December 16, 2023 at 1:28 pm

HOA Insists Nephew Pay His Late Aunt’s Debt, But He Ends Up Getting Revenge And A Sizable Refund

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/Unsplash/@podmatch

I’ll take that!

Can you imagine how satisfying it must have been for the person who wrote this story to say that about the money they were told they owed before they figured out that it was actually THEM who should be getting paid?

It must’ve been glorious!

And he explained the situation on Reddit for all of us to enjoy.

Take a look!

Housing association wants me to pay my late auntie’s debt? No, pay me the money I overpaid instead.

“Before I lived in my current place, I was living with my Auntie, she was the main tenant who sorted the bills and I would pay her a lump sum each month as board payments.

He needed to find a new place.

In early 2021 she passed away unexpectedly, naturally I didn’t want to continue living in this place, bad memories and bearing the responsibility for an entire place alone wasn’t feasible for me financially at the time.

After speaking with the housing association, I was informed the only way to end the tenancy would be by getting the tenancy agreement moved over into my name, before terminating the tenancy when I was ready to move out.

They had to work out the details.

What I didn’t know at this point was that my auntie was in arrears on the rent payments, when it came to the point of leaving the tenancy, I had money in savings and just settled up the rent entirely (paying ~£500 of my aunties arrears on top of the rent I personally owed from living there alone) I then stayed at the place for a few more weeks before closing the tenancy.

In hindsight I probably should’ve queried the payment but at that point I just wanted rid of the place.

After moving into my new place, I was getting pestered by the housing association who said I still owed ~£300 on the previous house, there was a lot of back and forth, before I then asked for a copy of the rent statement.

Then they got some new info.

It was around this time that I was speaking to people about this money I supposedly owed, I was informed that I ‘probably’ shouldn’t be liable for my aunties debt as I didn’t receive the estate and was not the next of kin, however there was also an argument to be made that I was liable for the debt as technically my name was on the agreement and I became the main tenant.

With this information in mind, I looked at the rent statement, worked out how much money I owed from the first week after my auntie had passed, and deducted it from my total rent payments made after that point, it turned out I had paid ~£200 extra (assuming I wasn’t liable for the debt) I presented all my working out in a thorough email and sent it over.

I didn’t hear anything back from them after that conveniently and assumed it was all over, and I decided not to pursue this as I was sick of being pestered by them and I wasn’t 100% sure if I was or wasn’t liable for this money.

Two years later…

Fast forward nearly 2 years, I receive a letter last month just before Christmas stating that I still owed this ~£300 and that it would be sent to debt collectors if nothing was done.

At this point I was ****** off.

I spoke to someone who was able to tell me for sure that I am not liable for the debt in this particular situation, so I sent a firmly written email detailing how I don’t owe this money but in fact they owed me, provided all the evidence and threatened small claims if the situation wasn’t rectified soon.

They finally set the record straight.

It took weeks of me pestering them via phone calls and emails for me to be get in contact with a lovely woman who apologised on behalf of the company on how I was treated, she then got the ball rolling and eventually my ~£200 refund cleared the other day.

This was a particularly satisfying end because if they would’ve just left it I wouldn’t have chased it up and they would be £200 better off, what a shame!”

Here’s what people had to say.

This person summed it up perfectly.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another individual said they never should’ve signed anything.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This reader said this was a stupid move by them.

Source: Reddit/AITA

One individual said their credit might be in trouble because of this.

Source: Reddit/AITA

And one Reddit user shared a story about a bad landlord.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Well, it all worked out for them in the end.

You love to see it!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.