"The birth certificate, everything was fake"
A landlord has been left footing a £20,000 bill as the result of a fraudster tenant.
Rohann Divanji has spent a year fighting his tenant in a costly legal battle as well as repairing the destruction left behind in the two-bedroom apartment in Canary Wharf.
According to Mr Divanji, the tenant somehow bypassed employment and credit checks on OpenRent by claiming to be a data analyst on a salary of £78,000 a year.
He explained that in October 2023, a woman called Sue viewed the property and told him that she had a team of data analysts who wanted to rent the flat.
Posing as ‘Poonam Grover’, a tenant paid a deposit and was able to pass the reference report with a bogus driver’s licence.
Everything seemed normal for the first few months until his neighbour complained about parties being hosted at the flat.
Mr Divanji later found it being sublet for as much as £250 a night on Airbnb.
He contacted the tenant to inform them they had breached the tenancy conditions and requested that they take down the listing and vacate the flat.
But when he visited the property, the landlord found the locks had been changed and a man called ‘Asad’, who claimed to be the tenant’s brother, was living there.
Mr Divanji confronted him before alerting the Met Police. He then served the tenant with Section 8 and 21 eviction notices.
The scam ended up in court, with the judge ruling in Mr Divanji’s favour on June 26, 2024.
The tenant, who did not show up for the hearing, was ordered to leave and pay back the money owed.
On the same day, the concierge for the block of flats informed Mr Divanji that a group of three boys had entered the flat. When Mr Divanji went round to ask them to leave, he found a broken balcony door.
Two days later, another set of guests who booked the flat on Airbnb were shocked to find out they had unwittingly been caught up in the scam.
On July 17, CCTV footage showed police swooping on the block of flats after revellers had gathered for a party hosted by someone staying at the flat.
After the crowds dispersed, two men loaded several furniture items into a van.
The landlord reported the theft to police but four days later, the same men returned to take more items from the flat.
The police came to the scene and asked the person to leave and took the flat keys off him.
Mr Divanji changed the locks back but to add insult to injury, a sofa, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, mop, broom, two mirrors, microwave, kettle and desk had been stolen.
There was visible damage to both beds, while the glass balcony door had been smashed and discarded.
The ordeal has meant Mr Divanji lost over £20,000, including six months of rent amounting to approximately £15,000.
He told Daily Mail: “The most important thing actually in this case was she used fake identity documents and yet passed OpenRent’s reference checks.”
Mr Divanji was able to contact the person whose identity had been stolen. They confirmed that it was their driving license but with a different photo.
The landlord continued: “And so what was happening is this girl essentially created fake documents, including a fake driver’s license, fake salary slips a fake company website to show she was employed and nothing in that was real.
“The birth certificate, everything was fake, and I didn’t know that I didn’t realise that until June.
“I had to go through the legal process, go through an eviction, pay thousands of pounds to evict her.
“Eventually, she just left on her own. She damaged the flat. The flat was completely ruined and she stole all the furniture.”
The landlord still does not know who the fraudster is and is requesting police to investigate further.
He told how the rental money was being transferred to him by a different name, but that the fake tenant routinely came up with excuses.
Mr Divanji added: “I trusted that OpenRent had given me a document which says ‘ID check verified’ and everything is good to go with this person.
“But they also didn’t acknowledge their part.
“They said, ‘We’ll look into this and close it’, and they never came back to me with anything.”
He even tried booking his own flat on Airbnb and received a message from a company called MD Management, who requested a £150 deposit.
It is understood Airbnb removed the listing in March 2024 and that the flat was not booked through the rental company on July 17.
However, the landlord fears this is a “problem where it’s only going to grow simply because of the way the legislation is changing”.
A Met Police spokesperson said:
“Police were called in July to reports of a theft of a sofa and a washing machine from an address in Lamington Heights E14.
“It was further alleged the address had been illegally sublet.
“There have been no arrests; enquiries continue.”
An OpenRent spokesperson confirmed they have “a case where a tenant has defrauded a landlord” which “is now a police matter”.
Loading ...