How to rent an apartment on CIAN and not get caught by scammers

Author Irina Gusakova

03.02.2021 15:18

Real estate

If previously it was possible to safely find and rent an apartment directly through an advertisement in a newspaper, today the search for housing turns into a real adventure. There are a lot of fly-by-night companies whose activities are aimed at deceiving gullible customers using cunning tricks. Renting real estate can result in the loss of quite a large amount of money. How to get out of this situation? Listen to the recommendations of a well-known website for landlords and real estate buyers - www. cian.ru. Cian perhaps provides his clients with the most comprehensive list of tips for renting safely.

CIAN tips: how to rent an apartment safely

Cyan is the largest technological real estate service in Russia. Every day, thousands of different new properties are rented out with its help. It is not surprising that scammers are not averse to using the site for their own purposes. That is why Cian once again decided to remind the basic safety rules that will help the client rent an apartment and not lose his money. Yes, the company does have a security service and moderators, as the general director, Maxim Anatolyevich Melnikov, spoke about in his interview. Tsian’s employees work tirelessly, but the flow of published advertisements for the rental and sale of real estate is huge - hundreds of thousands per month, and it is difficult to track each of them. However, like any other business, Cyan’s reputation is important to him - that’s why company employees constantly urge their users to be vigilant and remind them of the most common risks that can be encountered on the Internet (including on other sites with advertisements rental of real estate). General Director Tsian Maxim Anatolyevich Melnikov, in an interview with a well-known publication, drew attention to the fact that the real estate market has become a tasty morsel for scammers whose activities undermine trust in honest realtors and landlords.

Self-employment and apartment rental

The status of a self-employed citizen allows you to solve some problems in the hiring issue.

Firstly, simplified taxation . We are talking about a tax experiment that is already being carried out in almost all regions of the country. Through the “My Tax” service, pay 4% of the amount of income. Reporting is generated by the same Internet service “My Tax”. The amount is paid monthly. There is no need to submit any declarations. The amount of income per year should not exceed 2.4 million rubles. This way of paying for your income is convenient and economical.

Secondly, there is no need to register as an individual entrepreneur . By registering as self-employed, a citizen pays a special tax on professional income. These obligations are sufficient for the state and there is no need to strictly tie oneself to the entrepreneurial path. Of course, if we are talking about renting out your home, which consists of no more than a couple of objects . If there are a large number of objects and other people’s objects will also be provided for rent (for example, for rent or real estate under management). This is already a commercial activity. You can’t do without an IP certificate.

Renting housing is not included in the type of activity of self-employed people, which is exempt from paying taxes. At the regional level, authorities at their discretion can determine the types of occupations that will fall under preferential status. But today, not a single region has included rental housing in this list.

How to rent an apartment on CIAN. Step-by-step instruction

If you decide to rent a house, follow the algorithm proposed by Cian:

Decide on the basic search parameters: location, number of rooms, budget. Having chosen a property, look at neighboring advertisements and compare the price - is it too low? Too low a price is usually used by scammers as an attractive bait to deceive customers.

When calling about an advertisement, do not forget to ask who owns the apartment and on what basis. Before renting out the property, ask in advance to bring documents of ownership and the owner’s passport for viewing. If the viewing is organized by a realtor, copies of documents are also suitable, but you should still check the originals before paying. Cian recommends that you always read reviews about the real estate company. They can also be published on independent websites.

If you need to rent a home, never pay rent in advance - no reservations (supposedly due to the influx of other sufferers). You should not follow the lead of scammers even if you need real estate urgently. Cyan reminds that in any honest company, payment is made after signing the contract and handing over the keys, which (check!) exactly fit the door. The same goes for paying a commission to a realtor - no “before”.

Find out how many people own the apartment. If there are several of them, make sure that the others will not object to your stay (preferably with a receipt). When a property has multiple owners, your attempt to rent a home can lead to conflicts and problems.

