Need urgent advice, Lease/sublease crisis

[Ciarraghe G.]

Need some urgent advice, today if possible. Our tenant's lease ends on 3/31, it is paid up through the end of the month. The new tenant's had a lease that was to begin on 4/1. The new tenant contacted the original tenant to negotiate that they would pay them an undisclosed sum to move out early (3/24) so that they could move in early. We agreed that this was OK with us, as it was only 8 days early, and agreed to rearrange our lives to help make this happen as a goodwill gesture.

We did the final walkthrough with the old tenant yesterday upon their move out. The new tenant moved in today.

We signed an addendum with the new tenant to start 3/24, and they paid us the amount of rent for the 8 days extra that they will live there.

Are we required to refund the old tenants the amount they paid us, when the new tenant has already reimbursed them directly? The old tenants are now demanding reimbursement from us (as well as also contacting the new tenants for more money) for the 8 prorated days when the new tenant has already reimbursed them.

Is this actually better handled as a sublease and should we void the addendum and instead sign some sort of sublease acknowledgement and send that to the prior tenants? We feel that it's unreasonable of the old tenants to ask for reimbursement from us and the new tenants. We also don't know if since we've been paid in full by the prior tenants who've verbally agreed with the new tenants an unknown contract, if we're able to accept the payment they are giving us for the 8 extra days.

Not sure if it's relevant but our lease with them clearly states that if they leave the lease early they are required to pay us 2.5X the monthly rent amount as a lease break fee. We have not addressed this with them at this time.

We discussed with a lawyer who assured us that we are in the right to keep the old tenant's full month payment, as well as the new tenants payment and that the old tenant has been reimbursed already so there is no need to worry. But I'm still wondering if I can trust this advice.

Help? Thanks