My landlord hasn't made his mortgage payments

Ive been paying rent on time for the past two years. On June 3rd 2009 I got served papers by the Orange County Sheriff Office. Its a copy of the subpoena from the bank seeking to take my LL to court for not paying on the house since July 2008! So that means for 11 months I have been paying rent and my LL has decided not to pay on the house now I am burdened with looking for a new house, my security is gone, etc. He is not facing foreclosure because of me paying rent late. He is facing foreclosure because he realized he is underewater in his property and its better to just walk away from the house and collect rent and keep my deposit. From this point on I will not pay rent to him. I am going to use this to my advantage and live rent free and try to recover my loses. I recommend anyone else in this situation to do the same. If you suspet the LL is screwing you over go to your local county's comptollers office website and do a record search and type your LL name in the search box. It will show you all the leins and pending foreclosures belonging to your LL. If you find the property you are renting or you see that the LL has several properties that are pending foreclosure I would say stop paying the LL and take your chance with the LL suing you for back rent payment! There is a high probability that they wont. Dont be the LL sucker! Also be very skeptical in high foreclosure states like FL, CA, AZ, NV, etc. Here is the orange county florida comptroller's website. Orange County Comptroller - Orange County Florida. Happy searching......

Checking to see if the LL is facing foreclosure prior to renting is a good idea.

But keep in mind that owners facing foreclosure still have full rights to their property until the day it is actually foreclosed on. This means they can still EVICT, file SUIT against tenants who owe them money, collect JUDGMENTS, GARNISH wages of those tenants, ATTACH their bank accounts, LIEN their property, and all other rights of owners who are not in foreclosure. Those judgments survive for many years against you and can be renewed for another term. They will far outlast the foreclosure process! It is not a good idea to just stop paying rent. Your rent payments and the owner's financial situation are 2 separate issues. You pay rent for the right of staying in the unit for that month. If you are still in the unit, you need to continue to pay rent for that right. If you fail to, don't say you weren't warned.

]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

God bless you!! My landlord hasn't made a mortgage payment in 28 months! In fact he NEVER made a mortgage payment. He had me
sign a lease with the house 5 months in default. I knew nothing
until the process server showed up at my door with papers.
He reduced the rent somewhat but now he's whining because
I took the electrical repair (saved the house from a fire) with
a reasonable, knowledgabe electrician off the bill!
Not one penny of my rent money has been used for the mortgage.
I lost my husband years ago. Where will I go with my children?
I love that you are the only one understanding the plight
of the renters! I'm sure there are many of us!! You are so right-
the 'shame on you' guy will never understand until someone
he loves is in this situation! I am now month to month by the way.
I can't buy my house at auction because they start at the upset price and this guy took over a hundred thousand more than the house
was worth and took another mortgage of 146k to put in his pocket
too! This is why we are in a financial crisis with bail outs! The fact
that the CEO's pocketed the bail-out money didn't help either!
Do you know if it's actionable re the fact that I signed a lease
that was misrepresented since the owner was already in default?
Thanks so much!!]

I am in Florida and was served papers TONIGHT saying the guy who owns my house has not paid his mortgage! I've read all the posts and am concerned. I haven't heard anyone say anything about putting my rent into an escrow account? Won't that help protect my credit and my money? I have kids, and not much in the bank...I'd like to ride this thing out- and don't want to pay rent, but I've worked so hard on my credit, that I thought the best solution is to open an escrow account until everything is difinitive.... what does anyone think?

Escrowing rent (rent withholding) is permitted for habitability issues only, not for foreclosure in most states. While it is bad that some LLs do not pay their bills and put stress on the tenants for this, it is his RIGHT to ruin his own credit if he wants to. He still has the right to demand and collect the rent from the tenant. He still owns the property until the day the bank take sit back. The rent pays for the tenant's right to occupy that space for that period. Since you are occupying the space, you owe the rent. Rent escrowing is not an option unless there is a new law allowing this. Check for this since new laws are being adopted daily to protect tenants.

I didn't say that I agree with the bad LLs out there who do this, just quoting what the law and the legal rights and obligations are.

To poster 23. You paid rent for the period you have been in the house. You stayed in the house for that period. You received fair value for that money. How are you harmed by this? It is his credit that sucks now. (The law says that the LL is the true owner, not the mortgage company. The owner has title. Until the day the bank takes it back, it is his to do with as he wants. The intention of a bank is not enough to be able to stop paying rent. The bank has INTENDED to foreclose the neighboring house here since November. Still waiting on it. Grass is knee high!) His credit has NOTHING to do with your rent. Otherwise, you would only rent from LLs with good credit. As long as he still owns the house (no matter what it's payment status) he legally has rights to rent it. This is not actionable.

If you have been there for 28 months, your lease has completed by now. If you are already month to month, any LL could just give you 30 days to move anyways, for any reason or no reason at all. You have no security there after a lease ends. You can be made to move at any time for no reason. The LL has only to give you written notice to get out. You have not been harmed, despite your idea of such. You are not being told to move out any sooner than you could have been already.

While this doesn't seem right, it is the law.