Tsian does not recommend renting a home without signing a contract. When signing papers, carefully read all copies, dispute points with which you do not agree. Pay attention to penalties and fines. Make sure that you sign the contract for exactly the apartment you are going to rent (the address of the apartment you viewed and the one indicated in the contract must match - check in advance). Pay attention to whether the contract specifies any sanctions in case of violations by the owner and how the contract can be terminated. Don't forget to discuss paying utility bills and returning the deposit for the property before you rent it.

Carefully draw up the acceptance certificate. Inspect the damage to furniture and household appliances (make sure everything works - this also applies to windows, doors and bathrooms) and note them in the report.

If a client plans to rent a home using the services of a real estate company, Qian recommends carefully studying the reviews of those who have already contacted them.

How to register a lease legally

Even if you decide to rent out an apartment to your best friends or distant relatives, it is better to document the transaction. A rental agreement for residential premises is drawn up (it must be distinguished from a rental agreement, which is concluded mainly between legal entities). On the Internet there are samples and contract options for different cases. You can draw it up yourself, contact a lawyer or contact us.

The document is signed by both parties. Notarization is not required, but is encouraged. The document will have no greater legal force than an ordinary written agreement entered into by the parties. But it is impossible to dispute it.

In addition to the rental agreement, a transfer and acceptance certificate of the rented apartment is drawn up.

The act describes in detail the technical condition of the residential premises: the presence of repairs, plumbing, as well as the furniture, household appliances, and other household items in the apartment. It is necessary not only to list them, but also to indicate in what condition they are, in what places they are located, name (model, brand), and determine the approximate cost (at least of the most expensive ones). In the future, it will be easier for the homeowner to assess the condition of his property and recover damages for damage to it from unscrupulous guests. The act is also signed by both parties after inspecting the apartment.

CIAN: where to look for a catch when renting housing?

And now - the main subtleties that a person who wants to rent a property should be privy to. Cian reminds us that the main rule of a smart tenant and buyer is “The miser pays twice.” In fact, most fraudulent schemes work when the victim wants to save money - rent a cheaper apartment (this is why it is worth conducting a comparative analysis of the offer on different sites), refrain from using the services of an experienced realtor (who will be able to reject a dubious option even at the ringing stage), buy to a more profitable option (but without documents or with the condition that the money is up front).

So, let's get down to business, Cian exposes the main fraudulent schemes that are used by dishonest companies.

Fake ads

Some fraudulent advertisements can be detected by an experienced eye without going to the scene. If you want to rent a property safely, then just take a good look at the text and photographs published on the site. What should be alarming about them?

Reduced price - yes, this has already been said many times, but it’s not a sin to repeat it. If you want to rent a property, don't chase the low price. It acts like a light bulb for moths: such ads on sites are paid attention to more often than other (honest) ones, which means there is a greater chance that someone will get caught. And even more than one.

Sometimes you should be wary of an overly detailed story about the apartment and a lack of adequate photographs (what is important to any tenant is not a highly artistic photograph of a flower and a door mat, but the premises themselves: kitchen, rooms, bathroom; if they are not in the photographs, move on to the next ad).

Cian reminds us that advertisements that contain no information at all look very strange. There are only a few photographs of the apartment that they offer to rent (and they do not always add up to the overall picture - for example, a corridor can be seen from the room, but in the next photo it seems to be the same corridor, but covered in completely different wallpaper).

Contradictions between the ad data and the words of the person who answered your call. The owner rents it out (at least that’s what it says on the website), but he can’t answer basic questions? You are already being fooled. The respondent cannot clearly talk about documents, other owners, or, for example, the view from the window? Don't linger. And, by the way, the promised view from the window after the conversation can be checked using the Panoramas service from Yandex.Maps.

Other types of liability

There are cases when citizens rent out several apartments they own at once. Such activity is recognized as entrepreneurial. Therefore, before renting out apartments, you must obtain the status of an individual entrepreneur. Otherwise, there will be liability under administrative (Article 14.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) or criminal (Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) legislation (depending on the amount of income received) for illegal business activities.

Let us clarify that if we are talking about one apartment, in practice it is considered that this activity does not relate to commercial activity. This is one of the types of activities of self-employed citizens.

