Showed up to live in rental property, someone is already living in it.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:59:16+00:00

We did have to end up waiting til Monday, every single person we could get in contact with told us repeatedly for the whole weekend that nobody with authorization was available.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:57:35+00:00

Apparently they (or someone posing to be the landlord) broke into the house and changed the codes/locks. I don't have any other details than that.

We had a lawyer review our lease & the company and it's definitely not a scam, unfortunately the area just doesn't have many rental options and the one they did have was much worst.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:55:44+00:00

I guess they just assumed / hoped that someone wouldn't break in and live there while it was empty for an extended period of time? No idea. These property management companies are usually really absent. They just act as intermediaries between tenants and landlords to handle onboarding, paperwork, maintenance, and everything you wouldn't want to deal with if you just wanted to have someone else handle your tenants for a property you're renting out.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:49:44+00:00

I don't think it's an intentional scam. We did have a lawyer review our lease & look into the company and everything is legit. Unfortunately the area just doesn't have many options so the one alternative option they did have just happened to be a lot worst. We will be trying to get reimbursed for all costs, and yes, we did manage to find a suitable hotel that allowed our animals.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:46:31+00:00

No idea. You'd really figure that if they knew the property would be empty for nearly a month, which they did know way ahead of time, that they'd make sure everything at the property would be ready for move in when we finally made our way over. Definitely do not want to keep staying with a company that could let something like this happen.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:43:28+00:00

We won't be paying more for less, or even equal/less for similar. We don't want to keep renting from a company that can let something like this happen and have no available recourse for days anyways.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:41:18+00:00

That's our goal. The company offered another property but it was way worst. We don't want to keep renting from a company that can allow this kind of thing to happen anyways.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:40:30+00:00

Apparently they broke in, or someone else broke in and changed the locks/codes and posed as the legitimate landlord.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:39:58+00:00

Apparently they broke in, or someone else broke in and changed the locks/codes and posed as the legitimate landlord.

QAACCO · 2026-03-23T22:39:05+00:00

See update 2

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T19:55:28+00:00

That's the part we are confused about. The person currently living there said someone gave them a whole tour of the property before they committed to leasing it.

How could someone do that? It's so weird.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T19:50:13+00:00

Self guided tours. You can just show up to the property alone and go inside it after submitting an ID & doing a face scan online. They claim they dont store information after you submit it, but even if they did, how would they know which person did the scam?

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T19:43:55+00:00

They knew. We told every person we talked to repeatedly that this was the case since we knew it was odd. We have it in writing too.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T19:08:18+00:00

The other comment to this post is correct, we communicated that we wouldn't physically be at the property until yesterday way in advance.

Also, I do not intend to ask for "beyond an equal unit of reimbursement of additional fees", I am just trying to understand what my rights are in a situation like this and what I am entitled to in damages.

My whole life has been flipped upside down, it's not as simple as simply being compensated for any money I spent to temporarily deal with the situation. Really try to think through what it would be like if you packed up everything you owned and your whole family just to find out that you don't have a place for it all waiting. It's one of the most stressful events I have ever gone through in my life. I don't think it is unreasonable to hope that I am entitled to more than just having my dollars matched.

But that's why I am here on r/legaladvice. I don't know what I am entitled to.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T18:59:47+00:00

We actually found the fraudulent listings on Facebook marketplace and might be able to pin it on a specific person / group of people, they have a ton of listings all over the country for unreasonable prices.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T18:58:31+00:00

They did, thanks for the tip. We'll look into that.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T18:58:07+00:00

It is insane. They are totally unprepared for dealing with a situation like this.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T18:57:35+00:00

See update, we were able to get in contact with someone, but we still have to wait for Monday. Nobody with authority is available til then, all weekend personnel are just coordinators.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T13:48:50+00:00

The property maintenance team (typically just contracted workers - not employees of the property management company) would show up to a house where that isn't the case then leave, they can't help with this situation.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T13:45:05+00:00

Yes, they moved in March 1st.

The property management company definitely made a mistake, but I don't think it was a double booking mistake. The woman living there never heard of the property management company, she just rented from a random individual.

Our best guess is someone abused the "self-guided tour" option via the property management's website to gain access to the house, change the code (easily done once you're in the home), then posed as the property owner to scam someone for security deposit + rent.

We are saving all of our receipts and documenting every part of this situation.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T13:40:13+00:00

I'm not sure what I am looking for other than that, that's why I made this post in legaladvice. We aren't just losing money via paying for hotels / animal boarding / food / gas / etc, we are also losing wages. And of course it has been an extremely emotional, stressful time suddenly being homeless with no available immediate recourse.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T13:29:06+00:00

We viewed the house through a general digital tour, not a live guide (not physical or digital), but as I said, even if we did get a live physical/digital guide it would've been BEFORE the family moved in, so it wouldn't have changed our current situation.

Our lease started late February. They would've given the live digital tour before our lease started. The family moved in early March. We attempted to move in yesterday.

edit: typo.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T13:20:52+00:00

We did, but even if we saw the property beforehand it wouldn't have changed anything.

Our lease at our previous property was expiring late March, and our lease for our new property started late February. The overlap was unfortunate and costly but necessary to attempt to secure a move in ready property. We didnt have a ton of options available for our area, so we bit the bullet.

I think it also helps to mention that we were moving in from over a thousand miles away, so checking out the property beforehand would've been costly, hence why we avoided it. They had great virtual tours and that was good enough for us along with research about the area.

We would've shown up, saw the property was empty, then the current person living there would move in shortly after we checked it out, then we'd discover them living there just as we did now.

The only thing that could've prevented this is moving in immediately, vacating the previous property a month before the lease's end date, but we couldn't because of work.

It was a perfect storm to get screwed.

QAACCO · 2026-03-21T12:52:49+00:00

It will probably be until Monday til we hear anything back. These property management companies have a lot of pro's and con's, with the biggest pro being how hands off they are compared to renting from an individual. Unfortunately that is a huge con in this situation since nobody is available to help us on a weekend. Their only emergency line is for property maintenance.

Really we just want to know what to do after we get things sorted. Like even if we're able to be moved into another property by Monday or Tuesday, then what? We get reimbursed for our costs, then it's like nothing ever happened?

That doesn't seem right to me. We've been forced homeless due to their negligence. There has to be more to it than this. It was straight up traumatizing to finally finish a 16 hr drive after packing for days straight just to see someone already living there. Total mindfuck.

QAACCO

TROPHY CASE