft including, old passports, bank statements and even the deeds to her mother’s house;
  • Landlords that do not notify utility providers informing them that they have vacated the address and that it will be occupied by a new tenant.  As a result, bills have been ran up in the landlords name and are often not brought to the landlords attention until the tenant has moved on.
  • Landlords who do not have their mail re-directed, leaving themselves vulnerable to identity theft.
  • Landlords who do not notify the electoral register that they have moved, making it easy for scammers to obtain credit or goods in the landlords name.
  • Accepting 6-months rent in advance, without applying strict tenant referencing and checks, then finding their property has been used as a cannabis factory resulting in thousand of pounds worth of repairs and costly electricity bills.

Legal 4 Landlords advises anyone letting a property should remain vigilant and adopt a sensible approach to renting and tenant reference checks.