Bengaluru security deposit scam | Landlord vanishes without returning deposit to tenant

Seeking support regarding his money recovery, the tenant has requested the Bengaluru, and the Karnataka Police to take immediate action against the landlord.

A tenant from Bengaluru, residing in a flat in BTM Layout, recently posted an update of his life on Reddit that has gone viral. He has mentioned that his landlord has allegedly vanished without returning his security deposit, calling it the "Current scam in Bengaluru."

According to his post, he vacated the flat after giving proper notice, and as per the rental agreement, the owner, Mr Chaitanya, was supposed to return his security deposit. However, he just disappeared, and stopped responding to the tenant's phone calls as well as messages.

Redditor posted the screenshot of his chat with his landlord.

Seeking personal support regarding his money recovery, the tenant has requested the Karnataka Police to take immediate action against Mr Chaitanya. "I am also willing to provide proof of tenancy, rental agreement, chat/call records, and bank details of the deposit transaction if required," he wrote in his post.

He also shared the screenshot of his one-sided texts and calls on WhatsApp with his landlord, in which he can be seen warning him that he would go to the police for a complaint for the same.

Moreover, calling it an action of exploitation with the tenants in Bengaluru, the Redditor wrote, "This is not just an isolated incident — many tenants in Bengaluru are facing similar issues where owners exploit tenants by refusing to return their deposits after vacating. Such actions are unethical and amount to cheating and breach of trust."

Reacting to his post, several social media users started reacting in his favor. One wrote, "Put the address of the flat across social media platforms, so that no one rents this flat again. Than only these people will learn." Another user wrote, "This scam needs to end in Bangalore. On what basis are house owners asking 3 months "security"? To rent a room of let's say 15k, 45k security is being asked? How does this make any sense, I have never seen this in any place in the world."

While one Redditor tried giving him suggestion to get rid of this situation. He wrote, "Go to the police station with some Kannadiga friends. I also had some owner return my token amount in the same way."