I have a potential tenant who wants to pay 6 months in advance and my spidey senses are tingling.
He says he's been working in Switzerland (has swiss phone number) and is returning to UK to retire and wants to live where the flat is.
When I asked for a landlord / work reference he says he's retired and currently lives with his brother.
There is lots of demand for the flat, so I'm not overly bothered about turning him down, but I'd like to understand what if any the scam is.
whaddya think?
Hard pass from me.
Might not be a scam. We have done that before. We had sold up, went climbing around Europe for 6months, came back and wanted to rent in a different city. No jobs yet, so offered 6months up front. All accepted, then we got jobs, and all fine.
The question I'd be asking is "how?" Cold hard cash or some form of reversible transfer?
Had an American tenant who offered that - said there was no benefit for us. I’d still want a credit check, and he should still surely be able to get done references from Switzerland (if he’s been working and living there). It msy just be an attempt to secure the flat if there’s a lot of competition though.
Should not matter how the money is paid I would have thought. Once it clears, it clears. We paid by bacs and once it cleared, we got the keys and moved in. The whole thing was pretty speedy. Then emptied our storage unit the following day and job done.
We've done it in the past, as a way of securing the flat (well, house in our case).
"I know you have a lot of interest, we can pay six months up front" is a perfectly reasonable way of moving yourself up the acceptance list.
some form of reversible transfer?
There's no such thing, really, assuming the money actually hits your bank account and doesn't sit in a Paypal/Western Union/whatever 'account'. If it's cleared funds in your bank account, no-one can take it out without your permission
When I divorced I went travelling for a year, staying in hotels and AirBnB's and sofa surfing. Was difficult for me to get references for this period when I came back to the UK. I also offered to pay the 12 month contract in advance, but via bank transfer not cash.
I wasn't on the electoral roll for this time so made credit reports look bad.
Hmmm, just checking. Is it broken/delayed again... time for ref 1456
6 months' rent is probably equivalent to 1 week's rent in Switzerland, he probably considers it cheap 😁
Sounds reasonable as others have said above. He's probably house hunting in the area (unless "wants to live where the flat is" means the actual flat itself).
I live in Switzerland now -- massive deposits are standard here (like 3-4 moths rent) and rent is double UK prices, so it doesn't seem implausible that this is just a Swiss person offering the same amount of cash to a landlord as they would over here
Friends of mine live in Switzerland half the year (ski town) and have to pay for the first month up front plus 3 months worth of security deposit, so as others have said it's probably not as scammy as you think. Maybe do a video chat with them to explain your hesitation and see what kind of vibe you get from them? Plus check their references and then make your decision.
might also be a business expense that he needs to log in a specific year.?
These are the risks when you are a landlord and want to raclette out a property.*
*apologies, it was either that or “he must be Lindted to be able to afford that”
There's no such thing, really, assuming the money actually hits your bank account and doesn't sit in a Paypal/Western Union/whatever 'account'.
There is a reason that scammers offer payment via Western Union or send a "representative."
I ve had tenants pay 6 months in advance, usually when they would not pass credit referencing. As long as there's a genuine checkable reason I would not be concerned.
Thanks all, I'll have a think, but it sounds more reasonable. I'll follow up with ID checks etc.
Over the last few years I’ve rented property to people that have relocated to the U.K. and due to cultural differences and a lack of financial history in the U.K. they’ve offered 12 months rent in advance.
Everything went well, no scams and the tenants moved on after the contract expired.
Maybe it's just what he's used to? I was asked to pay 6 months deposit for my current place, because I had no reference (as I'd not been renting previously). I got the impression it's becoming more and more common as the housing market gets more and more ****ed
How much money are we talking? Anti money laundering regulations would require letting agents to verify the identity of the prospective tenant and check the source of the funds above a certain threshold. Not sure whether it also applies to private landlords, but paying several months up front would certainly raise questions for me.
I'm not quite sure how you launder money through a rental property (some sort of sublet thing?) but the rules are presumably there for a reason.
The odd thing here is anyone choosing to move from Switzerland to UK. Who in their right mind would do that?
The rules are performative, but they obviously convinced at least one person that Something was being Done 🙂
I'm not suggesting the AML rules are effective, simply that they suggest there is money laundering activity in the rental market, and that it might offer one explanation for the OP's prospective overseas tenant offering vastly more money up front than he actually needs to.
I've had tenants pay 6 months in advance, usually when they would not pass credit referencing.
When i moved to Sweden, my GF failed her credit check due to insufficient current tax records in Sweden (well durrr), the four years of salary/payslips etc from the UK didn't count. We either had to pay 6 months up front or (what we did in the end) got a guarantor.
Maybe it's just what he's used to?
Had this when i sold a house, the offer was a really weird amount, like £39912 (it was a while ago). Turns out where the guy came from there was a hard limit on mortgages, exactly 3 times your pay. So that's exactly what he offered. Turned out that he hadn't even been to see a mortgage advisor/bank and was just going to viewings with several estate agents and offering £39912 to anything that was on the market between about 40 and 50k.
my student son was offered “pay 6 months up front or get a guarantor”. That is for a nice flat that wouldn’t normally be let to students, we knew the landlord but still the agency wanted that because he wouldn’t meet their criteria for approval.Maybe it's just what he's used to? I was asked to pay 6 months deposit for my current place, because I had no reference (as I'd not been renting previously). I got the impression it's becoming more and more common as the housing market gets more and more ****ed
Well I now have a scan of his passport and I'm a little more relaxed about it.
Just need to have a conversation with him during the viewing.
We're about to rent our house out, and someone has offered 6 months up front too. Chinese national but relocating within the UK. Seems a better idea than them paying for a guarantor (insurance) service if they don't know anyone well enough to be a guarantor
I'm not quite sure how you launder money through a rental property
Wrong'uns have money they need to obfuscate as much as possible, so they buy a property with dodgy money (sometimes via a shell company), then 'rent it out' to 'someone' (maybe a another shell company) who pays their rent in more dodgy money. The rental money is then slightly cleaner as it's passed through a couple of companies and you can keep paying/laundering rental money for quite while. Eventually you sell the property itself and, hey presto, the dodgy funds that bought that have also been spruced up a bit.
Well that's what I do anyway 🙂
The odd thing here is anyone choosing to move from Switzerland to UK. Who in their right mind would do that?
Someone not wanting to spend six months' rent on a month's rent? 😁
If it's cleared funds in your bank account, no-one can take it out without your permission
this isn't true. There are certainly fraudulant circumstances where reversals have happened in the past.
There are certainly fraudulant circumstances where reversals have happened in the past.
I'm not saying it never happens but it is vanishingly rare, and at the very least would not happen without your knowledge if it was your account. The money wouldn't just disappear out again.
If Bank A puts money in an account at Bank B, and it turns out that it was a fraudulent transaction (i.e. that the owner of the account at Bank A had been hacked/scammed or similar), they would be refunded by Bank A, who would write it off as their fraud loss. It is very, very unlikely that the money would be taken out of the account at Bank B unless a court got involved.
