Apartment contract - are we free of it??? Please Help

[snowaddict]

Hi, Hope someone can give me some advice or point me in the right direction to resolve this problem.

My daughter has sold her contract for her accommodation. (she was in private accomodation and has dropped out of uni - she has moved back home)

The original contract was from last september till end of july. She told the reception people for the accommodation she wanted to leave and they told her to advertise her lease for the remainder time left - 3 months. She did this and got someone to take it on. They paid for May - July and they signed the contract which also needs a guarantor.(my husband was guarantor originally).

My daughter thought everything was fine until she called to collect a parcel and bumped into the new tenant for old room.

The new tenant now wants to move out as she has got something cheaper,She told my daughter that she thought the contract was not binding as she had found out that reception has lost the contract which was signed by her originally a few weeks ago.

My daughter has queried this with reception who have told her the cost of the rent of the apartment can not come back on her.

What a mess. Should I be concerned. Please help.

(By the way the tenant is still in the apartment and has paid in full for the 3 months until the end of july.)

I'm not entirely clear whether the new tenant paid the owners of the accommodation or your daughter. Either way, she will have to sue to get her money back. If the contract is genuinely missing that's a problem but by no means fatal. There will be witnesses who can testify that they saw the contract with her signature on it. In any case, she would need to come up with a plausible explanation for why she paid the rent in the first place. I think it is highly unlikely that the new tenant could come up with any kind of case to get her money back.

Thankyou for your response. Thats reassuring to hear.

Yes the monies were paid directly to the reception who sorted everything out.