OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla — Action 9 is looking into what some believe is rental scam sweeping the country.
Christy Cosgrove was looking for a place to rent in Osceola County. She came across a rental home listing that looked interesting and was asked to pay an application fee before even viewing the property. She told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal the ad she saw was on the well-known legitimate website Realtor.com. So, she paid the fee but now believes it was a bogus fee and she’s not the only one to complain.
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Cosgrove said, “They told me it would just go towards the down payment, the deposit. So, it didn’t, you know, nothing seemed fishy about that.” She added that she was informed if she decided not to rent the home, her fee would be refunded.
“So, I found a place that I really liked and reached out to the phone number on the site,” Cosgrove said.
She now believes the rental ad she found wasn’t from the real listing agent. A phone call led to a text message linking her to a website called Locayt with a web address Locayt.com. That’s where she said she was asked to pay a $49 fee.
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She said they explained it this way, “It’ll cost you $49 and then if everything clears up, then we’ll reach out to the realtor and have them contact you.”
But after some delays in response, she began to have some doubts. Finally, after some back and forth with Locayt.com, she said the company gave her the contact information for the real agent.
Cosgrove said, “I explained him (the listing agent) what happened, because I was starting to get suspicious about the website at that point. And he said, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’”
According to Cosgrove, the agent handling the listing wasn’t aware of Locayt.com and said there was no pre-application fee, and he never even listed that property on Realtor.com.
He believed someone must have scraped his real ad and re-posted it on Realtor.com with contact information that eventually led Christy to Locayt.com.
“There are multiple rental listing platforms where consumers are coming across Locayt,” said Better Business Bureau CEO Holly Salmons.
Salmons noted Locayt has an ‘F’ rating with the Better Business Bureau based mostly on unanswered complaints. The BBB has received hundreds of consumer inquiries and more than a hundred ScamTracker complaints from across the country about the website. Action 9 also saw Reddit threads with people complaining about Locayt.
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Some consumers report paying the application fee and other fees only to have the company ghost them or claim they showed up at the property and found it wasn’t even for rent.
Salmons said, “So, you want to make sure that you’ve done your homework ahead of time, and that can oftentimes start with who owns this home.”
She recommends a simple Google search at first or searching through available public property records.
After Action 9 started asking questions, Locayt responded by email, writing: “Locayt is a rental syndication company similar to Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Hotpads, Realtor.com, Rental Beast and many others.”
It went on to say it specializes in connecting rental prospects with agents across the country and in this case, it provided Christy Cosgrove with the direct contact information for the listing agent.
The company also wrote, “Locayt does not believe the BBB has any accreditation, they are an outdated ‘organization’ that falsely luers (SIC) in consumers to use their platform for data.”
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The company also pointed to a video on its website that explains it’s not the owner or agent for the properties.
Still, Christy Cosgrove believes other renters should do their own homework before handing any money to Locayt.
“I think that’s pretty awful. There’s a lot of scammers out there,” she said.
The good news is Christy Cosgrove paid with a credit card and was able to dispute the charge to get a refund. Other people have reported getting their money back directly from Locayt as well after complaining and Locayt told Action 9 it does typically refund those who are unhappy with the service.