Real estate scam. They thought about enjoying two days of disconnection and found themselves with a full-fledged rip-off.Four families of the island rented for 600 euros a house in Son Verí Nou for Easter and, when they showed up at the door, the house was closed and the alleged owners did not pick up the phone. “The lack of protection we felt was total,”.

Four Mallorcan families will take a long time to forget the fiasco in which their vacations of the last Holy Week became.They had planned to spend two days in a house rented in Llucmajor. There were seven adults and six children.After making a deposit of 606 euros to the alleged owners of the house, they presented the agreed day and found the house closed, with the appearance of being abandoned and with some owners disappeared, who did not answer the phone or emails.They soon realized that they had been victims of a scam.

“We know badly above all because of the illusion that children had.From a few days before, they got up in the morning and the first thing they did was ask us to see when we were going to go on vacation to the house with a pool “,one of the affected women reports, saying that, the same day, they reported the events in the Guardia Civil barracks in Llucmajor.

He explains that they found the house on the Fotocasa website. It was the one they liked the most. They wanted to leave Palma for a few days and thought that this would be the best option: a large house that was advertised with seven rooms and a swimming pool, located in Son Verí Nou, not far from Palma.

From April 13 to 15

Then, they got in touch with the supposed owners of the house. First, through whatsapps exchanged with a woman who responded to the name of Elisa, 606 euros were paid to spend two days in the house, between April 13 and 15.

From the beginning, there were problems when making the transfer. On two occasions, they tried to make the deposit and two different banks (one German and one Spanish) returned it.

“She, the supposed Elisa, scolded me for WhatsApp, told me that I had not put the concept right, that the transfer was not well done,” recalls one of the affected.

The day before they entered the house, without having made the cash yet, they were called by a man with whom they had never spoken. They assumed it was Elisa’s partner. Your name, Pedro.

In several telephone conversations, Pedro asked them to make a deposit at another bank. Affected families remember that they were in a hurry for the transfer to take place before the stay began.

“I did not understand why, I thought money could be delivered by hand when we saw each other in the house, but I made the payment from a cashier,” says the person who took care of the reservation of the house.

Missing from the map

On Thursday, April 13, at 10 in the morning, they appeared in front of the house that they supposedly had rented to spend two days on vacation. There was no one waiting for them. They rang the bell, and nothing. They gave a waiting time of courtesy, but still nobody came.

They say that they called Pedro and Elisa. Unsuccessfully. They had disappeared from the map.

“From the beginning, we saw that there was something strange, the house was closed, the pool empty,” they say.

They then talked to neighbors in the area, who corroborated that the house was not for rent. “The neighbors told us that the house was of Germans with a lot of money, so they were not in need of renting it for rent,” explained the affected families.

“You feel a total lack of protection, to which one neglects a bit, look what happens”.

And the worst part of the case, they stress, is that the house is still being offered on the internet for holiday rentals. Of course, the contact telephone numbers of the alleged owners have changed.

Tips for a safe rental

To avoid fraud in the rental of holiday homes, the experts in the real estate sector give several tips in order to heal in health and not to reproduce cases such as these four Mallorcan families. To begin with, they say, you have to be suspicious right away if the owner shows excessive hurry to close the contract. This was the case of these neighbors of Palma, whom the owner repeatedly urged to make the transfer. At the time of signing the contract, it is necessary to make sure that the DNI and the name of the owner are included. And, if a transfer is made, it is convenient to verify that the data of the destination account is the same as that included in the contract. It is also recommended to ask the owner for a landline with which you can contact him.