How to Avoid Rental Scams in Denmark
Short answer: Never pay a deposit, prepaid rent or rent for a home you haven't seen in person, and never before you have a signed lease. Check who owns the home on tinglysning.dk (the Danish land registry) or boligejer.dk, only transfer money to a Danish bank account, and never send photos of your passport, driving licence or health insurance card.
You've found the perfect apartment online – nice condition, great location, a price that's just barely within reach. You message the "landlord," and the reply comes fast: she's unfortunately abroad right now, but just send the deposit and first month's rent and she'll mail you the keys. It sounds convenient. It almost never is.
Most landlords are perfectly ordinary people who just want a good tenant. But the housing shortage in Denmark's big cities makes it easy for scammers to trick people out of money for homes that either don't exist or simply aren't theirs to rent out. This guide shows you how to approach your home search so you don't become an easy target. If you want a quick list of the warning signs – or you've already paid – read 7 Signs of a Rental Scam.
What Does a Typical Rental Scam Look Like?
The classic version is a fake listing with stolen photos and a low price. The "landlord" can't show the home in person but would like the deposit transferred so you can "secure" it. Once the money is sent, she disappears – or new costs suddenly appear.
But a scam doesn't always need a fake home. In 2022, Copenhagen Police charged a woman with repeatedly signing leases for her own home on Amager, taking a deposit and then cancelling the agreement shortly before the move-in date without paying the money back. So it's not enough that the home exists – you also need to know who you're dealing with.
What Should You Check Before You Contact the Landlord?
- The price. Compare it with a few similar homes in the same area. Rent that's well below the going rate is often bait, designed to attract lots of interest and push people into quick decisions.
- The photos. Run a reverse image search, for example in Google Images, by uploading one of the photos. If the same picture turns up in another listing, under a different name or in a different country, stop right there.
- The address. A genuine listing has a precise address. In LejLet.nu's listing form, the address is chosen from Denmark's official address register via Adressevælgeren – but that says nothing about whether the person behind the listing has the right to rent the home out.
Why Should You Keep the Conversation on LejLet.nu?
Keep the conversation inside LejLet.nu's own messaging feature for as long as possible rather than switching to text messages, WhatsApp or email. That gives you a complete, dated record if something later turns out to be wrong – and the police specifically recommend keeping the dialogue on the platform where you found the home.
Be especially careful if the "landlord" quickly wants to move the conversation elsewhere or sends you a link where you're supposed to pay. LejLet.nu doesn't process any payments, so if you get a link to "pay securely via LejLet.nu," it's fake.
Why Do You Need to See the Home in Person?
The police advise against paying for a home you've only seen on video, because in the worst case it doesn't exist at all. See the home in real life, and check that the name on the letterbox and the door entry phone matches what the landlord has told you. If you can't go yourself, send a friend you trust.
Check who owns the home, too. You can look up the owner on tinglysning.dk or boligejer.dk and compare the name with the ID the landlord shows you at the viewing. If it's a sublet (fremleje), ask to see the tenant's own lease.
When Is It Safe to Pay?
Only once three things are in place: you've seen the home in person, you know who owns it, and you've both signed a lease.
- The lease. The Danish Rent Act (lejeloven) only allows authorised standard forms for residential leases – in practice Typeformular A, 10th edition (section 14). Read it carefully before you sign – see How to Read a Lease Before You Sign It.
- The amounts. The deposit may be at most 3 months' rent. Prepaid rent may also be at most 3 months' rent – and no more than the rent you'd pay during your notice period (section 59 of the Danish Rent Act).
- The payment. Only transfer money to a Danish bank account, so you have documentation of the payment. Don't pay in cash, and be very careful if the money is meant to go to a foreign account or via services like Western Union or PayPal – it can be hard to get it back from abroad.
- Your documents. Never send photos of your passport, driving licence or health insurance card, even if the landlord asks. The information can be misused for new scams in your name.
If you're pressured to sign or pay right away because "there are three other people interested," that's a classic way of putting pressure on you. A genuine landlord gives you time to see the home and read the lease.
What Does LejLet.nu Do – and What Doesn't It Do?
Companies can get the "Verified landlord" badge ("Godkendt udlejer") – a green tick next to the landlord's name on the listing page – once their CVR number (Danish company registration number) is active in the CVR register and we've manually approved that the person behind the account represents the company. The badge doesn't confirm that the company owns the specific home, and private landlords aren't identity-verified. See the full rundown in What Does LejLet.nu Verify.
If you come across a listing that seems wrong, you can report it directly from the listing page. A sender who pressures you or asks for money outside the agreement can be reported or blocked directly from the conversation.