Woman buys apartment only to find someone else is already leasing it after receiving strange email

A woman recently bought her first home only to find out shortly after that the previous owners had already leased it to someone else.

Buying your first home is a milestone lots of people look forward to.

But for this woman, that dream quickly turned into a messy nightmare.

McCayleigh Daniels took to TikTok to explain her story and ask for any advice on her rather unusual situation.

Daniels started her video saying 'right now I feel like I am the only person this has ever happened to because Google isn't helping me', explaining her mom who is a realtor had never seen anything like this before.

Daniels had been living at the apartment for two years with her partner, Cristian, before deciding to purchase the property from their landlord earlier in June of this year.

After owning the home for around a month, Daniels received a strange email that completely threw her for a loop.

The email reads: "I'm reaching out regarding the property you purchased at [Daniels' address]. [...] I viewed this house in February 2024, and signed a lease on 2/15 with [previous owners].

"We were shocked to learn last week (7/17) that the property was sold. After reaching out to [previous owner] she tried to inform us that the lease was cancelled due to the sale.

"Leases cannot be cancelled unilaterally this way. Under the law a lease contract would follow the property to the new owner, making you and Cristian our new landlords.

"Our contract legally entitles us to move into [property address] on 8/7. That being said, our first choice is not to pursue legal action in an attempt to move into your home."

The email goes on to reiterate how this situation has hugely inconvenienced the 'leasing' party, costing them time and money and explaining how they wish to resolve the issue without 'legal action'.

Daniels says in the video that she and her partner had no idea whatsoever that the previous owners of the property had leased it to anyone else.

Feeling panicked, Daniels responded to the email explaining their situation and how there was 'never any documentation acknowledging the lease of the home to anyone' upon closing the sale.

Daniels says after a couple emails back and fourth, the person claiming they'd leased the property kept asking questions and threatening legal action with Daniels found 'scary'. After a few emails, Daniels left the situation alone expecting the person to contact the previous owners and work it out with them.

Leaving the audience on a cliffhanger, Daniels returned to TikTok on 08/08 (the day after the leasers were supposedly meant to move in with an update.

Writing in the caption, Daniels said: "I know ya’ll have been waiting for this! We stopped communication and took this to our title company and they spoke to their attorney.

"The existing lease should have been disclosed by the previous owner. Now what goes on between the other two parties (if anything) is between them. It’s been crickets for us since our first exchange of emails, and we didn’t get any surprise visits on the day they said they were supposed to be moving in."

Many commenters were warning Daniels and others to never respond to emails like this (especially not with personal information) without an attorney as it could be a scam.