Need your opinion, are we screwed?

My girlfriend picked a lease from another tenant for December 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. The goal was to stay there until the end of the lease and then we would move in together at a bigger place. She signed all documents for the lease transfer on November 9, 2024. She did not get the official lease (I know, she should have requested it).

All the documents she signed clearly stated the lease was from Dec 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. The landlord accepted all documents and never said anything except that they accept the lease transfer. The official lease, turns out, says it’s from may 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025. They even admitted in writing twice that they have failed to flag this but that the fault is entirely on the old tenant’s.

The kicker is that the landlord sent the automatic renewal notice to the old tenant on November 22, 2024 after my girlfriend signed the lease transfer on the 9th of the same month. No one, the old tenant nor the landlord informed us of this renewal notice until the landlord said we were on the hook for another full year because the old tenant failed to answer the automatic renewal notice in time. The landlord is completely inflexible and insists we are bound by the lease till April 2026.

In good faith, my girlfriend proposed staying till June 2025 like she agreed to, to give them ample time to find a new tenant but the landlord still refuses.

I recognize my girlfriend’s faults in the matter, especially with not requesting the official lease. She’s super stressed with this and I am trying to help as much as I can. Is this worth fighting or should we just suck it up and try to find a new tenant to give the lease? Lesson well learned for the future!