Rental Scams on Rent.ie

How Rent.ie's listing and reporting system actually works

Rent.ie is owned by Daft Media and shares infrastructure with Daft.ie: its advertising sign-up, house rules, safety guidance and reporting route through Daft's systems, and both sites use the same Daft support helpdesk (support@daft.ie). That matters because the platform does not verify a landlord's identity or ownership before an ad goes live. Anyone who registers can post, and moderation is reactive rather than proactive — the house rules state the site does not monitor advertising, but reserves the right to remove ads brought to its attention by a complaint or a 'report ad' notification.

The house rules do include some structural anti-fraud measures worth knowing. Advertisers must input an eircode for all sales and rental listings, each property can be advertised only once (duplicates are automatically deleted), and deactivating an ad and re-listing it as a new property is prohibited. The advertised phone number must be correct, and you must have the permission of the owner of the number to display it. Advertisers who breach the rules face a three-strikes policy: if information posted by an advertiser has to be removed on three occasions, the account is blacklisted. None of this confirms a landlord is legitimate, but a listing missing an eircode or reposted repeatedly is a signal the platform's own rules discourage.

Reporting a suspicious Rent.ie listing, step by step

If a listing looks wrong, use the 'Report Ad' button located beneath the photographs on the listing page. This is the fastest route to get an ad reviewed and pulled. If you have already exchanged messages, gather that correspondence first: copy the ad's URL, screenshot the listing and photos before it disappears, and save any emails or WhatsApp messages, including the sender's email address and phone number.

As an alternative or follow-up to the button, you can email the Daft support helpdesk (support@daft.ie) with the full details — the ad reference, the addresses and numbers involved, and copies of any correspondence. Because Rent.ie and Daft.ie are run by the same company and share a support desk, either site is a valid route to report the ad. Keep every receipt and message, as this is exactly the evidence An Garda Siochana asks victims to retain.

If money has already changed hands, report it to your local Garda station as well as to the platform, and contact your bank as soon as possible. If you live outside Ireland, An Garda Siochana advises reporting to your local police station and asking them to forward the complaint to Irish authorities. Retaining copies of payment receipts, contracts and all correspondence is central to any investigation.

What Rent.ie protects you from and what it does not

Rent.ie's protections are limited to the platform layer. It can delete a fraudulent ad, blacklist a repeat-offending account and hand account details to authorities on a valid legal request, and its rules block obvious duplicates. What it explicitly does not do is handle money between users. As Daft's safety guidance states, the site does not handle money exchanges between users, so any request to wire a deposit, pay before viewing, or transact 'through Rent.ie' is outside anything the platform controls or can refund.

The site's own red flags are worth taking at face value: long-distance landlords who claim to be abroad and need to deal remotely, requests to wire funds by a service such as Western Union, anyone claiming to work with or for the site, 'sob stories' about family or financial hardship, and listings riddled with typos. Because there is no identity verification at posting, the burden of confirming a landlord is real falls on you. An Garda Siochana's baseline advice is direct: view the property in person, confirm the person letting it actually owns and has access to it, ask for and photograph their photo ID, ensure the keys fit and open the door, sign the rental contract before paying any deposit, and pay by a traceable method such as a cheque or bank draft so a record exists.