Safety & Trust
Reporting & disputes
Report bad actors, scam listings, or off-platform abuse. Our team investigates every report and takes action on confirmed violations within a few days.
How do I report a suspicious listing?
On any listing, click the menu (three dots) on the detail page and choose "Report." Pick a reason, scam, duplicate, inappropriate content, or other, and add details. Our admin team reviews all reports; suspicious listings are paused or removed within hours.
A landlord or tenant is harassing me. What do I do?
Open the message thread, click the menu, choose "Report user," and tell us what's going on. We review every report and can suspend or ban users who violate our terms. For urgent situations, also email support@furnishedunfurnished.com.
I paid the landlord and they didn't honor the agreement. Can you refund me?
No, Furnished Unfurnished doesn't collect, hold, or process rent payments. The transaction is between you and the landlord directly. If a landlord misled you or breached the lease, your recourse is through small-claims court, mediation, or, if their conduct violated our terms, by reporting them to us so we can suspend them. We can't recover funds you paid them.
What scams should I watch out for?
The patterns we see most:
- Wire-transfer-only landlords. Anyone who refuses every other payment method (ACH, certified check, Zelle, in-person cash) is a red flag.
- Photos pulled from MLS or another listing. Reverse-image-search the listing photos in Google before paying anything.
- Sob-story urgency. "My family is overseas, send the deposit today and we'll mail the keys."
- Asking for personal financial info over chat. Bank logins, full SSN, scans of blank checks.
- Refusing a video walk-through or in-person viewing.
- Rent dramatically below the local market for an obviously high-end unit.
If anything feels off, click the menu on the listing or message thread and use Report user. We read every report and pause suspicious accounts within hours.
The landlord asked me to pay outside the platform, is that a problem?
It's normal. We don't process rent. Every landlord on Furnished Unfurnished is paid directly by the tenant via whatever method they agree on (ACH, check, Zelle, Venmo, wire).
What's NOT normal: being asked to pay before the lease is signed, being told to send the deposit to an out-of-state account "as a holding fee," or being refused a paper trail.
Insist on:
- A signed lease before any money changes hands.
- A payment method that issues a receipt (ACH, certified check, or Zelle business with the landlord's real legal name).
- Keeping every payment record for the duration of the stay.
If the landlord pressures you to skip any of those, stop the conversation and report the user.
My landlord and I disagree about the security deposit. What can we do?
Furnished Unfurnished can't mediate disputes. We're a marketplace, not a tenancy authority. Try this order:
- Communicate in writing. Send the landlord a written demand quoting the lease and any state-required itemization deadlines (typically 14–30 days after move-out).
- Local mediation services. Most US counties offer free or low-cost dispute mediation. Search "[your county] tenant landlord mediation."
- Small-claims court. Limits range from $5K to $10K in most states. You don't need a lawyer.
- State Attorney General's consumer-protection office. They accept tenant complaints and can apply pressure.
If the landlord violated our terms in the process (harassment, fraud, fair-housing violations), report them to us. We can suspend the account.