Would you trust your tenant with your bank card?
A landlord in York was defrauded of £10,000 after his tenant used his bank card to go on a shopping spree.
Landlord, Paul Hardiment, was sent a new bank card by Barclays and, a few days later, the PIN number followed. The landlord hadn’t changed his contact address with his bank, Barclays, after he let the property – a cardinal mistake.
Such types of fraud are nothing new. Last year, a landlord’s identity was cloned by his tenant who subsequently remortgaged the rental property he was staying in and made off with the money.
The lesson is clear: landlords need to check tenants in and out of their properties properly. Part of the checkout process involves setting up a mail forwarding service (which can be set up with the Post Office), changing the account name with service providers (banks, mobile phone providers, utility suppliers, etc.) and removing all forms of personal paperwork from the property before it is let to a new tenant.
This is especially important if landlords were previously living at the property that they are now letting out. But, it is also important for landlords to help protect their current and former tenant’s identity, too.
We will be sharing more tips like this at our Buy-to-Let seminar on the 2nd September. More details here.