Calgary landlord warns of couple's offer to help find renters for a fee

A Calgary landlord is warning others to be wary of a local couple offering to help track down renters for a fee, saying the couple's pitch was misleading and they misrepresented themselves to both prospective tenants and the landlord.

Liana Burak Harrison says she clued in before she handed over any money when she realized the couple had cloned her RentFaster ad and were tryingto secure a nearly $4,000 deposit from potential renters withouther knowledge or permission.

She also found out belatedly that, according to Alberta'sReal Estate Act, only licensed property managers can charge a fee to find a landlord a suitable renter with penalties of up to $25,000 for unlicensed practitioners. Yet the duo offering to find renters for her aren't listed on theReal Estate Council of Alberta (RECA)'s site and the group warned that unlicensed property managers are a big problem in the province.

"What I really want to do is to stop these guys from taking advantage of people because, you know, I think that it's tough for a lot of landlords right now and tenants. It's tough for everybody," said Burak Harrison, a Calgary landlord.

"And certainly the service that they say that they're providing is not worth a month's rent."

Burak Harrison says she and her husband were contacted by Dino and Jayne Rossi in March through the Harrisons' RentFaster ad.

The Harrisons had been advertising their rental property, a two-bedroom home in the northwest community of Hillhurst, on the website since January.

She says the Rossis told them they were rental agents, with a real estate company called CKV Developments.

She says the Rossis said they represented a pool of qualified candidates, such as nurses and doctors, looking to relocate to Calgary, and that they could help the Harrisons track down a suitable tenant for a fee $1,700, equivalent to one month's rent.

Burak Harrison says she questioned whether they really needed the Rossis' help but thought they could keep their options open. Besides, she said, no contracts were signed, and they could always turn down a potential renter if they weren't suitable.

"We did think, 'Hey, we haven't rented our place yet, and these guys say they have a pool of renters; if they can do it and it's a good fit, you know, maybe it makes sense.' But we weren't resolved about it."

In the meantime, the Harrisons kept searching on their own for potential renters through their RentFaster ad.

Burak Harrison says the Rossis showed the home a few times, virtually and in person, and each time, Burak Harrison's husband let the Rossis into their property.

And it wasn't until a young couple contacted the Harrisons for a viewing in April that the Harrisons started to realize something was off about the Rossis' offer.

CBCNews reached out to the Rossis several times by phone and email. Jayne Rossi declined to do an interview. She said she did nothing wrong and didn't have to answerany questions.

Cloned ad

It started with a young couple, MacKenzie Andersen and Mathew Saly, who were looking for a place to rent. They stumbled across two ads for the same place and made inquiries on both.

The Harrisons, who owned the property, received a request and responded but didn't hear back.

They didn't know the Rossis had cloned the Harrisons' ad without their permission and had set up a showing with the young couple.

After the showing, the couple wanted to proceed and it wasn't until the Harrisons saw the rental application the next day that they realized it was the same couple who had contacted them earlier.

"I'm thinking this doesn't make a lot of sense," said Burak Harrison.

"So we thought, 'Wait a minute, what is happening here? How did these people (the Rossis) get involved (with this couple)?'"

Burak Harrison says she called the couple to find out how the Rossis got involved in their rental search and that's when the couple told the Harrisons there were two ads on RentFaster.

The couple said one ad had the Harrisons' contact information and the other ad had the Rossis'. And the couple said after speaking with the Rossis, they didn't bother replying to the Harrisons' email because the couple felt the ads were either a mistake or redundant.

"They are not the landlord nor were they ever authorized to act as the landlord to intercept the communication to use our pictures and our description of our rental property it's wrong.

"So they're kind of scooping the contact and then they're charging, they're trying to take a month's rent."

Mark Hawkins, the owner of RentFaster, says legitimate, licensed property managers often search out landlords on their website to offer their services.

Hawkins says that may include finding them a renter for a fee. Or cloning an ad to try to boost traffic or jazz it up.

But Hawkins says all of their services, the role of the landlord and the fees are laid out in a written contract agreement.

"Unfortunately, with this case, I think it's the landlord that didn't necessarily do the due diligence on somebody that was providing a service and that service provider has misled them a little bit," said Hawkins.

'It's something we investigate a lot'

A spokesman for the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) says not everyone realizes that, according to the Real Estate Act, only licensed property managers can charge a fee to find a landlord a suitable renter.

"It's actually quite a big problem. Maybe not the exact thing that's happening in this situation, but there is a big increase in unlicensed property management," said Bryan Douey, communications and connections manager for the real estate council.

"It is something that we investigate a lot," added Douey.

When CBC News contacted the Rossis, Jayne Rossi said they were licensed property managers.

But CBC News could find neither Jayne or Dino (Diego) Rossi listed as a licensed property manager on the RECA website.

Douey says those who are found guilty of providing those services without a licence could face a penalty of up to $25,000 per instance of unauthorized practice, under the Real Estate Act.

Burak Harrison says there was never anything put in writing. She says everything was done verbally, in person or over the phone. And she never asked to see a licence.

"I think it's very hard to uncover exactly what was going on here. It's not very clear."

Plus Burak Harrison says she didn't know a licence was required to charge a fee to help a landlord find a renter.

No private network

RentFaster's Hawkins also says it is unlikely that any property manager, licensed or otherwise, would have access to an active list or pool of people looking to rent a property. He says renting is a fairly "on-demand" type of service.

"It's not like there's this private network," he said,

"So the comment where these two said they had a pool of potential renters is probably misleading and an overstatement on their behalf," said Hawkins.

Hawkins says property managers may have different ways to find renters but in Alberta he says the No. 1 way to find renters is through RentFaster.

But more importantly, he urges landlords to do their due diligence when hiring plumbers, contractors and property managers.

"The landlord should have maybe done a little bit more digging, due diligence. Where would you find this pool of tenants? What's your credentials? Do you have any sort of licence? What makes you an expert in this field?"

Burak Harrison says, looking back, she wishes she would have asked more questions at the start, but she only became alarmed when she realized the Rossis had cloned her ad.

Around the same time, she also discovered the Rossis were trying to secure a nearly $4,000 deposit from the young couple, and trying to negotiate their first month's rent without the Harrisons' permission.

"They're playing both sides. They're telling landlords that they are representing this pool of candidates of tenants, and they're telling tenants that they're representing the landlord," said Burak Harrison.

In the end, the Harrisons have stopped dealing with the Rossis altogether.

CBC News reached out to another landlord who is working with the Rossis who said they had no problem with the services the Rossis were offering.

They said the Rossis approached them with an offer saying they represented a pool of potential tenants and would help them find a renter for one month's rent in this case, $2,100.

The other landlord also said the Rossis told them they were going to clone their ads to help attract more renters and the landlord was fine with that.

But they said they didn't realize people need to belicensed property managers to provide this service.

RentFaster says landlords can contact them if they have any questions about unsolicited offers from rental agents, leasing agents or property managers.

And RECA says it's important for landlords to check its website to ensure property managers are licensed to ensure they are properly trained and have undergone a criminal record check.

As well, landlords would have access to a consumer protection fund if a property manager took off with their deposit.