Unusual Rental Question
 

I'm renting for one week in July in The Village of Chatham about which I'm looking forward very much. The rental was listed in Villages4Rent.com. A thought cross my mind today at work -- are the landlords/owners checked out by the administrators of this web site to confirm they are actually the owners of the homes/villas that listed on the site as being for rent and are authorized to rent these homes/villas? I hope this has never happened where renter signed a lease, got down to TV to discover that the "landlord/owner" who took the renter's rental money and security deposit was not authorized to do so. Please don't think I'm paranoid or overly suspicious but just looking out for myself...Thanks in advance for any answers to calm my fears.

Don't know anything about the admins confirming but maybe you can use the county tax records to confirm.
Chatham is in Marion County, if I am not mistaken.

Try this link
http://www.pa.marion.fl.us/

This wonderful forum picks up on anything and everything and if there is a hint of trouble, I believe it would be reported here.

I am an avid reader and haven't run across a problem like that.

I don't think you have cause for worry, but looking up the owner will make you feel better.

I know you will have a wonderful time when you get here.

We've rented 3 times through via that website with no problem whatsover.

Thank you!
 

I tried the search for the owner's name and it matches who I made the check for the security deposit out to -- Yea Rah!! Thank you for the link. Now my worrywart brain can sleep easy tonight. Kind of sad that suspiciousness crept into my mind. I guess it's just the times we live in... And I'm counting the days until July...

Wow, Shaumbarger,

I didn't think I knew anyone who worried more than I do (about pretty much everything)! Now you've got a new one for me for anytime I use vacationrentals.com or ****.com to rent a house/condo for vacations.

I listed my villa on this site for the last year I rented it out. Don't think the administrator does any kind of check, but maybe they will start doing that after this post!

it's not the admins job to check the posts for validity,
so it's all at your own risk. that said, I'd think rip-offs are negligible around here.

I have not heard of any problems with private owners but have heard of several using property management companies. The company goes belly-up and has deposits for future rentals. The info and money never get forwarded to the homeowners. I remember First Village Rentals was a big one not too long ago and there was even an article in The Daily Sun about that. More recently I have heard stories about another one in Lady Lake but not sure of the name.

Interesting questions. I have two rental properties and have never had anyone ask. Checking the Sumter county records is one way, seeing our name on the sign post maybe, probably others. Perhaps ask for a copy of the owners Villages ID's with the number blacked out? But the best way is having a Florida lease agreement that protects both the lessor and the lessee. A good lease agreement provides recourse for both parties and documents what the expectations should be for everyone.

As with anything, there is always someone who figures out a way to scam the system. So you can't be to careful.

Good question
 

Guess where there is a will there is a way....Some foreclosures in Orlando have been rented by unscrupulous opportunist but have been caught....Never heard of anything like that happening in Paradise (TV)..
Always good to double check!

For Sumter county you can check the owners name on this county site. As a bonus you can see the house and surroundings via satellite.

http://sumtergis.com/GIS/

I have been told that from time to time, one hears of "property managers" telling absentee owners that the property is "NOT" rented for that time, when in fact, there is a renter in there. The money then goes entirely to the extremely rare unscrupulous property manager.

Our financial adviser told us that many of his clients have investment property elsewhere and that they deal with this scam more than you would expect.:eek:

JLK

Thanks for the link. The owner of the rental house in the Villlage of Chatham lives in the Sumter county part of TV, so I was able to verify that he owns the rental house in Chatham. I am resting easy now.

Resident ID transfer for the rental period
 

When I rented for a month last year, the moment the owner called TV offices to transfer her resident ID to me for that time period, TV knew everything about my return to TV. I had had a guest ID during my lifestyle preview stay, and all that is kept in the computers for future reference. The TV real estate agent contacted me immediately to say "welcome back"....a bit freaky to me thinking, "how did HE know I was returning?".

After we bought a FSBO here, our "real" resident ID's were based in the same file on us that started with our lifestyle preview guest pass.

Anyway, if there is a problem in transferring the ID to you for your stay, that would be a good tip-off about a so-called owner.