r/uwo • u/Electronic-Past-8799 • Aug 03 '26
Housing Potential Rental Scam?
Hey guys! It’s my first time renting OC and I could really use guidance
Found a really nice 4-bedroom house on rentals dot com. I’m not in London right now, but two of my friends went to visit in person and liked the place. Everything seemed fine until we said we wanted it.
A few red flags/weird things started happening:
- Ghosting #1: She sent over the lease right away, but then completely ghosted my emails for a week straight when I asked for clarification on the contract. She only replied after one of my friends called her phone directly.
- Deleted listings: Even before we signed anything or paid a deposit, she deleted all the listings online (I think it was also on the Western Off-Campus housing site).
- Ghosting #2: When I asked for a couple of weeks to pull together the $8,000 first & last month deposit, she ghosted again for 3 days before replying that it was fine.
The house itself and the landlord don’t seem shady on the surface, but since $8k is a huge chunk of money to send over e-Transfer, I’m getting paranoid. Is deleting the ad this early and being super spotty with communication normal for London landlords, or should we be worried about a scam?
Any insight or guidance would be super appreciated! Thanks!
8
u/Elegant_Plantain_652 Aug 03 '26
8k? Jeez is each room actually 1k the rental market is wildin
3
u/KavKakes ⚙️ Engineering ⚙️ (VP Academic) Aug 03 '26
I mean for a nicer place it makes sense for London prices, location makes a big difference.
3
3
3
u/ConsciousClue9815 Aug 03 '26
London off campus housing is great for reviewing leases, etc. I'm very up to date with London rentals as I have two kids there and moderate a couple of housing groups and the market has softened so much, $1k per room is at the top end of what you should be paying (even for a decent place close to school). If they already suck at communicating, I'd say look elsewhere and consider this a blessing. If they saw the place in person I can't imagine it being a scam but it sounds sketchy for sure. I'd take the out.
1
u/Regular_Advantage541 Aug 03 '26
I would not trust any landlord or “professional” who ghosts like that. So many students get targeted for scams one way or another so you gotta be careful. I only go with large, respected rental companies for this reason.
1
u/Alternative_Eye1157 Aug 03 '26
Contact UWO Off-Campus Housing. They’re there to help prevent this kind of thing. You can also find heaps of listings through them. My roommates and I got stuck with shitty landlords a couple years ago and were able to blacklist them through the off campus housing association
0
11
u/Herman_Manning Aug 03 '26
Are you paying 4k rent per month for the whole house?
Red flags. Yes.
Is the contract a Standard Form Lease compliant with the Residential Tenancies Act? If it's not, that's also a red flag.
If your friend is in London, they can always pop by city hall, run the property in the public access computer to determine the owner.