A recent Florida State University graduate says she discovered strangers had begun living in the townhome she rented.
In a now-viral TikTok, Claire (@claire_lewos) says she hadn’t been to her apartment in a couple of months. It’s common for university students to leave their apartment and go back to their hometowns for the summer. She says she made a trip back to campus to remove the rest of her belongings. She wanted to collect her things before her lease expired on July 31. When she arrived at the property, she says she noticed the front door was ajar. She says the interior also smelled like marijuana—an activity she says she and her roommates do not take part in.
“I thought maybe it was just maintenance,” she says, recalling that all the bedroom doors were also unlocked. But that thought was quickly squashed when she entered her room. She says she noticed her clothes had been thrown out of her closet onto the floor. And, she adds, her bedspread was undone as if someone had slept in her bed.
“Someone had been living in my room,” she exclaims. As she entered her bathroom, she says she saw water dripping from her loofah. The still-wet loofah implies someone had used her shower not long before she arrived.
Claire says her dad contacted the landlord, who promised to change the door code. But that solution wasn’t enough to keep the strangers from reentering. On Monday, Claire says she received a call from her neighbors that the strangers were back. The strangers reportedly claimed that it was legal for them to live there.
@claire_lewos I literally don’t understand how any of this is legal but go noles
♬ original sound – Clairelewos
Commenters expressed their shock at Claire’s predicament, suggesting how to resolve the issue.
“Girl, did you file a police report? If you don’t, there won’t be a record of anything. Get things in text from property management and roommates,” one wrote.
“I would make them refund you whatever rent you were paying while these ppl were living off your dime; that is so unreal!!!” another said.
The follow-up
In a part two video, Claire says she called the landlord’s office. The landlord, she says, told her that the strangers were “vendors”—workers who are responsible for renovating in between tenants—and were allowed to live in the apartment.
“Excuse me? In what world? That’s literally illegal,” Claire says in the clip.
According to Claire, the landlord then claimed that Claire wasn’t paying rent—to which her dad cited that they were still paying through July 31.
@claire_lewos Part 2
♬ original sound – Clairelewos
When a landlord double dips
In the comments section of that video, viewers told her to sue the landlord for “double dipping.” Double dipping is when a landlord collects rent checks from two different tenants for the same space.
“Call them back, record the conversation of them saying they’re allowed to be there and sue the complex asap,” one suggested.
“There are landlord-tenant laws in Florida; you can have your landlord’s ass handed to your dad. Look into it. I won on my own,” another added.
It’s possible and legal for another tenant to take over a tenant’s existing lease. However, that usually involves the consent of the tenant and the landlord. In Claire’s case, the landlord was still accepting her rent money while letting another person live in her apartment. It’s unclear if the landlord is also accepting rent money from that person. An attorney in California wrote on a public forum that landlords “cannot double dip by collecting rent from you and the new tenant.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Claire via TikTok comment.
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