Hi all you wonderful people. I recently dealt with the following situation:
We moved across the country to an apartment that turned out to be a bait and switch craphole. Pictures didn't match reality. Amenities listed weren't actually available/usable. Unsafe parking lot with multiple lights not working and known car break-ins, tire thefts. Misrepresented a fire alarm incident as a false alarm, when in reality it was a Carbon Monoxide event and a ton of fire department people were sent out. The unit was full of things that a landlord would charge you to fix, i.e. mismatched paint, gouges on the walls, damaged baseboards, lifting floorboards, etc. It was basically section 8 housing without section 8 pricing.
The lease contained a 30 day termination clause which allowed us to get out of it, but we had to pay for "concessions" which was 1 month of free rent. (info- we already paid a bunch of "non-refundable" deposit BS which was at or more than 1 month of rent.)
Due to the timing of everything, I didn't have the financial means to pay this let me out of jail fee along with paying for new apartment and everything else, so my parents helped by paying with their credit card.
My question is what would the potential consequences be of them initiating a chargeback for that "termination" fee? Has anyone else gone through something like this?
Possible pertinent info- my parents do not live in VA.