Luxury Condo

[mickeyblueeyes]

I have been renting a unit in a high end condo for $ 5,000/mth since 12/06. About five or six months in I began receiving calls from a mortgage agent in NY telling me that the unit is going to be short sold to her investors. The condo manager later notified me that the unit was in the foreclosure process. The owner has left the state. I stopped paying rent in September 2007. I am still in the unit. The condo board says they are taking over the unit and that they will collect rent from me. They also mentioned they can stop me from using the facilities. The condo is also holding $5,000 of my money as a security deposit for common areas. What are my rights?

What rights? You haven't paid any rent since September of 2007. YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS NOW. You owe 8 months of rent @ $5000 ea. for a total of $40,000!!!!!!! You have no right to be using any common areas at all. (Had you continued to pay rent, you would have a right to these, whether or not the owner paid the condo associastion fees.)

That condo owners association hasn't had their association fees paid in at least 8 months now. No one from your unit (owner or tenant) has paid the fees to use the common areas for that long. No one from your unit has any right to any common area facilities. You had no right to stop paying rent just because it was in foreclosure. That does not absolve you from your obligations. The condo association is now taking over the unit for the unpaid fees. It looks like the condo association is now going to hold you responsible for those obligations since you didn't meet yours. I'd start looking for a new place to live immediately. You should have $40,000 saved up to get into a new place. It is very doubtful they will allow you to continue to live there given your track record of payments.