I got to my new Kansas City rental house — and someone else was already living there | Opinion
It wasn’t the welcome I expected, but in the end, it was the perfect welcome to Kansas City.
Hi. I’m Yvette Walker, your new opinion editor, but my title or status doesn’t matter in this story: I found myself in the middle of a rental scam that is rising in the United States, and though I wasn’t the victim of the scam, it affected me in much the same way.
Someone else had moved into the house I leased leaving me without a place to live.
How could this happen? Did I pay some scam artist via Western Union? Did I believe a story about the landlord being out of the country and unable to show me the place until I sent money?
No, none of that. But there are people who get taken advantage of, and the occupants of my rental house say they were scammed. Now, no shaming here. These con men and women are ruthless and believable.
Let me skip to the good part. We moved in without incident. My amazing neighbors rallied around us and supported our story after we called the police. Kansas City police officers as well as members of the sheriff’s department listened and believed us. This is the part of the story that makes for a great Kansas City welcome.
Still, it’s sad that we had to go through this, and even worse because the victims were out thousands of dollars.
Here’s what happened: On a Monday night in early June, I pulled up to the house with a full car, my Labrador retriever and tabby cat. After a long day of facilitating loading the moving truck and driving 5 1/2 hours, I was tired and certainly not expecting to see a strange car in my driveway.
Now, I have to admit I was frustrated and more than a little upset. I got out of the car and a woman came to the door. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“This is my house,” I said, no, demanded. “I have leased this house.” She shook her head. “No, I have the lease.”
I didn’t want to argue with her. I didn’t know who she was or if she was dangerous. It was late, I needed to find a hotel that took pets, and I needed to call my husband, who was two hours behind me on the highway.
It was after hours and offices were closed. I couldn’t talk to anyone to verify my lease. Still, I knew a few things that night:
We were in the right. We rented the house through a reputable property management company.
We took possession and got the keys the week before these people moved in.
We had already begun moving our things into the house!
Whatever happened occurred just five days after we were last there.
The woman said she had moved in over the weekend. My husband and I had been there a week before. Had she seen our stuff? Yes, they boxed it up and put it in the garage.
“The landlord told me they had terminated your lease and were going to let you know.”
What?
My husband joined me at the hotel a few hours later. It was a terrible night. We just looked at each other with vacant eyes. The two moving trucks were coming in the morning! What were we supposed to do? What could we do? What would tomorrow hold? We had absolutely no idea.
At the time, I didn’t know we had joined the ranks of a rising trend. Small comfort, but the Federal Trade Commission sent warnings on the signs of a scam and con artists at consumer.ftc.gov
“They tell you to wire money: Wiring money is the same as sending cash — once you send it, you have no way to get it back. … They want a security deposit or first month’s rent before you’ve met or signed a lease. … They say they’re out of the country.”
Come 8 a.m. the next morning, my fingers furiously dialed: to my property rental company, to a storage unit, to my movers. I reached the property manager and she was shocked. She, too, had heard about these kinds of scams but hadn’t seen it in person, like this. She confirmed that I was the correct tenant and told me to call the police.
Although I had a key, I waited for the police. I gave them the key, assured them that it worked and they went inside. The women were not there. But proof of their existence was: air mattresses, kitchen items, clothes. Not a lot of furniture.
The woman I’d talked with had given me her name and number the night before and I called and texted her.
While she was not happy, she said she realized that she and her family had been victims of a scam, too. She and her family did have somewhere to go and they moved their belongings onto a small truck they rented at the last minute.
FBI.gov reports some startling statistics: “According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which provides the public with a means of reporting Internet-facilitated crimes, there has been a steady increase in losses reported by victims of real estate/rental scams in the last three years. Nationwide in 2021, 11,578 people reported losing $350,328,166 due to these types of scams, which is a 64% increase from the previous year.”
If you think you have been the victim of a rental scam, report it through the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov
