by “Visits are coordinated, without exception, with prior reservation (signature) with the owner”, is what a supposed real estate agent says to positive people in a rental posted on Facebook. Users report that after giving a preview the person disappears and deletes the publication. There are several users who have reported this scam in the last weeks.
Although the Rental Law was repealed, the crisis to find an apartment in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires continues. And now without regulation, the agreement on contract time and adjustments is left to the negotiation of owner and tenant, which is not always fair, according to the organization. Grouped Tenants.
In Marketplace and in Facebook groups, several tenants have reported that there are accounts that offer apartments in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and ask for an advance payment to be able to go see the place. Their excuse, for the most part, is that the amount is requested to guarantee that the tenant attends the appointment.
Ximena Lanza was one of the victims. She commented to Clarion that in his case they told him that he had to deposit 6,000 pesos to book the appointment. The person contacted identified himself as a real estate agent and assured that the owners do not live in the city, so they will only be there for one day and To ensure that you do not go in vain make this request.
“The owner asks for a deposit to go and visit. In case when she sees it she doesn’t want to book, she will get the money back,” they told Lanza. Given the pressure that there were several interested parties and that they could win the possibility of renting it, she accepted.
“That moment you think it is a good option, when you enter groups you see that there are several who ask so you fear that they will beat you, with how difficult it is to get a good apartment at an acceptable price, with inflation on top of it,” he highlights. When the agreed day arrived, he went to the address, but he couldn’t find anyone and they didn’t respond to him. Then She reported the publication and learned that she was not the only one who fell for this deception.
Without increasing the possibilities of his income and with the days numbered in the place where he lives, “one go into despair to find a rental,” Lanza notes. This anxiety is used by scammers to ask those interested in an apartment for a deposit before seeing it and thus steal money from them.
Scammers also create several fake profiles to build trust in the person who tries to rent and deceive them there. Verónica López commented that she posted her apartment search notice in a Facebook group and on the first day several people wrote to her, both in her publication and in her personal chat, recommending a place of hers.
“It’s good, I rent there, recommended.” She believed in the recommendations and in contacting him. I asked him for a deposit of 15,000 pesos. to reserve the apartment for you until the day you are going to see it. She agreed, but when the date arrived when they agreed to meet, the supposed owner also did not show up and did not contact her further.
These scams occur frequently and not only in CABA, according to the administrator of a rental group on Facebook Sergio Balzano. He narrates that he knows of similar cases on the coast and that even now he saw that scammers use photographs or other people’s ID to commit these crimes.
“A while ago I just read in other groups where a woman is receiving insults from a Facebook user who is accusing her of having stolen from him and of being a scammer; and apparently this lady Photos of your rental property have been stolenof their publications along with the data and profile photo,” says Balzano.
He notes that among the different cases he sees every day he also noticed that there are those who ask for 50% of the rent to “reserve” the property without the tenant having seen it. An event like this happened to Mariel Pacheco: she deposited 100,000 pesos to reserve the apartment without knowing it, given that she does not reside in CABA. After paying, the alleged owner deleted the post and blocked it.
The president of the Real Estate Chamber of Argentina, Iván Ginevra, remarked to Clarion that under no circumstances in the regular rental procedure will ask for a deposit or advance payment to show an apartment.
Scams with uninhabited apartments
Another case reported by Internet users is of people who, in addition to posing as owners, They show empty apartments to scam. In these cases, after showing you the place, they ask you for an advance to close the deal and when they make an appointment with the notary, they disappear and in the building they claim not to know the person you contacted.
This happened to Karen Hernández. According to what she told this newspaper, despite being aware of the deceptions, he still fell into one. She reported that she was able to go see the apartment and they told her that if she wanted it she had to make a deposit to secure it and to delete the publication. “They They give you a receipt that you paidsigned and they give you an appointment to sign the contract to make it official,” he says.
When he went to the notary, Hernández found that there was no appointment scheduled and when he tried to contact them again they did not answer him again. When he returned to the department’s management, they told him that the place had been unoccupied for a long time and They don’t know the person she contacted.
Given the increase in these cases, Balzano always tries to recommend to the members of his Facebook rental group that don’t give money without first seeing the apartment and even ask for a certificate that the person showing them the place is the true owner or someone authorized. Like him, several Internet users ask to be wary of publications that advertise low prices in central areas and images of new places.
Clarín Master’s Degree – University of San Andrés
