Chongjin has witnessed a recent string of scams in which renters posing as homeowners sold their rental homes before running off, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Aug. 4 that “Chongjin recently saw several incidents where renters sold the homes they were renting before running off. This caused major problems for the homeowners who lost their homes under their noses.”
In the past, people with financial means would make money by buying separate homes to rent out in return for monthly rent payments. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s economic downturn, however, some people have been selling their spare homes to make ends meet, with some even renting out their actual homes while they themselves live in warehouses or tents.
There are also cases of parents and their married children surviving by pooling their possessions and moving back together, renting out whichever of their homes can earn the most in rent.
However, homeowners are suffering losses amid a recent string of real estate scams involving renters who, pretending to be owners, sold their rental homes and absconded, or who rented out the property to other renters and disappeared after collecting the rent.
Finding scam artists not an easy task
For example, a couple in their 50s in Chongjin’s Chongam District had been living with their married child for the last six months after economic hardship forced them to rent out their home. In early July, they returned to the home to collect the rent, but were perplexed when they found strangers living there.
The people in the house said they moved in a couple of days earlier after buying the property. The middle-aged couple explained that they were the owners of the house, and then asked the people to vacate the house immediately.
However, the people who had moved in refused to budge, saying they had paid the full price of the home. The matter ultimately became a legal dispute that has yet to be resolved, the source said.
“Nowadays, right and wrong depends on which side pays the bigger bribes, no matter what, so it won’t be easy to resolve the problem. The important thing is finding the people who flee after selling the homes they’re renting out. This isn’t easy, though, so homeowners are facing terrible losses.”
In another district of Chongjin, a renter posing as a homeowner rented his place to another renter before running off with a year’s worth of rent, the source said.
“People are committing all sorts of crimes, perhaps because it’s now so hard to put food on the table. Homeowners these days won’t rent to people they don’t know out of fear that they’ll lose their house. Would-be renters are having a tough time finding homes they can rent out as a result.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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