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Imagine deciding to move into an apartment with your roommate, but after agreeing to the rent, you’re hit with another fee and another bill for rent. Would you keep paying or would a scam alert go off in your head and cause you to back out of the rental?
In this story, two roommates are in this situation, and the one who wrote the story shares how she finally was able to get the landlord to respond to the situation.
There’s still no resolution, but she’s wondering if she has gone too far trying to get her money back.
Keep reading for all the details.
AITAH for email blasting my landlord’s entire professional circle after they scammed me out of rent?
A few years ago, I got an offer to sublet an apartment that looked completely normal on paper: a clear rent, a normal deposit, and a signed agreement matching what the landlord said.
Then the twist came: instead of just paying that rent and deposit, I and a colleague (roommate) were directed to also pay a separate “consultancy” invoice that was directly tied to getting access to the apartment.
After transfers were made, the total amount that ended up moving between us and the people involved was roughly €6,000 (2 months deposit, first month, and cleaning fee)
It doesn’t look like they’re getting their money back.
Shortly after those payments went through, they moved out, and we got in the apartment, we told them we didn’t think the consultancy was legit, so the Landlord’s husband cut the arrangement with the housing company short without any real explanation and refused to roll the “consultancy” chunk into the actual rent or deposit.
I later ended up paying the housing corporation again for the same month, meaning I effectively got hit with duplicated first months rent while all that money sent went nowhere.
When I tried to sort it out, radio silence.
The housing company let us stay there for the year, but didn’t help us deal with Landlord or Husbands actions.
I formally reported this to the police and also started a case with my lawyer to try to contact them.
She tried one more time.
So today, after another round of non‑answers and no updates, seeing that nothing concrete had changed, I sent a very very long, concise, detailed, fact‑heavy email with her and her husbands full name and DOB, not just to her and her husband, but to her employer, her coworkers, her supervisors other business coworkers, the local police of her town, local journal outlets, linkedin said her company was due for an award so that award companies employees too.
Over 38 email addresses, and only 5 bounced after I sent it.
And would you believe it, she replied, after years of not hearing a word from her. No formal agreements yet but it’s a start.
AITAH?
She overpaid, and now she wants her money back. I doubt that she’ll get it, but the email isn’t a problem. Agreeing to pay something she didn’t think she should have to pay was the problem.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person thinks she handled the situation well.
Another person calls the landlord a thief.
Here’s a suggestion to send another email.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about neighbors who couldn’t ignore reckless neighborhood driving after an accident occurred.
But this person has questions.
I have questions too. Why did she agree to overpay in the beginning? As she’s finding out, it can be hard to get your money back. It would’ve been better not to agree to pay it in the first place if she didn’t think she should have to pay it.
I don’t think there was anything wrong with sending the email though, but I’m still not optimistic that she’ll get a refund.
