When people think about scams in housing, they often picture stolen passwords, fake emails and spoofed Craig’s List listings showing your property at a much lower price. For landlords and vacation owners, in reality, the most damaging risks in today’s rental and vacation home market aren’t about accounts or fake listings - they’re about access.
Across the DMV, we’re seeing an increase in cases where individuals misrepresent themselves to gain entry to a property, then become difficult and costly to remove, in some cases taking weeks and months of legal back and forth. In long-term rentals, this can mean unpaid rent, delayed evictions, or legal disputes. In short-term and vacation homes, it can escalate into unauthorized occupancy or guests refusing to leave. A recent case in Washington DC, where an AirBnB guest refused to vacate or pay and squatted at the property for months before a judge finally ordered her to be evicted. Once the wrong person has possession of a property, even temporarily, the owner’s leverage drops dramatically.
How These Situations Usually Start
Most of these cases don’t begin with obvious red flags. They start with someone who appears legitimate on paper but is not who they claim to be or who intends to misuse tenant or guest protections after gaining entry.
Common risk patterns include:
- Renters or guests misrepresenting identity, intent, or household size
- Attempts to bypass standard screening steps or rush move-ins
- Short-term guests pushing boundaries around length of stay or occupancy
- Situations where owners lack clear authority or enforceable agreements
In tenant-friendly and legally complex markets like the DMV, prevention is everything. Once someone has keys, codes, or established occupancy, removing them can take time even when they are clearly in the wrong.
Why Prevention Is the Only Real Solution
At Chambers Theory, including Stay with Chambers Theory, our job is to ensure the wrong person never gains access in the first place. That responsibility sits with us, and our tested systems that are designed around one core principle: access is earned, not assumed. Scams succeed when owners are asked to trust too early, move too fast, or operate without structure. Our clients don’t rely on luck or platform defaults. They rely on the Chambers Theory process which is anchored by our professional judgment and accountability to you backed by a team that understands both the local market and the legal realities of property access in the DMV. The goal isn’t to fix problems after they happen. It’s to make sure they never happen at all. That’s the Chambers Theory difference and why prevention is always our first line of defense.
