‘This is definitely fishy’: Tenant Venmos rent to the wrong person for a year, faces eviction and a $18,000 repayment once she figures it out

For many, spelling someone’s name correctly is a matter of being respectful. However, for one tenant in America, getting one letter wrong in the name of her landlord catapulted her into a nightmare she did not see coming until it hit her.

Looking world-weary but knowing there is no reversing the past, TikToker Kody Lynn, in a TikTok video, has revealed the unexpected troubles she is now facing despite diligently and regularly paying her rent for the last 13 months – eviction, lawsuit, and somehow paying almost $20k in a span of 60 days.

As Kody shares in her video, she had been unknowingly sending her monthly rent (including the security deposit in the first month) to the wrong person (a so-called financial advisor by profession whose transactions were on private mode) on Venmo as their username had just one letter different from what her property manager told her landlord’s Venmo ID was. But the real head-scratcher is that even though it is Kody’s fault for not triple-checking whether she was sending the right person the money, her confirmation messages to the property manager after each payment actually got a nod from the man for 13 months and her landlord even had a chat with her about renewing her lease before the whole thing blew up.

Obviously, the TikTok population is on Kody’s side and rightfully finds that “this is definitely fishy” that her landlord chose a “shady” method like Venmo and thinks he might be “working with the “financial advisor” because why would he not say anything after 13 months?” Some are even sure that he deliberately gave Kody the wrong name and might also be the person on the other end of the wrong Venmo translation.

If true and Kody was actually roped into a scam, it only adds to the growing woes of the American renters who are steadily finding it harder and harder to pay their climbing rents. As per data released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies in January, 22.4 million renter households were paying more than 30% or more of their income as rent in 2022, which contributed to a record number of evictions and rendered many homeless.

Many encouraged her to take both sides of this drama to the court.

“Go to court. Fight the person you venmoed back for your money. And then fight that your landlord hasn’t informed you FOR A YEAR that he never got rent. And then pay your rent to him when you get paid.”

Well, this is ultimately where this mess is headed.

What is next for Kody?

She shares more details about the still-unfolding drama in more videos after this, detailing how she has reached a deal with this not-her-landlord who has been receiving her money without uttering a word. This person claims their heroin-addicted sister has used up all the money, but promised to pay Kody back in installments. But the deal isn’t ideal for her. 

Her landlord originally appeared to be a kind soul and agreed with her offer to pay rent of 6 out of 13 months in one go and then pay as she gets it from the unknown Venmo guy. But then rudely rescinded the promise and sent her notice to pay a certain amount in the next two days and the rest over 60 days or she would get evicted. They did all this over email in which they even CC’ed her father.

Refusing to be afraid, Kody, who is a 24-year-old in law school, understood her landlord’s tactic to pressure her and decided that 60 days was unreasonable when technically it was also her landlord’s fault for being aware of his finances enough to know that he had not been receiving the rent for more than a year (Imagine being THAT rich). 

So, “livid” at her landlord’s behavior, Kody refused his ultimatum and let him know that she is moving out now and would now be paying him as she got her money back. As she will be sitting before the bar, she can’t afford an eviction on her record and thus refused the landlord backpedaling to her original offer as there was no guarantee now that she wouldn’t be evicted even if she paid the six months’ worth of rent.

End result? While Kody is impressively confident and brave, she is now facing a lawsuit and has left the unit she rented. And the good news? Her father is now her attorney and one in the comments said, based on how well she handled the whole fiasco, Kody will be an “incredible lawyer” one day.