Previous Owner didn't include actual lease, only Estoppel...

[Ladan Ballai]

Title doesn't do much justice, sorry!

tl;dr The previous owners were terrible landlord's and lost the lease. During the sale of the house, they "made up" a lease and Estoppel that forgot to mention that they collected last month's rent. Current tenant is wondering what happened to their pre-paid last month's rent, and rightfully so, doesn't want to pay it again! Owner (via their realtor) is claiming that they never collected it even though there are receipts and leases. But it gets more complicated, the lease and receipts are signed by the tenants of the house next door. Read on :)

So, I purchased a duplex in San Jose, CA back in April. During the sales process, the owner/landlord said that they didn't have copies of the leases for the duplexes and that they could furnish an Estoppel and "Lease". The Estoppel and Lease said they collected $750 deposit for one house and $1000 deposit for the other house. During the sales process, the tenants in House A ($750 deposit house) put in their 30 days notice and moved out 5 days after the title transferred into my name. House A moved out without a hitch, and they got back all their deposit.

Now, 2 months into owning the house, tenants in House B send me a text of their lease. I thought it was odd at first, but after thinking about it for a while, I believe that this is their lease. All the information matches, except for the fact that it says that the previous owner collected $2000 last month's rent in addition to the $1000 deposit. I asked them to give me proof (cancelled checks), but they couldn't because the previous owner only collected cash as payment. Instead, they gave me a receipt that was signed and shows that they paid all these amounts.

The kicker: it was signed by the tenants of House A. The reason is that the tenants in House A had known the previous owners for a long time and acted as the property manager. Now, these leases are not rock solid, doesn't make mention of House A being the "property manager" and owner's being the landlords. It is though signed by the tenant in House A.

Now the owner is saying that they didn't collect the $2000 last month's rent and $1000 deposit. They are saying that they only got the $1000 deposit.

So I called up the House A tenants to get some facts (I got it in writing too!). House A says that they did indeed collect the $2000 + $1000 and that they gave it to the previous owners.

My question to the community: WHAT THE HECK DO I DO NOW? The previous owners are not budging. Their realtor won't budge either. And I'm the one that's going to get screwed out of a last month's rent ($2000) because the tenants pre-paid it.