Anybody have any experience with renting a property abroad?

[neverlosethefeeling]

Some of you know I'm studying abroad in England in the fall, and I decided to look for housing on my own since most students do flatshares and live off campus and I didn't want to be stuck in an on-campus dorm with a whole bunch of other American students. So I put this ad out on one of the UK's student roommate websites and I got a reply from this guy. The place sounds really nice and even looks really nice. I'm a little worried because it looks too nice for the price considering the other properties I've seen that fit my budget in the UK. I can't decided if it's legit or not, and don't realllly know how to go about checking to see if it is. So hopefully some of you can help me out that have had experience with this and might know the process. Here's a couple of the e-mails he's sent me.

Hello ,

I am William Emmanuel De Oliveira 21 years old Originally from United Kingdom the apartment belongs to my late father and my mother have been managing and maintaining the apartment,but she is presently in Belfast due to her work,am undergraduate student of Brighton University ,and i also work in a calling center.....

The exact address is : 8 Bear Road, Brighton, BN1, United Kingdom

The lease ll be --£300/month/Room including the utilities,fridge-freezer,oven, washing machine, dryer, gas cooker,microwave, dishwasher, electricity bill, Internet charges and others.---£500 for the security deposit which is refundable during the departure time from the room. i am a kind and honest person and my mother have spent time and resources a lot on that apartment,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of the apartment and want you to manage it as your own if eventually you will be the occupant. I want you to promise me that you will not disappoint me at the long run.is that taken?it is not all for money sake but I want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat .

I will like to know where you are from and when you will be coming to the flat ? Am confidently assuring you that you will be more than satisfied when you come into the flat while you will have your private bathroom . I attached the picture of the apartment for viewing.

Let me hear from you asap if you really have interest in renting the room,

Best Regards,

Williams

And this one

Hello ,

Thanks for the reply and also for the introduction of your self,you really sound great.....never mind i can reserve the room for you till your arrival date since there is a perfect procedure that we both have to undergo before you can proceed with the payment.

However If you really have interest in renting the room just let me have your

FULL NAME,

YOUR EXACT ARRIVAL DATE,

YOUR DEPARTURE DATE,

YOUR CURRENT ADDRESS AND

A SCANNED COPY OF YOUR PASSPORT ID,So that i can quickly instruct our family lawyer to prepare the tenant agreement form for you, to see the terms and condition of the contract and if you are okay with the terms and condition then you can proceed with the first month rent and the security deposit to my mother in United Kingdom through western union so that the Flat can be reserved for you till your arrival date because there are a lot of people that also have interest in renting the room,but my mother prefer the most serious person who pay her first..

The signed agreement form will be send to you first through attached mail (with the scanned page of my international passport).for you to read and understand,after which you will proceed with the payment ,I'll now send you the original copy through a

registered courier to your address for you to sign and bring along with you when moving in.

Have a nice day.

Looking forward in hearing from you.

Regards

Does it sound legit? Is Western Union the best/only way to go about this? The Western Union part threw me off, to be honest. And it's pretty obvious that the guy has serious spelling/grammar issues with very little command of the English language.

[Kyle82]

Sorry...no

The only experience i've had is splitting property with a broad after my divorce.

[Sameday]

I'd stay away from any western union deals, I would see if there are any legit services that offer or broker student housing in the UK, i.e work on commission to get you in a place. I used that type of service in Germany.

[Happy Panther]

Brighton is a party/student town and I would expect things to be much cheaper compared to the rest of the UK.

The wording of his email sounds fishy. Like Romanian scam artist trying out English:

i am a kind and honest person and my mother have spent time and resources a lot on that apartment,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of the apartment and want you to manage it as your own if eventually you will be the occupant. I want you to promise me that you will not disappoint me at the long run.is that taken?it is not all for money sake but I want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat .

Why do you need to tell someone you are honest?

also

there are a lot of people that also have interest in renting the room,but my mother prefer the most serious person who pay her firs

For 300 quid this sounds strange.

Having lived overseas however the list of demands, including scanned passport, is not unusual.

70/30 legit.

[CosmoGirl]

I would not do the western union thing as I got burned on that. They should accept paypal where you'd both be covered.

Let me ask a UK friend of mine about this. If you PM this specifics to me, I'll see what I can find out.

[Niner National]

This is definitely a scam. If you've ever gotten any of those scam emails saying that some African president/dignitary has money they can't retrieve and need you to help them, they ask for the exact same things. They always want a scanned copy of your license or passport and try to do their dealings over western union.

[neverlosethefeeling]

This is definitely a scam. If you've ever gotten any of those scam emails saying that some African president/dignitary has money they can't retrieve and need you to help them, they ask for the exact same things. They always want a scanned copy of your license or passport and try to do their dealings over western union.

I may be naive but I don't think this one is quite as obvious as the African prince scam. And there are people who do legit things through Western Union, but it was a red flag for me, I'll admit. I could see someone thinking it'd be easy to take advantage of an international student seeing as how most everything would have to be arranged/paid before I even got over there. I don't know. I'm still gonna explore some of the other options and Cosmo's paypal idea was a good one--I'll definitely be asking about that.

[CosmoGirl]

I rented a condo in St. Maarten over Christmas and sent my payments via paypal to the owner in Canada. Smoothest transaction ever. And he was so very helpful. I was the first person to rent the brand-new condo so there were no references (which I was nicely discounted for). But at least I was covered by paypal.

The other thing that would concern me is that he wants the deposit sent to his mother - not him. So even if he sends his passport and contact info, you're sending it to someone else, who could be whoever.

I'll see what I can find out.

Maybe even a quick verification by a PI over there...

[MadHatter]

I would contact the University that you will be attending in the Fall. They should be able to help give you some contacts.

[Hawk]

Cosmo...dealing with Canadians is always a fantastic thing!!!!

[Niner National]

I may be naive but I don't think this one is quite as obvious as the African prince scam. And there are people who do legit things through Western Union, but it was a red flag for me, I'll admit. I could see someone thinking it'd be easy to take advantage of an international student seeing as how most everything would have to be arranged/paid before I even got over there. I don't know. I'm still gonna explore some of the other options and Cosmo's paypal idea was a good one--I'll definitely be asking about that.

I've read enough of the scam things on 419eater.com before to realize a very close resemblance. One thing I've learned from craigslist is that usually when a deal seems too good to be true, it is. When I was looking for a place to live in Charlotte last year, about half the listings I contacted were fake. You never want to send a scanned copy of your passport or ID to anyone.

[Carolina Husker]

I would contact the University that you will be attending in the Fall. They should be able to help give you some contacts.

Quoted for duh-ness.

[neverlosethefeeling]

quoted for duh-ness.

ohhh mannn! Why didn't i think of that?!?!

[pstall]

I rented a condo in St. Maarten over Christmas and sent my payments via paypal to the owner in Canada. Smoothest transaction ever. And he was so very helpful. I was the first person to rent the brand-new condo so there were no references (which I was nicely discounted for). But at least I was covered by paypal.

The other thing that would concern me is that he wants the deposit sent to his mother - not him. So even if he sends his passport and contact info, you're sending it to someone else, who could be whoever.

I'll see what I can find out.

Maybe even a quick verification by a PI over there...

*files this away for potential vacation spot*