# Interested tenant by email



## Angrygirl (14 Apr 2008)

Can anyone offer advise to my latest question please??

I have advertised my apartement on the net and I have a few people from Sweeden and USA interested. They want to take the apartment and are willin to post cheque for deposit etc

Has anyone had any experiences of renting this way - good or bad??

Thanks


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## landlord (14 Apr 2008)

Angrygirl said:


> Can anyone offer advise to my latest question please??
> 
> I have advertised my apartement on the net and I have a few people from Sweeden and USA interested. They want to take the apartment and are willin to post cheque for deposit etc
> 
> ...



Yep.....99.9% certain its a con job....No doubt they are willing to post you a cheque that covers more than the first months rent and the holding deposit.  The excess money they will ask you to wire by Western Union to their account. Of course their cheque will bounce, but by the time you are told that by your bank it will be too late and you would have sent them the money......well at least thats what they are hoping for.   Never ever rent to anyone without meeting them in peson !!!! This con has recently hit the daft website as I have discovered !! I forwarded on the emails to the daft team. What was funny was they asked for my name and address to send the cheque to and I gave them ....Name - "Ima-gulble-twat"  Address - Garda Siochana Hardcourt Street Dublin.
Not speaking very good english they didnt cop on and sent out the cheque twice to that name/address......ha ha ha.


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## Angrygirl (14 Apr 2008)

I'm having such a nightmare.. had to evict current tenant for non payment of rent... thought it was too good to be true..
Thanks for advice


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## landlord (14 Apr 2008)

Angrygirl said:


> I'm having such a nightmare.. had to evict current tenant for non payment of rent... thought it was too good to be true..
> Thanks for advice


just curious which area you are in. I am finding it difficult to rent in swords at the moment. I am having to reduce rents and accept longer vacant periods.


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## Whiskey (14 Apr 2008)

You can't be conned - just ask for 1 months deposit and 1 months rent in advance, and wait until the money is in your account.

You should ask for an IBAN bank transfer, cheques are very 20th century, they should wire the money electronically from their account to yours. It takes between 1 and 3 days for the funds to hit your account once the transfer has been actioned

Anyone naive enough to wire money to someone they havent met could well be genuine.

Obviously find out why they are coming to Ireland, are they professional people, where will they be working, do as many checks as you can, speak to them too on the phone.

With a little common sense and due diligence, you are not taking a big risk by accepting people by e-mail.

Nothing is certain, the word certain should be deleted from the dictionary. The only certainty I can think of is that in 5 or 10 billion years, the sun will get a lot hotter, as it approaches the end of its life. All the seas and oceans will evaporate. Sometime after that, the sun will burn out, and then whatever humans are left on the earth will not be worried about finding new tenants (probably).


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## mathepac (14 Apr 2008)

Whiskey said:


> You can't be conned - just ask for 1 months deposit and 1 months rent in advance, and wait until the money is in your account.
> 
> You should ask for an IBAN bank transfer, cheques are very 20th century, they should wire the money electronically from their account to yours. It takes between 1 and 3 days for the funds to hit your account once the transfer has been actioned
> 
> ...


The approach via email OP has had to rent her property has all the hall-marks of a scam, that a certainty.

Accepting and depositing a cheque on foot of such a communication and sending the change via Western Union is irresponsible, thats a certainty.

Waffle about what might or might not happen in 5 or 10 billion years time is waffle, thats a certainty, and the waffle is TOT, thats also a certainty.


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## Whiskey (14 Apr 2008)

Angrygirl didn't say anything about people asking for a refund.

That was just speculation from Landlord. 
Landlord is 99.9% sure its a scam, only a 1 in a thousand chance that the people might be genuine. I think Landlord is overstating the likelyhood that it might be a scam.

Angrygirl should accept, but only if they wire the money to her account. (no cheques)

As a matter of interest, I once accepted some Spanish students to rent my house on the basis of an e-mail. I gave them my bank account number, they deposited equivalent of 2 months rent into my account the next day.

They were very happy, so was I, I was covered, they came straight from the airport to the house, it was a good arrangement for both of us.


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## mercman (14 Apr 2008)

There are also groups of hookers spinning around Dublin looking for apartments  to conduct their business from. Depending on the profile of the property, you should be able to get some type of reference if you are even going to consider any tenant.


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## Westgolf (14 Apr 2008)

In my humble opinion whilst email is great for convenience you can't beat a face to face meeting to get a measure of a prospective tenant.

Westgolf


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## Bubbly Scot (15 Apr 2008)

I rented (tenant) a few years ago via email and it worked brilliantly. There are people out there to scam you, certainly, but my new landlord and I put a bit of faith in each other and it worked out well. In fact the house has since been let via distance letting. The only thing I would point out is that if your tenant hasn't seen the house they might use it as base only til they find something else, so the turnover of tenants might be a tad higher.


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## Angrygirl (15 Apr 2008)

The lady in question is contacting me from sweeden, she sounds quite genuine, she is a professional and she has told me quite alot about her.. she is also willing to send on a photo so i know who i am renting too..

A couple of posts have said to get the money wired into my account, is this not risky giving her my bank details???

My apartment is in Monasterevin, co Kildare


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## bugler (15 Apr 2008)

It's not dodgy to give them your account details per se - otherwise all landlords would be at risk. Landlord outlined the possible scam in his first post. If they're willing to transfer the money to your account then you've nothing to be suspicious about. If they're messing about with cheques and excess amounts then walk away!

There's still no reason they can't provide references for you to check, so I don't see why this has to work much differently than someone in the country currently who rings you up.


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## Angrygirl (15 Apr 2008)

She is willing to send the cheque now and she is not coming to Ireland until the first week in May so it will have time to clear...

If anything I thought she is taking a big risk too as i could be scamming her by taking her money and not renting the apartement to her..
I am quite a trusting person but my last tenant has really made me suspicous of everyone now, i don't know who to trust anymore!!!


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## landlord (15 Apr 2008)

Angrygirl said:


> She is willing to send the cheque now and she is not coming to Ireland until the first week in May so it will have time to clear...
> 
> If anything I thought she is taking a big risk too as i could be scamming her by taking her money and not renting the apartement to her..
> I am quite a trusting person but my last tenant has really made me suspicous of everyone now, i don't know who to trust anymore!!!



I would be suspicious too !!! Why would someone send a cheque (unless it was going to bounce to someone they have never met !, but if Landlords have had genuine experiences of letting succesfully this way, then as long as you are aware of the risks give it a go.  Just double double check that all cheques or intenet transfers have definately cleared. Still if you are not getting any response on Daft at this stage you need to consider lowering the rent !!


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## purpeller (15 Apr 2008)

Angrygirl said:


> She is willing to send the cheque now and she is not coming to Ireland until the first week in May so it will have time to clear...



Just to point out that they don't use the Euro in Sweden so either her cheque will be foreign currency (which can take up to 10 working days to clear) or she's sending a Euro bank draft, which will clear straight away.


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## mathepac (15 Apr 2008)

purpeller said:


> ...or she's sending a Euro bank draft, which will clear straight away.


Good idea; ask her to send a euro draft for the specific amount you want to reserve the apartment for her. It will speed things up and remove some anxieties in relation to "foreign" cheques / currencies / exchange rates / bank charges.

If she really wants the place, it should not be a problem for her.


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## Angrygirl (15 Apr 2008)

Good point i hadn't thought of that.. still a bit confused as to what to do... :confused 
God wish i could just sell the damn thing and be rid of it


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