I'd like some advice:
Two friends of mine recently got an apartment through a broker. We went to the lease signing paid one month's rent ($2700), one month's security ($2700) and the broker's fee to the broker ($3,240) at the lease signing. We paid the rent and security in certified checks and the broker's fee in traveller's checks.
Several days later we got a call from the real-estate brokerage company saying that the broker who handled the apartment deal had been fired from the company and had effectively handled the deal without the license and pocketed the fee himself. At first they told us to try to get the money back ourselves. Of course, the former broker didn't return our phone calls. Then the brokerage company asked us to provide a signed letter stating what happened and providing copies of the traveller's checks and receipts for the fees.
My question is how to proceed at this point. Do we cooperate with the brokerage company and let them handle it? Or do we declare the traveller's checks stolen and hire a lawyer? Can the brokerage company void the lease that we signed?