The Ultimate Guide: Protection From Rental Scams In Canada

Don’t be the person who gets caught up in rental scams that are popping up all over Canada.

If a rental property sounds too good to be true, it is as discussed below as it happened to Mrs. CBB.

Today, I’m talking about rental scams and how you can avoid them by protecting yourself.

Protecting Yourself Rental Scams

The best way to protect yourself from rental scams is to meet face to face.

It’s equally important to be aware of red flags that fraudsters dangle at unsuspecting renters.

If you value the money you work hard for (I know you do) and want to protect yourself from perplexing rental scams, it’s time to get informed.

One of the worst decisions we can make is signing something we don’t know anything about.

The days of searching for a vacancy rental via print media are far less than 20 years since most people use the internet for rental property listings.

Even though word of mouth is top-notch in the rental community, you must keep your guard up even then.

Everyone should know that letting your guard down when doing business online may come back to haunt you.

Parents, if you have a young adult new to the rental scene, pass along this vital information about rental scams to protect them.

Most often, students moving away from universities and colleges looking for student housing get stung, along with those who post wanted ads on social media or websites like Kijiji.

Mrs. CBB got caught up in a rental scam, which I will discuss further.

Rental Scams Exposed

What are rental scams?

Rental scams are about making money from unsuspecting renters who do little to no homework on the property, property company, or landlord.

This means those who walk in blind to a rental agreement might find that you just sent money to rental scammers who took you for a ride. Don’t be this person.

Most often, the person the renter is in contact with has no claim to the property being offered to rent.

When you visit the rental property and see tenants currently renting, take that opportunity to ask them questions.

You may want to ask your landlord for a few minutes alone with the current tenants if they can speak with you.

1. Introduce the landlord by saying, “Bob/Sally is taking us on a tour of the apartment, room, and house, so I hope we don’t bother you or inconvenience you.” This is only to get the landlord’s name across and see if you get any reaction from the current tenant. You will know if they have given you fake names, or you can privately ask the recent tenant questions.
2. Is the building or property maintained?
3. How is the landlord to communicate with?
4. Costs for utilities each month? This is to make sure what the landlord tells you and what is are the same.
5. Are there any concerns I need to know about? Should I walk away?
6. Is the apartment, room, or building quiet?

Come up with questions you want answers to, and if they can’t provide them to you, walk away.

Understanding A Lease Agreement

What is a lease or tenancy agreement?

Whether you are a first-time renter or not, it’s crucial to understand a lease or tenancy agreement before you sign on the dotted line.

Too often, we put faith in those we hand our money to without doing our homework.

A lease (also called a tenancy agreement) is a legal contract between a landlord and tenant, in which the tenant agrees to pay rent to live in a rental unit provided by the landlord.

It can be written or verbal and may also reference services and facilities that are included in the rent (such as utilities or parking), plus any rules tenants are required to follow. Source: Standard Lease Template

Consultation by the Ontario Ministry of Housing has ended on what seems to be a Standard Lease Template for Landlords and tenants to use when entering a rental agreement.

This is excellent news because there are so many leases that people don’t understand, resulting in far too many rental disputes.

Like many, I agree that the lease agreement must include simple terms and be modified as the ministry needs.

When and If the standard lease template is released, it may help control rental scams.

The standard lease template will have four sections:

A. Mandatory information
B. Additional information
C. Optional terms
D. Rights, responsibilities and prohibited conditions

Rental Scams Affect Everyone

Whether you’re looking for student housing, room rentals, basement rental, apartment rental, and so on, you must be on high alert for rental scams.

Most people fail to recognize that rental scams affect everyone directly involved because it takes up time to deal with something that shouldn’t be happening.

It may even cost them out-of-pocket to hire a lawyer or deal with scam situations.

Before you say yes to renting, do some basic research and Google the apartment or house you plan to rent.

Don’t hesitate to Google the landlord’s or business name for online reviews.

You might be shocked to find information about your potential landlord, especially if he’s not the property owner and has scammed others.

