landlord altered my lease without my knowledge

[beatrice1978]

Hi,

I signed a lease for one year in Jan 2008, with expiry date of 31 Jan 2009.
On 15 Jan 2009 I called my management company to say that I would not be renewing my lease (I had already signed a new lease and given a deposit), but they said my expiration date was April 31, and faxed me the same lease with altered dates. I had signed this lease, but had not initialled the changed dates (although I had initialled all other changes).
What can I do? Is this legal? I cannot afford to pay both rents.

 

[dee_dub]

Tell them you didn't authorize those changes and you don't agree with them; that if they want to try their luck at enforcing it, they'll need to try to convince a judge why you would have initialled all the other changes but not those; and that if they don't retract that purported change immediately you'll contact the police to have them prosecuted for uttering a forged document and file complaints with the BBB and whatever landlord/tenant bodies exist in your jurisdiction.

Were you required to give any notice that you would not be renewing?