A flatshare or roommate wants your ID before viewing
SpareRoom, Gumtree, Facebook groups — the request that arrives before you have seen the room.
Short answer
- Before a viewing is the tell. Real referencing happens after you have seen the place and been offered it.
- ID plus a holding deposit, before viewing, is the classic scam pair — one funds the fraud, the other resells your identity.
- A live housemate is not a letting agent. They have no statutory check to run, so a redacted copy is entirely appropriate.
- Reverse-image-search the listing photos — duplicated listings are the fastest thing to catch.
You reply to a room advert. The response is quick and friendly, and before any mention of a viewing: “Can you send a copy of your ID and a holding deposit so I can take the room off the market?”
That is not referencing. That is the opening of a well-worn scam, and the sequence is what gives it away.
The order is the signal
A genuine flatshare runs like this:
- You reply to the ad.
- You view the room, in person or over a live video call with the actual housemates.
- You are offered it.
- Then someone asks who you are, so names can go on an agreement.
Documents at step 4 are ordinary. Documents at step 1 are not, because at step 1 there is nothing yet to reference: no agreement, no tenancy, nothing that your identity is needed for. Anyone asking then wants the document itself.
What the scam actually is
The listing is copied from a real letting somewhere else, with real photographs. The advertiser is abroad, or working away, or otherwise unable to meet — but will post the keys once the holding deposit clears. Two things get taken:
- The money, in a transfer that will not come back.
- The identity document, which is worth more than the deposit and is resold or used to open accounts. See can someone steal your identity from an ID photo?.
Two checks cost you a minute each: reverse-image-search the photos, and search the address. Duplicated listings across several sites, or photos that belong to an estate agent’s completed sale, end the conversation immediately.
| Stage | ID request | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Before any viewing | Any | Red flag — decline |
| Before a viewing, with a deposit | Any | The scam, near-certainly |
| After viewing, before agreement | Name and photo | Normal — send a redacted copy |
| Agency referencing | May be broader | Ask which check, then decide |
What to send when the request is real
Once you have seen the place and been offered it, a housemate or a small private landlord needs to know who is signing. That is your name and your photo. It is not your document number, your machine-readable zone, your date of birth or your signature — a live-in housemate is not running a statutory check and has no basis for keeping any of those.
So: cover those four, keep name and photo, and watermark it “For [address] room share — [date]”. Anonymize my ID does it on your phone with nothing uploaded. Where an agency is involved and a formal check genuinely applies, when redacting your ID won’t work sets out the boundary, and is it safe to give a landlord a copy of your ID? covers the tenancy side.
The sentence that settles it
“Happy to send ID once I’ve seen the room and we’ve agreed — I don’t send documents or deposits before a viewing.”
A real advertiser says “of course”. Everything else you needed to know arrives in the next message.
If you have already sent something, work through you already sent an unredacted ID copy.
Frequently asked questions
Is it normal for a flatshare to ask for ID?
Yes, at the right moment. Once you have viewed the room and agreed to take it, the lead tenant or landlord will usually want to confirm who you are before names go on an agreement. That is ordinary. What is not ordinary is being asked before you have seen anything.
Why is being asked for ID before a viewing a red flag?
Because nothing at that stage requires it. There is no agreement, no referencing and no tenancy. The pattern it belongs to is the copied listing: an advertiser who cannot show you the property, asks for a deposit to hold it, and collects identity documents on the way through. Both halves are the point of the exercise.
What should I send once I have actually seen the room?
A redacted, watermarked copy: name and photo visible, document number, machine-readable zone, date of birth and signature covered, stamped for that address and date. A housemate is not running a statutory check and has no claim on those fields.
The advertiser says they are abroad and will post the keys. What then?
Stop. Keys by post, an advertiser who cannot meet you or arrange a viewing by a third party, and pressure to pay quickly are the three constants of this scam. No amount of document redaction protects you from sending money to someone who does not have a room.
Can a letting agency ask for more than a housemate?
An agency running formal referencing or a right-to-rent style check may genuinely need more, and should tell you which check it is running and why. Ask. If the answer is that it is just for the file, a redacted copy is the right response.