I spent six months paying my landlord rent — until the real owner turned up at my door

A tenant spent six months paying rent to who he thought was his landlord, only to realise that he’d been the victim of a scam.

‘I rented an apartment from this guy about half a year ago fo💖r me and my son,’ the post from @Capable_Blood1968 in the shared,ไ noting that until now there had been ‘no issues’ and that his landlord was ‘friendly.’

But when he got a knock at the door from someone who claimed to be the ‘actual owner’ of the building, he knew something was 🔯ಞhorribly wrong.

The fake landlord, who was actually the tenant, had been illegally subletting.

wasn’t without reason for believi༺ng that his ‘landlord’ was who he said he was, as he’d been given what looked like a legitimate lease and paperwork.

‘I was confused…apparently this dude has been illegally subletting to me with fake contracts and hasn’t paid rent to the real owner in months,’ the post🔜 continued. ‘I’m not sure how long for exactly, but enough to start the eviction process.’

After the Redditor realised what was going on, he quickly texted his fake l✅andlord, demanding an explaination.

At first he claimed it must have been a mistak﷽e, but he went 💎onto to deny that the tenant had sent him any money for ‘rent’ in the first place: ‘I’ve spoken with my bank. I’m sorry I cannot find [a] record,’ the scammer’s initial reply read.’

Despite the Redditor pointing out that he’d signed a lease – and that since he knew he had kids,💮 he’d been put in an unthಞinkable situation, the scammer eventually ignored his calls.

Sadly, he wasn’t alone, as many recalled similar experiences in the comments section – including @Intelligent—Bug, who was in a rush to find a ﷽flat when ꦍthey were 18.

🐓‘Guy told me he was subletꦅting to me, I didn’t bother checking with the landlord,’ his words read.

‘His stuff was there so I guess I naively assumed he was incentivised to pay the rent. Come to find out 1.5 months in he wasn’t so I got kicke🍰d out. I did get back every cent I paid to the kid though [and] I had an obvious advantage because my dad’s an attorney.’

@RespawnUnicorn recalled an experience of their neighbours, who had someone tr🍒y to sell their house illegally.

‘They had just got married…both parties had owned their homes but obviouꦛsly only needed one, so rented the other out,’ they recalled.

‘No issues with the tenants until about a year later when they had a pint𝓡 with their old neighbours who asked them how the sale was going. Turnﷺs out the tenant had put the house on the market.’

And for @inComplete-me, sadly they were ‘evicted on a cold day in January’ af♑ter they found out their so-called ‘upstairs landlords’ we🌌re actually squatters.

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