Okay, so this is a complicated story and I want to be clear that I am aware that there are some things I did wrong in this situation, but basically, my partner and I were scammed.
In February we toured an apartment & signed a lease for a May 1 move in date. (I know this is super early and should’ve been our first sign, I hate the uncertainty of not knowing where we’re moving like 10 days before a move). We signed a lease & paid the normal security deposit & first month rent. Everything seemed totally above board & I was excited to have this stress out of the way.
Come to find out that the company we signed the lease with doesn’t own the building. They went into foreclosure on it in January & a new company had court ordered receivership over the property at the time we signed the lease. The current tenant resigned their lease with the company in control of the property, so her lease takes precedent.
Now, we don’t have an apartment or the money. No one from the company we signed the lease with will respond. The broker said he would give us his cut of the deposit back, but we haven’t seen it hit our bank accounts yet.
I’ve been calling around different legal aid help lines and no one has heard of this. Does anyone have any advice?
I’ve called the AG & will file a compliant if we don’t receive the funds by the end of the week (I was told I have to give them time before filing). But this seems like grounds for suing as well. I want my money back most of all but now we might have to pay for storage and a hotel if the new apartment we applied for doesn’t work out. Should we be planning to sue for damages?