On the rental market, candidates multiply calls, visits, files. But in this frantic race, a specific line in the advertisement should always make you turn back.
The search for accommodation can quickly turn to the test. The announcements are linked, visits are rare, rents climb. In this tense context, questionable practices find ideal terrain. They exploit the fear of missing out on a good deal and the misplaced confidence of the candidates. One of them comes up regularly. Indeed, the rental market, especially in tense areas, is a fertile land for false owners and questionable intermediaries. They know that rarity plays for them.
In appearance, everything is square: the announcement is well written, the images are neat, the response to your request is fast and polite. But between the lines, an unusual “condition” slips, justified by an argument which seems to hold the road: secure the accommodation, reserve a niche, avoid unnecessary visits. However, in fact, it is not based on any legal basis. Moreover, these practices also affect the less tense areas, taking advantage of candidates who do not know all the rules. They can slip on recognized platforms, via usurped accounts or offers published quickly and then withdrawn. The fraudsters readily target people from far away, unable to move easily to check the property.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Frauds (DGCCRF) reminds us: any request coming out of the legal framework must alert, in particular if it intervenes before the rental contract is signed. This is why, when mentioned on the advertisement “Visit costs: 50 euros” or “costs to book the accommodation”, go your way. In the majority of the scams identified, the announcement disappears as soon as this sum is conceded and the interlocutor no longer responds. Real estate agents are also categorical …
In a report devoted to these drifts, on the YouTube channel “immersion”, Heidi, real estate agent for 15 years, sums up the golden rule: “Roughly speaking, we give you a whole speech, we ask you for money to be able to reserve the accommodation or block it in order to sign the lease or before entering the premises, but the rule to be remembered is that you do not give a euro before having set foot in the apartment, to have a signed lease and to be on site with keys and an owner”. Another element that must put the chip in your ear: on the ad, if the photos of the property seem too perfect and the rent, charges included, is abnormally low compared to the market, it is better not to contact the owner pseudo. This is clear!