I am a current Renter and got a Notice of Trustee to Sell with an auction date of 08/05/09. I have informed our Property Management about this and they said "not to worry, the owner has modified their loan". I asked for some form of documentation stating that the home will not be auctioned off. Then next 2 weeks came by and the Property Manager told me that the owner got their modification to be extended. So I replied so the owner did not get it modified they are still in the process. So I was totally misinformed again. My rent is due today, but I am not going to pay until 8/05/09 because this is the date of the Auction. If I see the Auction sign on that date on the house, Am I still obligated to pay for rent? I mean if it's up for auction, that obviously means that the home is no longer owned by the landlord right? I hate all these damn landlords taking Renter's money for a ride. If you are no longer the owner why the hell do you still want our rent money. I feel that Landlords should be honest with renter's before they move in. Informing them the current status of the home and what the plans will be of the home. Corrupt, dishonest landlords are just contributing to the financial burden of this economy. Landlord's that are no longer the owner's of the house and are still taking renter's money should be treated like any other scamming criminal.

If you fail to pay the rent on the date due, you will receive a Pay or Quit notice. (Usually 3 days). Once that expires, eviction will be filed against you. Once filed, even if later dropped, it will remain on your court records. You will be denied housing later because of that record. (Most LLs automatically deny applicants with eviction filings on their court records.)

The LL still owns the house until after the auction. Actually, until the new deed is made and recorded (about 30 days after the sale), it still belongs to him. (In some states, the LL still has rights to redeem the house up to 6 months later.) So you need to pay the rent on the date it is due. Even if it is sold and the new owner rushes to record it, you will get 30 more days notice to vacate. So you will have approximately 60 days (30 to record the new deed, 30 days notice to vacate) that rent is still due. As long as he is still the owner on record, he has the right to rent and accept rent for the property.

I agree that owners should not be renting to tenants without disclosing the status. If a house is close to foreclosure, no lease should be made. It should be rented for only a month to month agreement since the tenant should know that the security will not be there. Perhaps a discounted rent for the inconvenience of possibly having to move soon?

Do you have a lease? If not, give your notice to vacate and move out at the end of the notice period. You would only owe rent for the notice period.

LLs and primary home loan holders are in the same boat. They took out too large of a mortgage at unfavorable terms. Adjustable rates with balloons are coming due. The house or property has decreased in value with this economy, so banks no longer want to refinance them. The LL isn't always corrupt because he is losing his property just as a home owner isn't corrupt in this situation. Sometimes it is the lender's fault, sometimes the loan holder. But everyone has to deal with the impact and it isn't pretty. I feel badly for anyone affected by this economy in this manner.

How do you check to see if a landlord is making his mortgage payments?

My LL has not paid either in quite a while. I have negotiated lower rent twice because of it. The LL is not dumb. Right now it would be so hard to find another renter, so it would be wisest to accept a reasonable offer from the present renter. This is applicible to me because I am month to month.

I feel bad for the LL because we lowered our rent so much, but at the same time he never paid his rent. So scratch that, I do not feel bad.

Since the market is so horrible, it won;t be hard to find a place to move to when the place is foreclosed! The next place I rent will most likely be right on the beach. It is hard to move from the deal we have now, so I might just ride it out until the end!
My girlfriend mentioned there are plenty of vacancies with our building, so this will save on moving costs. Whoever wants to strike a deal, gets me as a tenent. That is the market we are in right now.

This goes for anybody out there too. Not just tenents in the foreclosure situation. If your LL is charging high prices still, write out an opportunity cost graph. Show the amount of money he/she would be passing up by not lowering your rent. Lowering your rent $100 per month would put them out a little over a thousand per year, but having you move out to a cheaper deal would put them out that same yearly amount. So basically they are hedging their bets that they could find another renter to pay that amount within that 30 days you have to give notice.

WOULDN'T hurt to try!!!! Be sure to prove that their are other places in the area that are cheaper and comparable to your place. That would be courteous and sensible.

To the last poster:

Don't know where you are but I have no problem finding tenants for my units. I am rented at 100% now and have been since February. No open units, and people cold-calling me each month to ask if I have anything open. I am in a state with one of the top 5 highest foreclosure rates and there are plenty of rentals, but I can fill my units easily. (There are several strategies to keeping your units filled that I won't go into here.) Haven't had a unit open for more than a couple weeks tops. I am smart enough to not invest in buildings that were overpriced or to get adjustable rate balloon payment mortgages. My mortgages are all paid in advance. So no tenant of mine need worry about foreclosures. I'm afraid I'd laugh at you if you came to me asking for a rent reduction. I raised rents earlier this year.

To the previous poster who wanted to know if the mortgages were paid on a rental. This is harder to ascertain. The bank isn't going to tell you outright. First check out the LL on the court sites. Look for bad debts/checks, judgments, or suits by other tenants. Ask if the LL would mind giving you the names of some tenants past and present. (I'd happily give you names of tenants to ask about me.) If a multi-unit building, come back later and talk to other tenants. See how long tenants stay in the rentals he owns. Search under the LL's name on the tax auditor's site to see other buildings he owns. Drive by them and see if he is keeping them in good repair. (Normal and routine maintenance is the first thing to go when a LL is falling behind.) These should give you a good indicator of what type of person the LL is and what financial condition he is in. There is never a guarantee that the building you rent in won't undergo foreclosure, but this should lessen the chances. Good luck.