Landlord rented my apartment without telling me? won’t answer my calls?

By lisa

I lived in Massachusetts, and then moved out of state 3 months before my lease was up. Because I haven’t found a sublet, I have continued paying my rent for the remaining months (because it’s illegal not to, right?).  I was friends with the neighbors at my old apartment, and they called me to tell me that there are plants hanging in the window and they asked if i knew that new tenants moved in! I said no, and I had definitely paid rent for that month. So I emailed my landlord to make sure he has my forwarding address and I requested that I have my security deposit and last month’s rent to be sent to me. That was two weeks ago and I’ve been calling him and he hasn’t responded at all.

Even if my neighbor’s were mistaken, he should have gotten back to me to tell me if there weren’t any new tenants. But in that case, why are people putting flowers and crap in what is technically still MY apartment that I am still paying rent for?

The apartment doesn’t even have a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm (or at least it didn’t for the 2 years i was living there). It wasn’t until i moved out that I learned that it was illegal not to have those in the apartment. I’m thinking that because I am out of state, that the landlord thinks I’m not going to notice what goes on with the apartment. He has always been nice to me so far, but It’s really stressing me out that he hasn’t made any efforts to get back to me after i’ve emailed him and called him numerous times leaving voicemail messages, sweetly asking that he give me a call so that we can discuss the status of the apartment. I haven’t threatened him, I’ve stayed calm, I just don’t know what to do. I’m a young college girl with not a lot of money and the money that I feel like he owes me could be a huge help for paying for school. Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

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