Is it too late to put a stop payment on any of your checks? It probably wasn't a good idea to send her the balance of the rental when you hadn't heard from her for 2 weeks and without having a lease agreement. That doesn't bode well. Normally you send the deposit with the signed lease. But you mentioned that you mailed her a check with your deposit - so you do have more than her email address and phone number. Have you thought about sending a certified letter to that address?

Thanks for the response. I think it may be too late to stop payment on the check as she already cashed one of them. Maybe I'll stop at the bank tomorrow morning and see what I can do.

Yes - you are right - I have her address as well. I had not thought of sending a certified letter. What should I say in that letter?

I googled her and she actually owns a business in the town we are renting in. Maybe I should call that store? It is odd because she was very responsive in the beginning and then disappeared after 9/3.

Oh I have an idea- can you email her under a different email address and ask about the house she has listed on cyberrentals? Don't let on that you've already been in contact with her. If she responds then that might be a clue that she's a fraud. You could even go a step further in a second email and inquirer about renting the house for a week- starting Oct 2. If she says you can have it then you know she's a con artist.

We must have been tying our messages at the same time!

I would definitely call the business and see what you can find out. Maybe she's just lackadaisical, but it gives me a bad feeling. The fact that she was responsive until she got your money just doesn't sit well.

By all means, call her business.

While you are trying to contact her, you may want to return to the cyber rental site and see what protections they offer in the case of fraud.

I don't really have any more suggestions to add, but just wanted to say how sorry I am that this is happening. We have been renting private condos from individuals for a number of years -- in fact, yesterday I mailed out a deposit check for an upcoming trip -- and having an owner suddenly and inexplicably go "M.I.A." is something I do worry about. As the others have said, I would attempt any and all phone numbers and would send a certified letter to all known addresses as well.

In fact, if you want to email me and give me the link to where her home is advertised, I'll contact her and inquire about the property to see if she's still even "out there" responding to potential renters.

Thank you all and auntjen - that was so sweet of you to offer to help me out.

I called her at the store listing from my google search today and caught her by surprise. She asked if she could call me back but I told her that I was very concerned as I had not heard from her since she cashed my checks and if she didn't send out the paperwork I would report her for fraud. She didn't apologize but said she would get the paperwork to me.

She did send it to me and it looks to be in order but I am still nervous as she was not as pleasant and/or helpful as other owners have been and I hope that we can get in once we are there. My only consolation is that she does own a store in the area so if something goes wrong (no key, house already occupied etc), I'll just make a scene at the store :)

I'll chalk this up as a lesson learned. Next time I am not sending anything without a fully signed agreement in hand. It does make me wary about renting a house again.....

Well, she's definitely a bit of a flake. What kind of business does she own? Perhaps she wasn't that pleasant because you caught her at a busy time for her business AND you started talking fraud..........not something that would put me in a very good mood. And only you know whether she had time to apologize for all the delays before you put her back up with the fraud thing.

Sometimes when someone assumes that everything is fine they don't move on the things they need to do right away. Even my DH can be guilty of that at times. Let's hope that's all it is here and you have a nice stay.

Red

I actually didn't use the word "fraud", I said that if I didn't receive the promised doc then I would be forced to leave negative feedback on her business practices on cyberrentals. That was really my only recourse as the checks were already cashed and the bank said there was nothing I could do.

But I get what you are saying. Despite my cynical nature, I'll say she probably is more of flake than a fraud. It's just scary when someone has a lot of your money tied up and then doesn't respond.

Thank you for the well wishes. I am actually so relieved and looking forward to the vacation.

I do appreciate everyone taking the time to talk me through this- it was really stressing me out since the vaca is next week.

Have a wonderful time and tell us how you liked the rental!

Red