Tenants are being urged to be careful when looking at new properties amid a rise in rental fraud.
Data from Report Fraud shows the annual cost of rental fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland “more than doubled” between 2021 and 2025 from £7.2 million to £14.5 million.
Fraudsters are primarily operating through websites such as Gumtree and Facebook, and using “common tactics” to catch people out, said PropertyWire. This includes demanding upfront payments of £50 to £100 to demonstrate interest before fake viewings, and requesting holding deposits ranging from £800 to £1,500 to “supposedly secure properties”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Common rental scams
Fraudulent landlords typically use non-mainstream channels, to pretend to advertise a property which may actually exist, “but they do not have the right to let it”, said the National Residential Landlords Association.
A victim may be convinced to part with a deposit or rent upfront, and the fraudster then “promptly disappears with the money”.
A “common version” involves a fake landlord posting on dedicated Facebook rental groups or Gumtree, offering a cheap place to rent, said The Guardian. They will ask you to pay a deposit, but the property will be “strangely unavailable” if you ask to view it.
The scam can be “entirely dismantled” by asking to see the property first, said NoLettingGo.
A “clever” and “difficult-to-spot scam” involves a prospective tenant signing a contract stating that if references are not acceptable, then the deposit sum will be returned – minus a fee for reference checks. While this “sounds reasonable”, references are deemed unsatisfactory and prospective renters get back only a “fraction of what you initially paid”.
Scammers may also pretend to be a landlord or lettings agent and charge tenants for applying to rent a property or to ensure it is taken off the market. However, it is “illegal for landlords or agents to charge tenants for applying to rent a property, viewing a property, or administration costs”, said The Negotiator.
In other cases, a scammer will lease a property, “rent it out as if they owned it” and disappear after taking a deposit and upfront rents, said the National Fraud Helpline. Some tenants may even move in, and it may be weeks “before they find out it was a con”.
How to spot a rental scam
Tenants should watch out for “common warning signs,” said PropertyWire, such as payment requests via personal bank transfers, payment apps, gift cards, or cryptocurrency.
Look out for “lower rent than other listings nearby”, said Generation Rent, and if “something seems too good to be true, it probably is”.
A “simple Google Images search”, said SpareRoom, may reveal that the property isn't even for rent, or that the photos were of a completely different property. The "golden rule” is not to hand over any money until you’ve seen it in real life, and use your common sense.
Renters can also check on a landlord and whether a property belongs to them by purchasing property information from the Land Registry or through Rent Profile.