Links to legislative acts

Federal Law of July 13, 2015 N 218-FZ “On State Registration of Real Estate” Article 51. Features of state registration of lease of real estate, rental of residential premises, gratuitous use (loans) of real estate
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 198. Evasion of an individual from paying taxes, fees and (or) an individual paying insurance premiums from paying insurance premiums
Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 671. Residential rental agreement
Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 682. Payment for residential premises
Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 683. Term in a residential lease agreement
Civil Code of the Russian Federation Article 687. Termination of a residential lease agreement

View properties

Cian reminds you that one of the main rules of viewing is to make sure that you are renting exactly the apartment that is mentioned in the ad that you are viewing and which will be indicated in the contract. There are several fraudulent schemes in this case:

They may tell you that the apartment you want to rent according to the advertisement just burned down yesterday, but there is another option very close by - no worse (spoiler: it is clearly worse or much more expensive, but someone also really wants to rent it out).

They may show you one apartment, and you will sign an agreement for another. This happens if someone changed the numbers on the doors or, having chatted up a gullible tenant, brought him to the next building. Tip: make sure that the apartment numbers on the landing are indicated in the correct order, and the house and building numbers match the details of the housing you were going to rent.

Instead of viewing the tenant’s apartment that the client wants to rent, scammers can invite you to the company’s office. This is done ostensibly to sign an agreement for the provision of information services. This is not a more responsible approach, but an attempt to extract money from you for imposed services. After signing the contract, you will most likely be sent to a “meeting with the property owner,” who, of course, will not come. All your data specified in the contract will later be transferred to the call center database, and you will then be tormented with advertising calls in an attempt to sell illiquid apartments. And, yes, the money for information services will not be returned to you - they, in general, were provided (and ask him if the owner did not show up).

Viewings of the apartment that the client plans to rent are always free – period. No self-respecting company whose activities are legal will extort money from a client for a routine inspection of rental housing.

Termination of an agreement

The grounds and conditions for terminating the tenancy agreement are specified in it.

The tenant has the right to terminate it at his own request, subject to 2 conditions:

all persons living with him agree with this decision;
the lessor is notified no later than three months.

The person renting an apartment may terminate the contract unilaterally on the following grounds:

the tenant does not pay rent for six months in case of long-term rental or misses two payments in a row if the rental period is less than 1 year;
damage or destruction by tenants of housing or property located in it;
using the apartment for purposes other than its intended purpose, for example, as an office, warehouse;
systematic violation of order, causing disturbance to neighbors (the violator was warned by the landlord, but did not correct himself).

The rental agreement can also be canceled through the court. The initiator of the claim is both the lessor and the tenant. The reason is usually that the housing has become unusable or has been recognized by the relevant authorities as unsafe.

If the tenant does not agree with the termination at the initiative of the landlord, he has the power to appeal this fact in court. If the rental agreement was concluded for a long term, the court may grant the plaintiff a deferment to eliminate violations and pay the debt for up to one year.

Payment for real estate

When discussing payment for housing, you should not switch to third-party messengers. Often scammers offer to leave the chat on the Cian website (supposedly it’s more convenient), and then, having already gained trust, they send links to payment (or to receive payment), which exactly copy the appearance of the corresponding page on Cyan, but in reality they are a completely different service whose activities are aimed at stealing card data. By following this link, the victim enters the card details, after which the scammers can write off everything that is there. You can recognize a fake site by the similar spelling of the site address - for example, ciian. ru. ciaan. ru.

You should not pay for additional services - for example, booking an apartment for which, according to the owner, there is already a whole line of people who are suffering and ready to participate in the auction (most likely, other auction participants will be fake, and you, in the excitement, can rent an apartment at a much higher price than planned). In addition, the very fact of booking is considered unacceptable on the official real estate market - respectable landlords do not practice this.

