UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi everyone. I would really appreciate some advice.

I recently bought a BTL property. Never done this before.
I sorted out a few issues with it, and then went to a major estate agent firm to find a tenant. The estate agent rather quickly found one, and applied their usual checks. It was a woman claiming to be single, and with a local job. They said she passed their checks. I agreed to this tenant, and we all signed a tenancy agreement. Not sure if they paid their deposit to the estate agent yet. I informed my insurer that I had found a tenant. Everything wss apparently fine. Contractually, the tenant is supposed to move in in a matter of days.

But here's the kicker...

Just to be extra safe, I did a few checks of my own , and found that this person claims fo be married. I contacted the estate agent and pointed out that the terms of the Tenancy Agreement state that I am to be informed if occupation of the property is shared. In othef words, the name of any other person living there has to appear in the document. The estate agent contacted this tenant and got a new story from her: she's saying she married someone abroad, and intends to pass him a copy of this Tenancy Agreement so he can show it to the Home Office and get a residency visa on the basis that he has a sponsor, a place to stay and family life here.

My number one concern, to be frank, is the payment of rent. However, I smell a scam here. Does anyone else?

What worries me is the possibility that the "tenant" only wanted the signed Tenancy Agreement all along, as a slip of paper to facilitate immigration matters, and that it isn't worth the paper it's written on. For example, a man in Somalia wants a UK residency. He contacts some criminal agents, who take, say 10K from him. They set him up with a fake marriage in the UK with my "tenant", who gets, say, half the money. She then goes to the estate agent and signs up to rent a place by herself. This costs her the deposit, which comes out of her share. The guy takes the tenancy agreement and marriage story to the Home Office, gets his visa and "divorces" the "tenant" or simply disappears. The tenant falls i  arrears from month one onwards, and gets evicted  and I get nothing.

What would you do in this situation? Should I just refuse this tenant (on the basis of lying about her marriage status)?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Do not under any circumstances take this tenant on.I have had some dodgy tenants,actual organised criminaks in a couple of cases.The leases were used to get onto the electoral roll for starters in one case,20 people (illegal immigrants)  allegedly living in a small studio flat.Another woman said he was single,but turned out to have a partner and child in London,using my place only as a mail drop for a car accidents scam.In both cases rent was only paid for the first month, to get the keys. Run a mile.

Quote from: Pagala on March 11, 2019, 01:39:23 PMShould I just refuse this tenant (on the basis of lying about her marriage status)?

I would, sure. Why risk anything? If your property is any good and at the right price it should go. If your Agent moans that they're doing the work you asked them to, you seem to have a good, and sensible, protest against that.

We've said, time and time again, that it's always better to have some level of personal involvement... Agents who are employed to serve your interests are only bothered about getting your property off their books... if it all goes wrong later, they're just not bothered.

Definately refuse this tenant.  Tell the agent that she has lied on her application, it's obviously a scam to get a foreign "husband" over here.  It doesn't sound to me that the agents have done thorough checks on her.  I would in future ask the agents to provide proof of the checks they have done, especially checks for CCJs and credit reference agencies.  Also have they got proof from the supposed employer and a reference to say it is a secure position..

OP signed the Tenancy agreement already.....
Best OP can do is not hand over the keys so as to not establish a Tenancy (and therefore avoid eviction process).

However he remains potentially liable for breach of contract.
Hopefully she wrote down she was single, makes it easier for OP to claim fraudulent misrep.

If it's a scammer then unlikely she will follow up. 
Personally I'd risk it and not hand the keys over.

Don't take the deposit either ... that way she may go away with less fuss.