Life Lesson: Don't Sublet from Students!

SuperSuze

Recently, I decided to rent a sub-letted student property for two months over the summer whilst I found another property in the area that I liked. However, things have gone rather wrong!

After viewing (and liking) the property, I was emailed an Assured Shorthold Tenancy - Fixed Term. This I printed, read, signed and returned electronically to the student. No returned copy was received. This should have been a clue.

Following this, I transferred the deposit and first month's rent as requested to their bank account with a reference of "rental payment". However, when I arranged to collect the keys @ property there was no response to my loud knocking.

Feeling worried, I texted the student in question who claimed her housemate would let me in. It didn't happen (and I waited for 20 minutes.) Following this I called her and she promised a full repayment of my rental deposit and rent. :money:
However, two days passed without a refund. She then changed her mind saying she would accept a mutual surrender of the tenancy but would be keeping the money until (and IF) she found a new tenant to replace me. She has also just deleted her profile from spareroom.co.uk which is how I initially found the advert.

I saved hard for this money and cannot afford to loose it, especially given I have not been able to collect any keys! :mad:

What is my best course of action?

Pixie5740

Track the rat bag down and take her to small claims court. It won't get your money back immediately though.

G_M

So is this the tail end of a 12 month tenancy the students have? ie their term has finished, they are going hoe/on holiday, but still have the tenancy over the summer?

Or is it the start of a tenancy for them. ie they will be noving in in Sept/October for their next year at uni.....?

If the latter, finding them will be easy next autumn. If the former......

Bogalot

Are you even sure that the person you paid lived at the address?

This sounds like the classic Gumtree scam to me, just that they've moved on to other websites now.

Owain_Moneysaver

Sounds like fraud to me. Contact your local police station.

TBagpuss

I agree, this sounds like a scam rather than it being due to the individual being a student.

You could try contacting the people at the address to find out whether the scammer actually lives there at all. If they do, then you can sue them via the small claims court.
If they don't, you can report it to the police as theft / fraud, and can still pursue her via the small claims court if you can locate her, but it is likely to be more difficult.

david1951

You need to track down the person who showed you round. Get the landlord's details from the land registry and make enquiries.

Contact the police immediately, but you might need to do the legwork yourself.

Was the email address a university address? If so contact the university although you might need to involve the police to get their details.

Good luck. This is certainly a life lesson for you as you say...

Cakeguts

Contact the landlord. The landlord needs to know if present occupiers are allowing people into the property. If you have viewed it then someone must have had access to show you the property. Who showed you round? You also need to find out who is supposed to be living there now. This might take a lot to unravel but only by doing this will you be able to find out if you have been a victim of fraud.

19lottie82

I don't see what this has to do with subletting from "a student"?
It sounds like you were scanned, plain and simple. In fact I doubt this person even was a student!

zarf2007

19lottie82 wrote: »

I don't see what this has to do with subletting from "a student"?
It sounds like you were scanned, plain and simple. In fact I doubt this person even was a student!

was it a 20 week scan? and if so when is the baby due?

pinkshoes

You need to start doing some research.

One the positive side, you actually viewed the house, so the person had access to it, so might be traceable!

Do you have the name of this person who showed you around? Can you find them on facebook? Have you found out who genuinely lives at the house? (192.com or find owner on the land registry)

Who else was at the house when you looked round? If someone else was there, did they know the person who showed you round?

If they are genuinely a student, then contact their university, as they do not look favourly on this sort of thing.