My landlord hasn't made his mortgage payments

"Legally, the tenants obligation to pay rent is not tied to the LL's financial obligation of his mortgage"

Uh, that's not necessarily true. If the mortgage on the property contains a 1-4 Family Rider, it does. If the borrower/landlord is in default, once the tenant receives notice from the bank they should forward their rent payments to the bank, not the landlord.

It doesn't surprise me that all these landlord's who weren't smart enough to make wise business decisions to begin with wouldn't understand their own contract.

Renters need to read the documents served to them or copies of the mortgage which are filed with the county clerk. Look to see if the mortgage contains a "1-4 Family Rider" and assignment of rents. If so, contact the lender and find out where to forward your payment.

Renters need to read the documents served to them or copies of the mortgage which are filed with the county clerk. Look to see if the mortgage contains a "1-4 Family Rider" and assignment of rents.

I don't know where you live, but around here, no mortgage information is served to a tenant. A tenant would have to do a thorough internet search to find the mortgage copy. This information is not available from the clerk's office since it is considered private. (Only the mortgage company's name and amount financed are public.) Even then, it may not be the most recent mortgage on the property. There is no way of knowing if the mortgage has been refinanced unless every record on that LL is researched. Since many LLs hold 50+ properties (and mortgages), it would take many, many hours to try and find the mortgage holder on that particular property. Then you would only find a summary, and not the complete mortgage to read through for a rider. There is no way a tenant in this state would be able to find out this info. The best thing they could do would be to contact the mortgage company. Even with that rider, the owner still owns the property until foreclosure is complete, and is due the rent.

Actually a 1-4 Mortgage rider is typically included on any mortgage for a property that is intended to be used as an income property of 1 - 4 units and is valid in all states. If the owner is in default, the rider gives the lender the right to receive rent payments from the tenant after notifying the owner of his default status. The lender has to give written notice to the tenants either by mail, posted at the property or in person. Although the lender is entitled to the rent payments, the owner is still responsible for items like repairs that affect habitibility of the property. This obviously could lead to a particularly tough situation if major problems like plumbing or roofing issues arise. The owner may not be able or willing to shell out for repairs, and witholding rental payments to the lender could result in notice to vacate as they are under no obligation to handle repairs. Needless to say, if the lender has not pursued their right under this rider you should continue to pay your rent as required by your rental/lease agreement to your landlord.

Originally Posted by Unregistered "Legally, the tenants obligation to pay rent is not tied to the LL's financial obligation of his mortgage" Uh, that's not necessarily true. If the mortgage on the property contains a 1-4 Family Rider, it does. If the borrower/landlord is in default, once the tenant receives notice from the bank they should forward their rent payments to the bank, not the landlord. It doesn't surprise me that all these landlord's who weren't smart enough to make wise business decisions to begin with wouldn't understand their own contract. Renters need to read the documents served to them or copies of the mortgage which are filed with the county clerk. Look to see if the mortgage contains a "1-4 Family Rider" and assignment of rents. If so, contact the lender and find out where to forward your payment.

Nobody mentioned a 1-4 family rider so not sure why it's being brought up. But, essentially, the person who quoted before posting missed the point..

What it was meant to convey is,,,, just because the landlord is defaulting on his own personal financial obligations by not paying the mortgage does not automatically absolve the tenant of paying his/her rent on time or otherwise. It's unclear why this is so difficult to comprehend.

In my case I was told the house was going into forcloser and then found out that the landlords dont even own the home and it;s the ladys ex that owns it and he filed bankrupt.

now i gotta letter in the mail in this guys name and opened it and it said that there has been no payments on the house and its going into forecloser now I was wondering if what my landlords are doing is legal?


PLEASE HELP!!!!!

You are in an entirely different situation than the other posters. The house rented to you isn't in the name of the LL. I would suggest you contact the real owner of the house and discuss this with him. Maybe he gave his ex-wife permission to rent out the house (or maybe not). If not, you do have an illegal lease and can sue the "LL" over this. In that case she would have had no legal interest in the house and could not legally rent it.

Perhaps she was to receive the house in the divorce and they never transferred the title (in which case the lease may be legal but their title is in dispute and the house may not be repossessed after all). The only way you will know is to look up the owner on the county's tax auditor's website. Contact him and find out. Then let us know.

You opened mail addressed to someone other than you? That is a federal offense, and if the actual addressee gets wind, he could file a complaint against you. What the letter contained was personal information. Where do you think you had the right to open the mail?

You don't know, nor are you privy to, the arrangement between these two people. While you're questioning the legality of it, you are illegally opening someone else's mail. How strange.

Find other living arrangements.

