Rental scam hits home in Martinez
The warning caveat emptor is no longer sufficient nor realistic in today’s real estate market.
Latin for ‘let the buyer beware,’ the ancient maxim could be modernized to ‘let the renter beware, and demand to see proof of ownership to boot.”
This week Rachael and Ray Gray are wishing they would have asked many more questions before handing over $2300 in first, last and security deposit on a two-bedroom Pacheco Blvd. rental house, they said.
The couple – desperate to avoid homelessness and wholly trusting that nothing was amiss – paid the advance rent and deposit via money order to a woman who represented herself as the agent for the property owner.
A couple of weeks later, the Grays came home to find the locks changed and a warning, from the real owner, that they would be arrested by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office for trespassing and squatting at the home, located across from the Shell Refinery in the 2900 block of Pacheco Blvd.
The “agent” was apparently an impostor, and the Grays haven’t seen nor heard from her since.
She’s long gone, say the Grays, along with the family’s entire savings and fake lease.
“We are looking into this case,” said spokesperson Jimmy Lee on Wednesday. “It is being treated as a crime.”
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The Grays’ misfortune began earlier this year, when the family of two adults, three children and a baby on the way moved into a rental home owned by a distant relative in Bay Point.
The relative forgot to mention that the house was in foreclosure, and soon the Grays were getting eviction notices from a bank.
“Our friends said, just stay in the house, it will take a long time, but that’s not how we want to live,” said Ray Gray on Wednesday afternoon, standing in front of the Pacheco Blvd. home that he and his family will soon have to vacate.
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“It seems to be a growing new facet of rental scams on the Internet,” said Ross. “I would only deal with someone in person, at the property in question. And it's not impolite to ask for a copy of the county records showing ownership.
And Wolf, a Minneapolis photographer, was quick to pick up on them: A website with no real names on it; an address in a big building with no suite number; a demand for cash upfront. He then filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
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