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is, even when renting. If you have a budget of $500 to rent a room and know that the going rate is $500 and you’re offered a room rental for $200, take that as a red flag.

It may not be, but certainly, do some digging.

Knowing the current market value for renting is a sure way to know you are getting what you pay.

Sample Rental Scams Reply

Below is a sample rental scam reply I found at Rentboard.ca, where you can find even more samples and tips on rental scams in Canada.

Although you will read that the email targets the USA, this sample may be very similar to those in Canada.

The idea is to understand what a scam email and a real one look like. If it’s real, then meet in person, full-stop.

Deal with your local real estate market, and if you must rent blindly, at least find someone in the area you trust (family or friend) who can do a rental visit with the landlord and yourself via Skype.

Hello,

Thanks for your email and interest in my property,my name is Jhirmaine while my wife’s name is Josphine,i work as a Paralegal Assistant for the United States Government.

I just moved down to the States with my family for about two months now and we will be staying here in Kentucky while my wife works as a nurse here as well.

We love it here and hope to settle down here in the nearest future.we came here to the States with the keys and documents of the property because we never intended to rent out the property, but we thought about our property being unused will cause lots of damage to it, so we decided to rent it out to someone capable of taking care of it while we are away.

All we care about is someone to take very good care of it with passion of it being it’s own.

A colleague of mine introduced me to this internet site of advertisement.

I want to be convinced you are capable enough to taking care of our property for us?

We don’t want it to be used anyhow,i want you to get back to me on how you will be taking care of the place or perhaps the experience you have in your previous places of living or lived.

I want you to note that all utilities are included in the rent.I look forward to hearing from you so that i can forward you a rental application form if you are interested in renting our place.

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon.

This one below is a rental scam email from Kijiji Canada

Typically, fraudsters will attempt to organize a transaction that is not face-to-face.

The following is an example of a common reply you might receive:

Horrible sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and obvious red flags are present in this email.

“Dear Tenant to be, I got your mail and Thanks for your interest in my Home for rent, i work with adastra corporation (www.adastragrp.com), we specialize in Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, and Master Data Management solutions, we have branches in Bratislava, Ostrava, Sofia, Frankfurt, Germany, France, Spain, Canada, Africa and our headquarter is located in Canada, I was recently transferred to the company’s new branch in Nigeria so am here in (West Africa) with my family and i must say, Africa has being a great place to live am settled here with my family and work has being so good over here.

I intend selling the place but my wife and lawyer convinced me not to sell it so we are looking for a responsible person to rent our home while will stay in Africa. we are with the keys and the necessary documentation of our house here in Africa because the last agent we registered with almost sold all our property in our home so please note that you wont be able to view the inside of our home until we send the keys and documents to you but you can go and view the outside or drive-by. the monthly rent includes the utilities.

So please, if you are interested in renting our home, i want you to fill out the application form below.

Property Ownership Verification

How do you verify the owner of a rental property?

I suppose renting from a corporate rental business or management company would be your best bet to avoid rental scams, but even then, make sure you meet in person at the building.

Don’t hesitate to ask for references from current or past renters where you plan to move.

If they say they don’t have any, walk away.

Visiting the property with the owner, which includes touring the inside of the house, just not the outside, is critical.

They likely wouldn’t be in the place if they did not own it.

There must also be an office number, business card, or address that you can visit to verify who the landlord or property owner is.

You might even take your info to your local City Hall to see if they can give you any information about renting and legitimate rental property owners in the city.

Related: Rental Housing Enforcement Unit Ontario

Lastly, don’t be shy to ask on social media if anyone in the city you plan to move into has lived at a particular apartment building and for feedback.

You might struggle with house rentals in this manner, but take any avenue before jumping in to sign a fake lease that doesn’t exist.

Rental Scams – Red Flags

Every day, new types of scams grab media attention, and for the most part, they are fundamental in form but highly successful because unsuspecting people fall into the worst kind of scam: email scams.

