Unfortunately, not all people are honest and fair. As you probably have experienced yourself. If not you are lucky. We want to warn you there are cheaters also in the field of real estate.
Not only our clients but foreigners, in general, contacted us several times and told us how they ran into fake apartment offers. Some of them „was in luck“ more than once. How does such a false advertisement go?
There is an advert for a flat. An interested person (may be still living abroad) approaches the „owner“ of the apartment. This „owner“ sends a message/an email back saying the apartment is available and there is a need for deposit in order to book this apartment. So, a foreigner sends the agreed sum of money in the belief of having a place to stay after the arrival to the country.
But when he comes to the address written in the advert there is no apartment, no owner, the phone number doesn’t exist and the victim never gets a reply to an email.
That‘s the typical course.
We want to share with you an experience of our client who asked our Relocation Consultant Martin Hudek for help in seeking an apartment in Prague:
She was interested in an apartment placed on a website where owners advertise their flats without a real estate. After her response to the offer she received an e-mail in halting Czech with brief information about the apartment. Thus, she wanted to see the apartment and asked for a proof of ownership. What do you think happened? You are right. She never got an answer and the advert had been deleted immediately (probably reported as a fake one).
Our ADVICE: Never send any money to someone who you are not 100% sure about being the real owner or the true real estate and always have a signed contract or any document where your payment is confirmed.
The best is to contact an agency that is well-known on the market, with reliable reference and trustworthy website like Foreigners.cz 🙂