I have a questions regarding this situation that I'm in, that is close to those that have posted.

I was renting a room from a woman who was also living there renting out the other rooms to other tenants. I paid $xxx amount with a deposit that was half that amount on move in. After a year of move in (which I didn't have a signed lease for and was month to month) she foreclosed on the house and we all had to move. But she had another house just down the street that we moved to but she moved away to Vegas. So there was just 4 of use sharing this house, paying her by sending her monthly payments seperately for our rooms. We also just had a verbal agreement here as well.

After a few months of this, it comes to our attention that she is foreclosing on this house as well. At this point its June, 2008. We talk to her a few times to figure out whats going on, and she is just feeding us a bunch of bull.

We come to the conclusion that she is just trying to get all the money she can out of us without paying her mortgage. I found out she hadn't paid it before we even moved in. Should have realized this from the house she foreclosed on before.

So July comes and we all make a decision to not pay her rent cause she has been taking advantage of the situation for more than a year, so it was our time to get a little advantage out of the situation. We don't pay July 2008's rent, and move out August 1st.

I get served a couple weeks ago cause she is suing me for unpaid rent of July and August of 2008! Didn't think she would do that, so my "advantage" wasn't really an advantage.

I have proof with my new rental agreement at my place now that I moved in August 1st, and I have records of all my rent paid other than July. Heres my question. Since we didn't have a signed agreement saying what we were paying each month, is there anyway I can win my case?

I know, im going to get flack from Landloard's saying I'm screwed and I'm going to get answers from tenants saying it was "super cool to screw the Landlord." But I just want some straight answers and possibly a little help to figure out my rights and my options. Thanks for anything you can offer.

Robert

[LDenson2004]

My husband and I are renters in Fl our lease expired in Oct 2009 which put us on a month to month lease after the lease expired if we chose to continue to live at the property. We were served forclosure papers on the 22nd of October along with a 90 day vacant letter. Our landlords still want rent paid to them which just dont make any sense to me because how do we continue to pay them rent and have money to move out in 90 days. Our lease expired October 3rd but we had paid Octobers rent after receiving the foreclosure notice and the 90 day vacant notice we stopped payment on the rent and told our landlords to use our deposit as Octobers rent that we knew we would not get back if the house foreclosed. Our landlord told us that they could not afford the mortagage anymore and that they were trying to refinance the house and that if they couldn't refinance that indeed the house would foreclose. So I asked her what did them trying to have the house refinanced have to do with them paying their mortgage and she said that in order for them to have their house refinanced they had to stop paying the mortgage. Does anyone know if that is true or are they just full of it.They say their mortgage is 1400 a month but they only charge us 1100 a month and the 300 dollars they cant afford anymore. I really just do not know what to do because I truly cannot continue to pay them 1100 a month and have money to move in 90 days. Does anyone have any advice they can offer.

Robert, I can't see you winning this case. She still owned that house. It had not been foreclosed on yet. You failed to pay rent. She has copies of rent receipts showing that you paid rent previously at that address. So she can prove that you had a month to month agreement. You failed to pay rent in July and you owe for that month. Further, you didn't give the required amount of notice prior to move out. You owe for that notice period. If you moved out August 1st, and your state requires a 30 day notice, you would owe rent until August 31. What could your justification be to not pay for the month you lived there? How can you avoid paying for the notice period that your state law requires? If I were you, I'd pay before you get a judgment on your record. That will ruin your credit.



LDenison2004, You can never use the deposit as rent. That isn't allowed per any state law. The deposit cannot be touched until after you move out. So telling the LL to use it to pay the rent is not an option. If you have not paid October's rent, and now November's rent, you are overdue for an eviction notice. Once that is filed with the court, you will be denied housing in the future because of that court record. Pay the rent that you owe, plus any late fees or NSF fees in your lease.

It is true that they cannot refinance until the mortgage is past due. Mortgage companies are inundated with people who want to refinance out of necessity. Unless the mortgage is behind, the bank will not even consider refinancing. (Why would they? They will lose out on the higher interest rate they are collecting! So the banks are very reluctant to refinance.) Many homeowners are even being advised to allow the mortgages to go unpaid so they will qualify to refinance. The fact is that you were given a notice by the bank. But was that notice to announce the date of the foreclosure sale? Only after that sale and the new deed is recorded, does the house no longer belong to the current LL. So for now, the house is still theirs. And you owe the rent.

You need to pay the rent and any fees you owe for stopping payment on that check or paying late. Then pay for November's rent too with the late fees for that. If you like, you can then give the required amount of notice for a month to month tenant in FL (15 days written notice to vacate), and then move out at the end of November.