My landlord hasn't made his mortgage payments

Nasha, if you are on a lease, and you haven't been notified of a foreclosure sale, continue as you are doing. You can look up the mortgage company through the tax auditor's site and contact them so you will be sure to be notified as a tenant should it come to that. Notices are usually issued at least a month before the sale.

If you are month to month, you need only give proper notice to move out.

From WA: We have received a notice from the bank stating that the house we are currently renting is in foreclosure and will be in the auction around January. Our landlord hasn't used any of our rent to pay the mortgage and said that they don't have our deposit to give us back. We are stuck because we are still obligated to pay rent however, my husband called the attorney generals office and they stated that if a lease is on the property and the house forcloses and goes to auction, that the lease has to be upheld when the new owners buy the house. Basically the house is sold with a binding lease. The new owners can't break that lease. So hopefully everything works out.

We live in a place in Florida that is PERFECT. we signed a month to month agreement for $800 a month for october 2008. it is normally $1000 bu the said because of the inconvenience of the place being on the market(for sale) he would take 200 off just in case we had to move. Well, after we paid him we were served a foreclosure notice saying that our LL hasn't payed the mortgage since april of 2008. he didn't tell us that when we signed the rental agreement, that is month to month. he rented it out to us knowing it was in foreclosure. what do i do? i'm waiting to hear from my lawyer i'm just too anxious.

You are not in a lease and don't have a problem at all. You merely have to find another place to move at any time and give him the appropriate amount of notice (for FL only 15 days notice) to move out to another place. Start looking now and give notice mid-November that you will be out by the end of the month, before a foreclosure sale takes place. Even if the place was not being foreclosed on, if it had sold, the LL could give you only 15 days notice to move out since you have no lease. Without a lease, you have no protection against being asked to vacate on short notice.

Originally Posted by Unregistered And you say shame on LLs! Shame on you. You just told tenants not to honor their agreements to pay the rent. Why do you think so many rentals are in foreclosure? Many of them are because the tenant doesn't pay! This thread happens to be from one who has paid, and the house still was in foreclosure. But the owner's payments have nothing to do with paying for the rent. The rent secures a place for them to live for that period of time. They are living in the unit for that time. You advocate robbing the owner of his duly owed money for that. As long as that house hasn't been sold yet at auction , you need to continue to pay rent to the owner. Many owners pull houses out of foreclosure at the last minute by refinancing. If you have failed to pay the rent, you are going to be evicted. Shame on you to put so many people in harm's way by advocating they take action to face eviction!

SHAME ON YOU! I know many friends and families who are honest working people who are having to deal with such NON-SENSE because ILL WILLED LL's decided not to HONOR THEIR AGREEMENTS WITH THEIR LENDERS! And for you to say that the OWNERS PAYMENTS have nothing to do with the RENTERS is completely PREPOSTEROUS AND RIDICULOUS! If it was not for such renters willing to occupy a LL's dwelling in good faith and security that they would not have to deal with eviction because of the LL's fault of non-payment to the LENDER who IS THE TRUE OWNER OF SUCH DWELLING then the LL should not even expect to recieve payment from his tenant because the LL is no longer keeping his agreement with the lender and renters to HONOR HIS DEED and THE LEASE OF THE RENTERS!

The people on here stating that tenants should pay in such situations make me SICK! I completely understand the concept of business, but when it comes to people and their families, thats just WRONG! PERIOD! I hope your greed offers you a piece of mind when someone you know or care about is also in the same situation.

I live in Arizona (Maricopa County) and received a phone call on Monday from my landlord stating that the house I am living in will be foreclosed on in a little over a month and he is giving us until the end of January to move out. While I am grateful for the advanced notice, I want to make this property work as long as possible, and cannot afford the deposits to move into a new place. My original lease doesn't expire until October 09.

Since I have not seen proof of a foreclosure process (no paperwork, no records or notices of sale at the county recorders office, and the landlord is still listed as the taxpayer at the county assessors office) then can the landlord legally evict us under the excuse of pending foreclosure?

I want to do everything that I can to avoid moving before the end of the kids' schoolyear in May. Otherwise I am looking for a unicorn of a rental property that will take a short-term lease, little-to-no deposit, for 4 kids and 2 dogs. Help? Advice? Resources?

If you still have a lease in effect, he cannot evict you or terminate the lease because he is going into foreclosure. Once the lender takes over, or the house is sold at foreclosure auction, you will receive notice from them to move out. Until then, sit tight and continue to make your payments as usual to the LL. If the owner does a short sale prior to the foreclosure, your lease will just transfer to the new owner. Only if it actually goes into foreclosure (and you will be notified by the lender if it does) will your lease be terminated.

Very helpful. i have re-read this all several times

It is my understanding that when a landlord fails to make payments on his mortgage (in California Law at least) he/she is in 'Anticipatory breach of contract' ie: by failing to honor their agreement with the mortgage company to make payments he/she is fully aware that doing so will cause an inevitable breach of contract with the tenant. That breach of contract is between the tenant and landlord but can also be related to other laws such as local laws to provide reasonable living conditions as established by many jurisdictions.

We faced off against our landlord with the above the day we had the notice of trustee's sale posted on the door, I didnt pay rent for 3 months after while the foreclosure/auction was going through and the landlord paid our rent back in full one week after our confrontation. Furthermore we were paid well for returning the property in a clean condition to the new owners.

This was before AB2586 was passed (Aug 28 2008) so renters should have even more strength in these situations now. Im no lawyer but my advice is once the notice is posted on your door DONT pay any rent and change the locks just in case.
Good luck and hope this helps,
Charlie and Michelle in So California

Quite frankly, you were lucky and dealing with a LL who didn't know the law. You cannot stop paying the rent while the LL still owns the house. Quit advising people to do so. It may work in nutsy CA, but it will get them evicted in the rest of the country.

Many people purposefully allow a property to go towards foreclosure now, since that is the only way a bank will work with the owner to modify the loan terms. Only once the loan is in arrears will the bank allow an adjustable rate to become fixed, a high rate to be lowered, or better terms be permitted. Many banks require a property be at least 3 months in arrears before they will even talk about loan modification. The owner then promptly modifies the loan and pulls the property out of foreclosure.

Since this is happening all over the country and on purpose because the banks refuse to modify loans, it cannot be considered any anicipatory breech. A breech cannot happen until the LL or owner no longer owns the house. Do not advise tenants to take actions that will result in negative consequences for them. That is not helping them. IT is setting them up for future heartbreak and trouble. Shame on you for steering them wrong.