Throughout South Africa there is currently a huge demand for rental accommodation and this will increase rather than diminish, says Wayne Albutt, National Manger for Rawson Rentals. Some idea of how strong the demand for rental accommodation has become, says Albutt, can be gained from the fact that at the Rawson Properties’ Plattekloof, Cape Town franchise there can be as many as 15 walk-in enquiries for rental accommodation per day – and this experience is common to many franchises.
“Throughout South Africa, we are struggling to meet the market demand for good rental stock,” said Albutt.
This situation, he says, has, regrettably, enabled a growing band of con artists to cash in on the desperate needs of would-be tenants. One of the ways in which this is done is to advertise a property for rent to which in fact the ‘agent’ has no connection whatever and then to persuade the prospective tenant to enter into a lease agreement often without actually going inside the dwelling – although in some cases, the bogus agent does manage to get hold of the keys and actually shows the potential tenant around. Then a lease (easily obtainable from any of the more reputable stationers or from the Internet) is signed and the tenant is asked to put down one or two months’ deposit plus the first month’s rent. Needless to say, the ‘agent’ then disappears with the money and is never seen again. On investigation it will often be found that the bank account was established only a month or two prior to the con.
The behavior of these con artists, says Albutt, has caused the renting public to become very suspicious of small agencies or one man bands and this in turn has resulted in their preferring to deal with long established, recognized brands. This, he says, is now leading to these smaller agencies often joining the bigger groups so as to gain additional credibility and to benefit from big brand national advertising and referrals.
Albutt adds that there is, of course, no 100% sure-fire way of ensuring that an agency or agent is 100% legitimate – even if they are members of a big group – but, he says, if the prospective tenant asks to see the agent’s Fidelity Fund Certificate – and if the ‘agent’ cannot produce this, this is a sure sign that the deal should be called off at once. It is, he says, absolutely essential to ensure that the agent has such a certificate.
In addition, says Albutt, the prospective tenant should always insist that the money is put into a registered trust account and not into a bank account, especially not a “personal” bank account.
Should a legitimate rental agent or agency misappropriate money from the agency’s trust account, the unfortunate tenant will be reimbursed through the Fidelity Fund itself. Although this happens only rarely, the tenant can feel, therefore, at ease when dealing with registered real estate agents.
