Young couple rent first home together to discover pensioner, 99, living inside
Renting a new home can come with a variety of complications, but one couple certainly were not expecting to find a 99-year-old already living in the home they had paid a deposit and rent for.
Young couple, Amy Da Cruz and Matthew Morgan, from Bridgend, wanted to find a place close to where they worked. Amy's mum posted an advert on , which was successful in catching a landlord's attention. He approached them and said he had the perfect place.
Amy, a 22-year-old driver, said: "We started talking to the landlord on WhatsApp and got excited about the house. We were sent pictures of the inside and it seemed to have large bedrooms, a driveway, a big kitchen and a garden, so we were keen."
The landlord had recently moved from the area to Plymouth and asked for a security deposit on advice from his lawyer. The couple, who hadn't even seen the house yet but were desperately eager to have found their dream place, paid two payments of £300, believing they would get the deposit back if they didn't like the place.
The landlord also claimed this would ensure that the couple would be able to afford to rent the property. Amy said: "We wanted the house. So we paid £300 in two payments on the understanding that we would get the money back if we didn't like the house."
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On the day of the viewing the property in 2020, the couple's excitement got the better of them and after being asked they dolled out another £500 as the first month's rent. Amy said: "All of the emails and texts mentioned his solicitor and we had seen a copy of the tenancy agreement, so we had no reason to believe that something wasn't right."
The couple had transferred a significant amount of money but they had no reason to be suspicious of anything that had been asked of them. However after they turned up at the property they found that the house was occupied by its actual owner - who had no idea his home had been falsely placed on the rental market.
"I was so annoyed," fumed Amy. "I emailed the landlord straight away asking what was going on. They emailed back saying that they had injured their foot and that they would meet us the next day. We knew something was up. I asked for the money back, but have not heard from them since."
Matthew, then 26, who had given notice to his current landlord, was able to reverse the process before a new tenant was found. Whilst there were silver linings, the couple had been left £800 out of pocket.
Amy said: "We will never do something like this again. From now on we will only go through property management companies and never give money over before. We had our heart set on this place, we thought this would be our family home."
Having willingly transferred the money, Amy's bank have since said it's unlikely she will ever get the money back.
Frank Ballinger, a retired special constable at South Wales Police, the owner of the home that the couple paid to rent (Media Wales)The 99-year-old, Frank Ballinger has lived at the property in Brackla for around 30 years, described the moment he met the couple and realised that his home was offered for rent without his knowledge. "The couple came here one afternoon and they said that they were here to look at the house," Mr Ballinger, a retired special constable at South Wales Police, said.
"I was confused at first, I said to them 'are you sure it's not the number across the road' as there's a couple of houses up for rent in the street. They were adamant that it was this house. I was just confused as to what was going on as I knew that I hadn't put this house up for sale.
"I just told them that this house belongs to me. At first, I had my suspicions that I was being scammed.Hopefully, the person who is behind this scam is found."
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