Rental Villa - reassuring a newbie !

[CanadaJulie]

I have rented a villa in Davenport (Legacy park to be exact) for 1 month from mid-april to mid-may. The balance payment is due this weekend.

Since I am new at Villa renting, I had asked for some reassurance from her since this is a lot of money to send to a stranger. She has given me a "guest book" webpage and has told me to contact anyone on it for references (I haven't done it) and also gave me the name of the management company. I have the address and directions as well (my husband was in Palm Beach and thought he might go look at it if he had time - which he did not)

Anyways, I discovered this board afterwards and today I found the link to find the owners name if you have an address so I looked up our villa. The name of the owner does not match the name of the owner on my rental contract. Is this normal ? Could the owner have contracted this other person to rent out the villa for him. Should I be worried ?

I paid via paypal (cc) so I have some measure of protection but as we are going for 1 month, I would hate to get down there and find there is a problem with the villa ! Especially as we are travelling in 2 groups - my parents will get there before us (I only arrive for the last 2 weeks)

Slightly Paranoid,
Julie

 

[5mins2disney]

It's somewhat normal for a person to do "bookings" for another owner. We do this for our friend's townhome and advertise it on our website as our townhome #2. Why don't you call their MC and just make sure it's all ok if you're not sure?

One thing is for sure though, if you show up and there's no villa there, Paypal and Visa will side with the consumer, and you will get a refund after putting in a dispute! Visa is great about protecting consumers from fraud!

I'm sure it's probably all fine, I've never heard of anyone putting up a "fake" ad listing to try and scam people out of their hard earned money though.

 

[KayR]

Ask if the owner is on one of the advertising sites that asks you to verify that you own the home. There are a couple of sites that do that. One you have to reverify every 6 months. In addition, some advertising sites say something like "member since xxxx" - that way you can tell how long an owner has been renting.

Talk to the management company and the owner. Tell them you are concerned about the discrepancy and see what they say.

You could ask to see a copy of the home's rental licence or sales tax licence. (The owners or their management company should have both of these) or look on https://www.osceola.county-taxes.com/tcb/app/main/home where you can locate occupational licences.

It could be that the owner is new and the site you are looking at may not be up to date. Or someone could be renting the home on behalf of a friend - not everyone has all the time it takes to rent out a vacation home.

-Kay

 

[JANNYANS]

Legacy park is in Polk so the site you would need is

http://www.polktaxes.com/occupationaltax/otrinitial.asp

to check on a license but it may be under the man co's name

 

[martina857]

I would be "slightly" worried about this and make sure I am certain what is going on before paying the balance, ask why the owner of the house is different to the name on the contract and also contact the management company.

Martina

 

[CanadaJulie]

but it may be under the man co's name

That's what I was thinking too - maybe it's under the husband's name. Anyways, I called the management company and spoke to someone there. She's going to check and call me back. She said she should also have the information on OUR reservation so I can double check both ways (check that we are booked and check that I am sending the money to the right people)

 

[FLParadisevilla]

That's what I was thinking too - maybe it's under the husband's name. Anyways, I called the management company and spoke to someone there. She's going to check and call me back. She said she should also have the information on OUR reservation so I can double check both ways (check that we are booked and check that I am sending the money to the right people)

Well thats great to hear! I like George have not heard of people listing fake homes and scamming people out of money. I think its great that you are double checking to get the info that you need to make it more comfortable for you! Keep us posted and Have a great trip! ENJOY!

 

[CanadaJulie]

So I talked to the lady I have been doing business with (we'll call her "Sarah") and she told me she was renting it for a friend (we'll call her "Joanne").

I already had the friends name because that is what was on the rental form.

The part that was worrying me was that none of these names matched the name on the Polk county tax records, we'll call him "Bob".

SO ! I went on peoplefinders.com and looked up "Bob's" name. On this site, it offers "possible relatives" and "Joanne" was listed right there. I assume that Joanne is Bob's wife.

So we're all cool ! I can stop worrying now... (fat chance - I'll just find something else to worry about !)

Thanks for all your help !
Julie

 

[FLParadisevilla]

Julie,
Don't worry about anything. You are going to have a great time!! I think your probably right with Bob being the husband. It seems with tax records etc. they seem to go in the husband's name first and then the wifes name. I know our home is listed that way. My husband does not handle any part of the Florida house so if someone were to look up the tax records they would find my husband before me. So I put his name on the Website and part of the paperwork, I hope that helps for anyone who looks us up to rent our home.

I am so glad your feeling better about this. I think you are going to have a wonderful trip and enjoy yourself so much you will want to do it again!
Be sure to let us know how your trip was. When are you going again?

 

[Mari annie]

They could also be divorced and his name is on the home.............
lots explanations these days....
good to check out things before, I am sure everything will be okay.

I am leary of things like that myself, you're not the only one!
I called some time share offers myself yesterday for a friends trip and I just put in time share offers and it was someone's house, a gentleman answered and and I straight out asked him, the web page didn't look professional.......
looked like a one person operation, no booking for me, he hesitated on a few simple questions I asked........

all of us are "newbies" when it comes to Fraud, I worked in Fraud Prevention with banks for 7 years so I am a little more leary than most....................

Have fun on your trip!

 

[CanadaJulie]

Thanks for all the reassuring guys and gals !

This is a first on a lot of things: first villa rental, first time travelling with others (my parents) and I just didn't want any last minute mess ups !

I am OK with the names and all and I'm back to planning - full speed ahead !

Our group is split in2 - My parents arrive the 14th of April, My DH/DD8 and I arrive the 28th of April and we all leave May 13th.

CAN'T WAIT !!
Julie

 

[FLParadisevilla]

Julie,
Have a GREAT time!!!

 

[Kellydelly]

This happened with our last rental. The person I was dealing with was acting as "agent" for her friend, so there were plenty of names going around on the paperwork and emails to confuse the heck out of me ! The name on the property deed didn't match any of the names, either . Thankfully everything was fine and the house was waiting for us like we were hoping . It's hard not to worry and second guess when you are dealing with big transactions like this.