BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – In May, Kenneth Douglas thought he was getting ready to move into a new rental home that he claimed he already toured and spoke with the property owner about.
“He told me how much the deposit was, and he told me how much the rent was. I was like, cool, awesome, great. We can make this work, ‘cause I’m looking to move the first part of June,” Douglas says. “He said ‘well as soon as you have the deposit, let me know, then we’ll start working on the lease’.”
Douglas says he gave the property owner a money order for $600 as a deposit for their agreed upon scheduled move in on June 1. According to Douglas, this is when he began to get the runaround from the property owner. He says he called and texted the property owner, but never got in contact. At this point, Douglas says he knew something was up and he asked to get his money back.
“He’s the owner of the house, I did my research,” Douglas says. “So I didn’t think that there was any reason not to believe him, especially when we walked through the house and he was showing me the repairs and different things that needed to be done.”
Douglas also says the home was empty, with nothing but a blow up mattress and a couch in there, which also indicated to him that no one was living there and this transaction would be legitimate.
Carmen Million is the CEO and president of the Better Business Bureau in Baton Rouge. She says housing schemes like this are common, but for Douglas to have seen the house and met the renter makes this an unusual case.
“People see a listing, they’ll go through Craigslist or whatever and then they’ll be asked to send money, to receive keys in the mail, that sort of thing, they don’t see the house, they don’t get to do a walkthrough so this is definitely a different take on what we call rental scams,” Million says.
Douglas says when he was attempting to get his money back, the property owner was never available and would always push off their scheduled meetings by mentioning one personal emergency after the other. Million told WAFB this is a common red flag when looking at potentially misleading situations or unethical business practices. She says another red flag is when the agreement is only verbal.
“What you’re gonna get, what the conditions are, any stipulations, refund policy, you wanna make sure all those things are in writing upfront,” Million says.
WAFB attempted to contact the property owner via phone call and on-site but never got through.
Douglas says he called the Baton Rouge police department who told him this was a civil matter that needs to be taken to court. Douglas says after the legal fees, he would end up losing more money than he did in the first place. Douglas thought he did enough research by vetting the property and ensuring the person was the owner, but he says he now knows that you can never be too careful.
“In my eyes, I didn’t think I had a reason to not believe him, so lesson learned? Yes indeed, oh yes indeed,” Douglas says.
Million says the BBB does not take complaints regarding specific individuals, but if you have any consumer problems, you can submit a form on their website.
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