• Renting without seeing the apartment or house
• Fast action required to rent
• A lease is only oral
• No lease or rental agreement is offered
• Says that No lease or rental agreement is needed.
• Chatting with current tenants is not available or not required.
• Fees include paperwork, rental clean-up, background checks, etc.
• Pushy or Convincing, painting the best picture and telling you why you must rent.
• Send money first; see the apartment later.
• High Security/Damage Deposit.
• Rental deposit to hold a rental or one that is very expensive.
• Asks for Cash only, wire transfers, and e-transfers.
• They can’t meet you in person or always have excuses.
• No interest in your background- ex: where you work, current residence, full name, etc.
• Too good to be proper rental terms and monthly costs.
• Unable to provide company information or build contacts.
• They can’t tell you much about the city you are renting or the area where the rental is.
• It is a fully furnished advertisement, but the rental is empty,
• Online scam alerts or bad reviews.

Reduce the Risk Of Rental Scams

In 2005, Mrs. CBB was looking for a place to call home after selling her house.

Instead of purchasing a new home, she wanted to see what the market was doing, so she opted to rent.

At this point, she was also back in school and wanted to focus on her education without the added responsibility of home ownership.

After posting an ad on Kijiji, many landlords contacted her with rental offers.

Fair enough, she thought as they did respond to her online ad.

The first so-called ‘Landlord’ she was in contact with over the phone and via email turned out to be one of many rental scams that are still hot today on the scam lists in Ontario.

Whoever she spoke with via telephone called her, pressured her, and told her that the house was empty and he was out of town.

He said that she could go and look at the house from the outside and take a peek in the window if she wanted to.

He hoped she would say no or not bother, but she did.

At least she was wise not to send money to him via a wire transfer because she had investigated.

She arrived at the property, which just happened to be around the corner from the house she had just sold.

A short 5-minute walk to see this rental dream was a “House for Sale” with an agent sign in clear view.

This was a rental scam, so she walked back home and called the realtor immediately to let her know what was happening.

It turns out that the gentleman on the phone was not the house owner and had no right to rent or lease the property.

Rental Scams In Canadian News

• Young Families Fall Prey To Hamilton Rental Scam
• Police warn of property rental fraud
• Toronto Police yet to interview man about Rental Fraud
• Man charged in an alleged online rental scam
• Two men wanted for an alleged Toronto Kijiji Condo rental scam
• Women victimized by an online rental scam
• OPP warn of house rental scam in Kemptville, Ontario

Reporting Rental Scams

Who should you report rental scams to?

Report online scams immediately if you or someone you know is caught up in one by contacting them.

• Police
• Property Owner/Real Estate Agent
• An online source where an ad was found ex, Kijiji, reported a scam
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre By Phone Toll-Free 1-888-495-8501
• Anyone associated with you renting (social assistance, disability to tell them)

Some people intentionally make a fake lease and set out to commit credit card fraud, wire transfer fraud, or cash fraud, all of which you won’t see the money again.

You must be the first line of protection regarding your money and putting a roof over your head.

It may seem overwhelming, but imagine the pain it will cause to know your money is gone for good!

Think about that for a moment.

Discussion: Have you ever been caught up in a rental scam and have other tips to add to the above? Please share your comments below in the comment section.

Mr.CBB

Saturday Weekend Review- CBB At Home

Not much has changed at home with my FIL, as he’s just waiting and enjoying the days he has left.

We’re making that as comfortable as possible by getting whatever he needs.

I had a meeting this week where they fed me at work, and it was SO GOOD.

Who doesn’t like FREE food?

I’m part of an association that meets once a month at fancy clubs in the area starting this year.

I like experiencing stuff I would not otherwise pay for when it’s free.

Other than that, I haven’t had a chance to work on renovations, but there is no rush for that when family comes first.

That’s all from me, and although it may be uninteresting, it has been eye-opening. Life IS too short.

Mr.CBB

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She told me that just before her grandfather passed away in the hospital, he leaned over and told her never to stop learning.

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Every week, I get tens of thousands of people visiting Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. (SIC)

This means I’ve copied the text exactly, but it has spelling errors.

Most times funny, Sometimes serious.

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