The term "deposit" and delayed check-in may be used instead of a reservation. Cian reminds us that this is a simple play on words, which gives scammers an excellent chance to pull off their scheme. Having paid several thousand and received an invitation to transport things in a week, you risk meeting another dozen of the same tenants with suitcases at the entrance. The scheme is simple: the scammers actually rented an apartment, and then simply rented it out to you, a woman with a dog, a respectable Slavic family, a lonely bachelor and a crowd of other potential tenants. Having collected deposits from everyone, the scammers gave their victims the right to deal with each other. Everyone will prove their right to stay in the apartment, but everyone will be left with nothing. You can't get your money back, you'll just have to write angry reviews.

This point, although it concerns payment, is easily clarified at the ringing stage. Apartments at reasonable prices may be burdened with the tenant's obligation to pay utility bills (usually the owner takes on this responsibility). Cian urges you to pay special attention to this small nuance when you are trying to rent a home.

You should not pay for rent before you are shown the original title documents for the apartment. Cian recommends that you check whether this data matches the data of the apartment you were looking at and the passport data of the owner. Many scammers rely on the inattention of clients in their activities.

If you have already been deceived when you tried to rent an apartment, be sure to share your misfortune with others - write a review about the activities of the real estate company or landlord to warn other clients.

Melnikov - Renting real estate under the threat of scammers

In an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, General Director Tsian Maxim Anatolyevich Melnikov said that the rental housing market is more susceptible to fraudulent schemes than the sales market. Cyan has been around for 20 years, and all this time, scammers never tire of coming up with new schemes.

To the journalist’s questions about how Tsian suppresses the activities of dishonest businessmen, Melnikov replied: “We are coming up with some countermeasures in response. User complaints are one of the most important channels.”
“In addition, over the past few years we have expanded a large data science unit, thanks to which suspicious advertisements are calculated based on a huge amount of information. Then they go to the moderators, who find out what’s going on,” Melnikov finished.

Thus, if you encounter a type of fraud not listed above when trying to rent a home on www. cian.ru, tell us about it, and we will add to our encyclopedia. This will warn other clients and prevent the activities of scammers. Melnikov’s words about security measures will be confirmed by the numbers:

About 19 million people use the Cyan website per month.

About 100 thousand suspicious ads that require additional verification are processed monthly on Cian.

Fake ads are monitored by numerous Cian moderators and hundreds of robots trained to identify violations based on special characteristics and transfer them to company employees for a final verdict.

In addition to robots and moderators, fake ads on Cyan can also be detected by users themselves. There is a “Complain” option for this.

In the Qian moderation department, there is a separate pool of 40 “mystery shoppers” whose tasks include ringing ads, during which a specialist introduces himself as a buyer, checking the reliability of the ad published on the site.

Real estate scam topics

Payment for rented housing

Payment for renting an apartment and making utility bills should be detailed in the contract.

Some landlords insist on a rent deposit. That is, they demand payment for several months at once. This way, residents will live in the apartment for the entire period they have paid for. This is the confidence of the employer not to be left without a roof over his head during the contractual period.

Information that a deposit for several months is required for renting an apartment is indicated directly in the contract or discussed verbally.

It is better to set out in writing the terms of the return (or non-refund) of the deposit in the lease agreement. Let's say the tenant decided to move out of the apartment earlier, within the period for which he had already paid the rent.

For example, the tenant paid a deposit for living in rented housing for 6 months, and after 3 months he moves out. The text of the document should resolve the issue: in this case, the landlord will return part of the rent.

There is a requirement to deposit the last month's rent. The scheme is as follows: double payment is made in the first month. And you don’t have to pay anything for the last month, since the deposit payment is the payment for the last period. This deposit insures the owner of the apartment if the guest moves out secretly without paying for the last month.

About receipts

It is advisable to record the transfer of any money for renting an apartment, be it a deposit or a monthly payment, with receipts. You can prepare a single form in which you only need to enter the amount and date of payment and sign the parties. Witnesses are often brought in to confirm the fact of transfer. Their details are included in the receipt.

It is also advisable to complete the receipt in two copies, so that one remains with the tenant and the second with the lessor.

If payment for rental housing is made in non-cash form, then the payer must keep checks (receipts) for the transfer of money to the owner of the apartment.