As far as property fraud or deceitful tactics go it is not quite one of the oldest tricks in the book but it has certainly been around for a while now. The tactic was first brought to my attention while working as an estate agent in the late-1990s when the arrival of the BTL mortgage was allowing thousands of new property investors, with cash savings available for deposits, to pile into auction houses and buy anything where the listed rental income would comfortably cover mortgage payments and expenses.

However, whenever there is a mass of investors fishing for quick and easy profits, there will always be a few sharks waiting to snap off their rods! What I am referring to of course is grossly over-inflated rental incomes.

From the point of view of the landlord selling the property there is very little downside, apart from possibly a few months lost rental income, but the upside can be enormous. The process is as follows: