CONVENIENCE COST

Once upon a time, a couple leased a property through a broker.

Their lease still had a few months left when the broker reached out and said the owner was short on cash. As an incentive, the owner was allegedly willing to reduce the monthly rent if the couple paid the lease extension in advance.

Afraid to lose the opportunity, the couple immediately transferred the funds to the bank account provided by the broker. After all, the broker had been extremely helpful during their move-in, and everything had gone smoothly so far.

A few months later, the couple received a Notice to Vacate—this time directly from the owner.

It turned out the bank account they paid into was not the owner’s.

The broker could no longer be contacted.

JPRE: Lining up at the bank and waiting 1–2 hours just to deposit a check is something everyone dreads. Technology has made this easier—fund transfers can now be done in seconds using a mobile phone.

But as the story points out, convenience comes with risk.

How do you really know you’re sending money to the right person? Unlike GCash, which reveals parts of the recipient’s name, bank transfers provide no built-in confirmation of the account holder’s identity.

Important: QR codes are not foolproof either. The displayed name can be manually renamed, meaning the QR code may appear to belong to the owner even when it does not.

Lesson:

For large payments (e.g., > Php 10,000) made to people you do not personally know, it is safer to deposit a check payable to the owner exactly as stated in the title. It’s entirely possible that the “owner” you dealt with is not the same person named in the title.

If, for privacy reasons, the lessor refuses to show the title, request any of the following:

+ A Certificate of Ownership from the condominium administration, or

+ The billing statement for association dues, which almost always reflects the registered owner in the title.

Convenience should never replace verification—especially when large sums of money are involved.