RE: Renting a house in Perth(Australia)? Must I first pay a 2 months rent and a bond first?
March 27th, 2010 by admin
I was told to pay a 2 months rent(A$880) and a refundable bond(A$500) to the owner. Is this according to the Australia laws? I am afraid I might run into a scam. I am now in Singapore, but told to transfer money to his account in Australia first. The owner claims to be a barrister from McDonald Johnson Solicitors & Conveyancers Australia. I post my rent a house advertisment in Gumtree. Please help.
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STAY AWAY FROM GUMTREE
Gumtree allows for more scams than the Nigerian email scams that come out every day
rent through a licensed real estate agent is the safest way to rent
No, don’t do it! you don’t have to pay any rent in advance in Australia, you just have to pay the bond and the first 2 weeks rent is included there. I recommend you rent through Australian official real estate agencies, a reliable website to find them is here: Find your suburb, the place you like, and then contact the real estate agency. (You can “sort” the places there after the price so you get the cheapest ones coming up first). What you’re saying does sound like a scam.
before you want to rent have a think about it
have you done any research at all would be the way to go
Don’t ever pay any money directly into someones account before you have seen the property and made an agreement in writing to rent. This is how scams are carried out daily. just a couple of weeks ago there was a case here in perth regarding a lady who was renting out a property that wasn’t even hers and she collected about $30 000.00 in bods before she was busted! You do not have to hand over any money until a rental agreement is signed. My husbands cousin recently moved to Perth and they were asked by an (alleged) owner to deposit $600 into her account and she would post them the keys!! Thankfully, her and her flatmate thought the better of it as it was most likely a scam.
When you do rent a property, you will have to come up with between one and two months rent in advance. A bond is payable and is held in trust and when you vacate the property ant the end of your lease, you will receive all or part of it back, depending on the condition you leave the property in.
If I were you I would deal directly through a property manager with one of the real estate companies as you know they will be legit. Depending on what area you are looking to move to, someone here could provide you with some names, just re post your question with an area or a suburb name you are looking in.