I (and later my husband) were deceived by some "friends" and into paying rent on a place that wasn't theirs to rent out. I moved in January 2001, and lived there till February 2004. They offered a 'great price' on the place, and said they would pass the rent along to the actual owner of the property...except the owner of the property didn't know this was going on. It was a converted garage, and wouldn't have been fit to have tenets in according to building code. Because of this, I was to assume all repairs on the place (which I had to do once, on the plumbing).
It wasn't until much later, around April of 2005, after we had actually moved out and helped set up some other friends of ours to live on the property (still paying rent to the original couple--who decided to raise the price on them) that the current tenets found out through the real owner of the property that he didn't even know someone was living there, and had not received any money from that couple. He had let the original couple stay there free of charge. He did say that the couple had sent him a letter offering to be "property managers" of the place in exchange for some of the rent money. But the owner did not respond to this letter, and certainly did not give express permission for this couple to act on his behalf in sub-letting the place, because no one was supposed to be living there anyway.
In short, this couple deceived us into thinking we were sub-letting the place from them, when in reality, they had lived there free of charge and decided to make some money off the place when they moved out--even though it wasn't there property to begin with.
So we had been paying over two years' worth of rent that we didn't need to be paying. They insist they did nothing wrong, since the "rent" was cheaper than anything else around.
-Since I found out about this over two years ago, can I still take them to small claims court (Idaho is where they live)?
-Is this a legal issue that is beyond the scope of small claims court?
It wasn't until much later, around April of 2005, after we had actually moved out and helped set up some other friends of ours to live on the property (still paying rent to the original couple--who decided to raise the price on them) that the current tenets found out through the real owner of the property that he didn't even know someone was living there, and had not received any money from that couple. He had let the original couple stay there free of charge. He did say that the couple had sent him a letter offering to be "property managers" of the place in exchange for some of the rent money. But the owner did not respond to this letter, and certainly did not give express permission for this couple to act on his behalf in sub-letting the place, because no one was supposed to be living there anyway.
In short, this couple deceived us into thinking we were sub-letting the place from them, when in reality, they had lived there free of charge and decided to make some money off the place when they moved out--even though it wasn't there property to begin with.
So we had been paying over two years' worth of rent that we didn't need to be paying. They insist they did nothing wrong, since the "rent" was cheaper than anything else around.
-Since I found out about this over two years ago, can I still take them to small claims court (Idaho is where they live)?
-Is this a legal issue that is beyond the scope of small claims court?
