Tenants sell landlords' pool in rent-to-buy swindle
A Perth family has warned about rent-to-buy property schemes after a tenant removed their pool and sold it illegally while they were overseas.
The family had been unable to sell their Quinns Rocks home at their desired $429,999 asking price until they responded to a roadside "we buy homes fast" sign as a last solution.
Under the ensuing deal, the tenant was to pay rent with the intention to buy the home after a year at around the revised $389,000 asking price.
Two weeks later the Clintons, who’d travelled to Ireland for family reasons, got a text message from frantic neighbours saying the pool was gone.
It transpired that the tenant, who had no authority to modify the house, sold the pool and pool fence for $3,000.
The rent-to-buy contract was terminated earlier this year, and the Clintons have since returned to the home.
The Western Australian Consumer Protection Commissioner Anne Driscoll has warned against rent-to-buy schemes, which are promoted as a way to get into the property market or sell in the current slow market.
Driscoll says the rent-to-buy schemes were not linked to the recent sale of two Perth properties in elaborate Nigerian scams.
