Wonder if anyone might offer their opinion on this situation please. Please bear with me. I will get to the point. I was living with my young family and husband in rented accommodation beside a neighbour for about 6 years. During this time my neighbour became what I considered a friend. She often arrived at my door unannounced, text me, sent me photos, arranged to meet up and we often attended events together. I struggle to trust others but felt that this lady was honest and kind and I felt that I could confide in her over a number of things. She also confided in me about different things.
About 18 months ago, our landlord said that they were moving back into our rental property and gave us notice to leave our rental on this basis. My husband and I sought to buy and find alternative rental properties in the area and searched daily for over a year. We were almost on the verge of registering as homeless when at the final moment before our notice ran out, we found another property.
During this time, my neighbour ie. this lady would often text me and call to me to enquire about whether we had found anywhere to move to. She knew the enormous stress that we were under and the difficulties we were facing as there is a huge shortage of accommodation in our area. I cried to her on occasion as the pressure was too much and I was dealing with a long term illness too amongst other things that I'd prefer not to say here.
When we moved out a few months ago, we promised to stay in touch and meet up when things had settled.
We have since found out from another neighbour who we bumped into purely by accident and who we didn't know too well that our former rental property is now being rented to another person (it was RE rented 1 month after we left) and our landlords did not move back in.
We were excellent tenants and had paid our rent on time and in full so it's very hard to hear that it now looks like we have been subject to an illegal eviction by our landlord which we will deal with separately.
What hurts the most though is that this lady who I considered my friend lives next door to our former rental house and has yet to tell me that the house is now rented to someone else. We had been texting frequently over the past few months since we moved out and in my last text to her I asked her out straight if our landlords had moved in yet. She replied to everything else in my text but not to this question which I found do strange as she is normally quite precise with her replies. I am starting to feel very suspicious now. I do not know why she is reluctant to share this information with me. It would be perfectly obvious to her that someone else was living at our old address and indeed 8 expressed concerns with her at one stage that I really hoped the landlords were not lying to us and evicting us under false pretences.
We could sue the landlord for an illegal eviction but what hurts so much is that she knew the hell we had been through trying to find another home for our young children and seems to have chosen not to share information with us that we have been evicted under false pretences. I'd understand if she was someone who kept too herself but the fact that she was active in pursuing a friendship with me (or so I thought) and constantly asking me to meet up with her etc. My husband says not to let it bother me and go let it go as she wasn't a true friend and I only had coffee with her a few times a year.. but I think I valued her friendship more than she did mine and I feel sick to think that she is withholding information from me now. I know that if she was in the same position I'd certainly have told her. Please be kind in sharing your views but I'd appreciate your honesty also on if you think I'm overreacting. Thank you.