How to spot a rental scam before you pay

What are the most common rental scams?

Most rental scams come down to someone taking money for a home they cannot let you have. The details change, but the same few patterns keep coming back.

• The home that isn’t theirs — photos copied from a real listing, or a home that is already let, offered by someone with no right to let it. Sometimes the address doesn’t exist at all.
• Pay now, view later — a “holding deposit” or first month’s rent demanded before any viewing, because “lots of people are interested”.
• “I’m abroad, I’ll post the keys” — the landlord can’t meet you, so asks you to pay first and promises the keys by courier.
• Untraceable payment — a bank transfer to a personal account, a money transfer service, gift cards or cryptocurrency.
• A cloned agent — a website or email copying the name and branding of a real letting agent, with slightly different contact details and bank details.
• The sub-letting scam — someone who rents the home, or has a short stay there, shows it to several people as if it were theirs and takes a deposit from each.
• The rent that is too good to be true — a price well below similar homes nearby, to draw in people who will act before they think.

Should I ever pay before viewing a property?

No. Never pay anything for a home you have not seen in person, or through someone you trust who has been inside it for you. The Home Office advice is the same: never pay money for a property before viewing it in person. A genuine landlord or agent will arrange a viewing before asking for money.

If you are moving from far away, ask a friend, a relative or a colleague to view it for you and meet the landlord or agent there. A video call is better than nothing, but it does not prove the person on the call has the right to let the home.

How do I check a landlord or letting agent is real?

Check the person or business exists, and that it is the business it says it is. If the landlord or agent is a company, look it up on Companies House, which is free and shows the company’s registered address, when it was set up and its officers. Then contact the agent through the phone number or address on its own website, found independently, not the one in the advert or email.

How to check a landlord before renting walks through the Companies House lookup and what to look for.

How can I check who owns the property?

HM Land Registry’s title register shows who owns a home in England, and it costs £7 from GOV.UK. If the person letting it to you is not the owner, ask why. There are genuine reasons, such as an agent managing it or a tenant sub-letting with permission, but the landlord should be able to explain and show you.

A landlord who won’t tell you who owns the home, or gets defensive when you ask, is a reason to stop. So is an owner on the register whose name has nothing to do with the person or company on your paperwork.

How to find out who owns a home. Complete RenterCheck (£9.99) shows the registered owner from HM Land Registry: a company owner is named and checked on Companies House, and a private owner isn’t named.

What should a genuine letting agent have?

A letting agent in England must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, and one that holds tenants’ money must belong to a client money protection scheme. The approved redress schemes are The Property Ombudsman and Property Redress. Ask the agent which scheme it belongs to and check with that scheme.

An agent that holds client money must give you its client money protection certificate if you ask, free of charge, and display it in its office and on its website. An “agent” who can’t name either scheme is not one you should pay.

How much can a landlord ask for before I move in?

No rent at all before you sign, and a holding deposit of no more than one week’s rent. A landlord or agent must not ask for, accept or encourage a payment of rent before you both sign the tenancy agreement. After signing, the most you can usually be asked for before the tenancy starts is one month’s rent, or 28 days’ if you pay weekly, plus a tenancy deposit of up to five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000.

These rules have applied since 1 May 2026. So anyone asking for several months’ rent before you have signed anything is asking for something the law does not allow, whether or not they are genuine.

Work out the maximum holding deposit for a rent, and see how a holding deposit fits into the steps in what let agreed means.

Is it a scam if I am asked to offer more than the advertised rent?

It is not necessarily a scam, but it is not allowed. Since 1 May 2026 a landlord or letting agent must not ask or encourage you to pay more than the advertised rent, or tell you there are other bids to push your offer up. Your council can fine a landlord or agent up to £7,000 for it.

Scammers use the same pressure: a “best offer by tonight”, or a rival who will pay more. Keep the advert and the messages either way.

How should I pay a holding deposit or rent safely?

Pay only after you have viewed the home and seen the paperwork, and pay in a way you can trace. That means a payment to a business account in the name of the agent or landlord you have checked, with a written receipt that names the property and what the payment is for.

Never pay in cash, by gift cards or in cryptocurrency, and be wary of a transfer to a personal account or a money transfer service. If the bank details change by email partway through, phone the agent on a number you found yourself before paying anything.

How do I know if the rent is too low?

Compare it with what similar homes nearby are advertised for. The Home Office warns that rental fraudsters usually offer prices well below the market rate. A home well under the local average, with no clear reason, deserves more checks, not a faster decision.

Look up average rents by postcode. Complete RenterCheck compares the asking rent with similar homes advertised nearby.

What should I check before I pay anything?

Work through the checks below before any money leaves your account. If any of them fails, or the person letting the home will not let you make it, walk away.

• View the home in person, or have someone you trust view it for you.
• Check the landlord or agent exists: Companies House for a company, the agent’s own website for its contact details.
• Check who owns the home on HM Land Registry, and that the owner matches the landlord or has a clear link to them.
• Ask a letting agent which redress scheme and client money protection scheme it belongs to.
• Compare the rent with similar homes nearby.
• Read the tenancy agreement before you pay rent: no rent before you sign.
• Pay a holding deposit of no more than one week’s rent, by a traceable method, and get a receipt.

What should I do if I have been scammed?

Contact your bank straight away, using the number on its website or the back of your card, or call 159. Then report it to Report Fraud, the national reporting service for fraud that replaced Action Fraud, online or on 0300 123 2040. Report the advert to the website where you found it, too.

• Call your bank first: the sooner it knows, the better the chance of stopping or recovering the payment.
• Report to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040, and keep the crime reference number.
• Report the advert to the listing site or social media platform so it comes down.
• Keep everything: screenshots of the advert, messages, the bank details you paid and receipts.

In Scotland, fraud is reported to Police Scotland on 101 instead.