Letting specialist Patterson Bowe has warned landlords about the increasing number of sub-letting scams and has offered tips on ways to avoid them.
The specialist is responding to the recent enquiries about anti-scam protection coming from customers who had discovered their properties had been sub-let without their knowledge.
Patterson Bowe advises all landlords to ensure rigorous due diligence and formal background checks are carried out on tenants before signing contracts.
Stuart Patterson, owner and managing director of the estate agency, says:
“An undersupply and increased demand in the current market has left room for certain tenants to bend the rules where they can. We have been contacted by both landlords and tenants looking for advice because they have fallen victim to these scams, particularly illegally sub-letting property throughout Prime Central London. Often these are short term tenants who are here from overseas and searching online for temporary accommodation without appropriate knowledge or advice.
“A quality Letting Agent will not only have an awareness of these kind of practices, but will also be able to provide sound advice to clients on how to avoid them. Our years of experience have taught us that relying on computerised reference checks alone is not enough to ensure the quality and reliability of tenants. Once we have conducted the usual online checks we also meet each tenant in person to retain in depth background information from them and build a detailed and reliable profile for our clients.”
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