California Rental Agent Lied prior to lease 8/1/10

I went to see a property from a rental agent who showed it to me and gave me an application We talked about the property for a while I said like it.He said it comes with a pool service and a gardner, I said great. Then I brought up the topic of Foreclosure since that is a big deal in Southern California right now. I asked him If the property was in foreclosure or if the Owner was thinking about selling it. his Reply was no the Owner wants to keep it and have family move back in. I said Great that's what I am looking for I need the security of a long term lease. I told him I would get my paperwork together and see him soon.

The second time we met to sign the lease I again through the corse of conversation brought up the fact that I am don't want to move into a house in foreclosure. (My reason for this is because I don't want to have to looking for a place to live in 90 days again moving is stressful ect...) He again assured me that It was not.

8/1/10 I move in 8/21/10 foreclosure notice shows up 8/21/10 I go talk to him he assures me all is well. I confront him about foreclosure of house he comes up with a B/S story and assures me all is well that the house is being sold back to the owner on 8/27/10. Thats where I am at right now. I am looking at other places to live right now before the end of the 1st month and the sale of the house is that advisable If so what are the steps. Thanks in advance for any accurate reply's in a timely manner.


Q; Is it illegal for The Agent to Lie when I ask him point blank about the house in foreclosure in good faith ?
A:

Q; If so will that null and void the Rental agreement ?
A:

Q: if you have any other information that might be useful about this topic that I did not ask please feel free to explain.

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that if Rental Agent lied to you then the contract is voidable at your option. The Rental Agent has provided material information in an incorrect manner therefore as contract is based upon incorrect information so it can be declared void. You may declare contract as void at the earliest when you have come to know that Rental Agent has provided wrong information but if after knowing incorrect information you continue living after reasonable time of becoming aware of wrong information then your right to declare contract as void may be lost.

AFF

I forgot to ad a few questions

Q: Can I break the lease on the 8/27/10 if the house is sold to the bank or a buyer?
A:

Q: If they come after me for the rest of the term of the lease, and I can't pay it since Im living in a new place.
What will happen other than eviction,bad credit. Can I go to jail for ignoring them like they are their lender?
A:

Q: Is disclosure mandatory when asked point blank about Foreclosure do I have any recourse ? I am a new Tenant under a month and he knew the house was in foreclosure but denied it to me.
A:

Thank you Affa I hope a few others on her are in accord with your reply.

Just to be clear how long do I have ? For example I found out on 8/21/10 that the house was for sale and went to see him that day. Does that mean I should have vacated the house on 8/21/10 or should I be fine if I get a new house and move everything out of this one by 8/31/10 since I gave a deposit and AUG rent already? Should that be timely enough ?

Slow down. First of all, if you have a lease and the house sells (or short sells) before any foreclosure, your lease remains in effect. The lease merely transfers to the new owner. He has to honor your lease, as it is written, until it ends. You wouldn't have to move at all.

Second, if the house does go into foreclosure and the bank takes it back, chances are good that you will be offered cash for keys (paid to move out). You can recoop many of the moving costs through this. It is becoming common.

Even if they don't offer cash for keys, most states now require that you receive an extended notice to vacate in a foreclosure. And foreclosures aren't quick. Between the advertising and notice requirements, all the court paperwork, and the number of foreclosures on the market that have to all be scheduled to sell - it can take months before it ever goes to sale.

In the meantime, the lease is still valid as long as the owner still retains ownership. Until it sells, or the foreclosure takes place completely, he owns the house and may rent it, sell it, and can pursue any court case relating to his ownership. (which means he can evict you if you stop paying, or sue you for damages if you break the lease.)

Even though The rental agent lied to me verbally on a number of times the lease is still Valid ?
I am 25 days into the lease and found out about the sale date of 8/27/10
on 8/21/10 .

If I move out your saying they can hammer me for the total amount of the 6-month lease ?

What's the worst they can do small claims and Credit smeared for 7-10 years anything else?

Well another thought .... with the others.. yes for now stay put..

It is interesting though that given that most likely you may not have to move, under..
the house is sold or taken by the bank

Now your assertion is the agent lied..
consider that the agent told you what the owner told them... that is they trusted the owners word... and passed it on to you..

How are you going to prove they had fore knowledge without a lot of legal costs..
Your assuming they lied.. but be careful.

Maybe they got lied to...

Slow down. First of all, if you have a lease and the house sells (or short sells) before any foreclosure, your lease remains in effect. The lease merely transfers to the new owner. He has to honor your lease, as it is written, until it ends. You wouldn't have to move at all

But I want to move and can not live this way. Imagine working hard all day paying high tax's then coming home to people looking into your window and asking you about the house for sale. I can only Imagine what's next Showing the house etc...


In the meantime, the lease is still valid as long as the owner still retains ownership. Until it sells, or the foreclosure takes place completely, he owns the house and may rent it, sell it, and can pursue any court case relating to his ownership. (which means he can evict you if you stop paying, or sue you for damages if you break the lease.)

Above you say until it sell's. So if it sell's on 8/27/10 and changes owner ship My lease is void I take it ?

So this is the new scam and Im with stupid huh : )

I am going to have a long shot talk with the Agent and see If he will let me out or if I can buy out of the lease.If not I have a better understanding of what I have to look forward to thanks to you guys but my faith in humanity right now that's a whole other issue there's no honor amongst thief's.

First off I would like to thank each and everyone of you for chiming in on my issue and helping to point me down the right path, in something that could have ruined my good standing for years to come.

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but here is what I have done so far.

I found out the owner of the property from public records the address matched my lease so I paid him a visit. I was polite and he was nice thank god. I asked him how long he was in foreclosure (information I already had from public records) I then asked him how long he was working with the title company and
more importantly I asked him how long he was working with the rental agent to help him with keeping his house out of foreclosure and placing people in his property. It helped me that I had all the paperwork about his house so he felt he could talk to me about it.

His answer was since the beginning of the year. I told him I was the tenant renting out his house right now and since times are hard I was trying to get a family loan but they were concerned about loaning me the money since the house was in foreclosure.(not true but I needed a cover story) I then asked him if he could help me try to get the loan by giving it to me in writing. He said no problem and gave me a letter saying that he has been working with the title company since 09 for his foreclosure and the beginning of 2010 with the rental agent to rent out his foreclosure house. This proves that the lender and more importantly the agent who rented it to me knew it was in foreclosure prior to renting it to me.

My next step was to email the rental agent(hope this is admissible in small claims if need be ?)
and I informed him that I wanted to move out due to him lying to me about the foreclosure. He postured up and tried to insist that I would be breaking his draconian lease and hell would follow if I did since he had no knowledge it was in foreclosure. I then dealt the death blow to him by saying I stopped by the property owners house and have a signed statement saying otherwise. The next e-mail from him was back pedaling and offering me my security deposit back ect... He then had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to rent out any of his other listings.
PS: I also believe he is not an agent just somehow working through someone's license but thats not proven yet.

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but if he lives up to his word this time I will let it be.
But if he fails to live up to his e-mails by the end of the month I am going to take him to small claim's $5000

Again I can't thank you guys enough who replied to my posts in my time of need. My faith in humanity has been restored (but with a bit of hesitation to signing anything without reading it 3 times first)

I know in life you have to get burned before you can respect fire but my advice to anyone who is reading this prior to signing a lease or anything for that matter. It is much cheaper (Mentally & monetarily) to pay an attorney to look over anything you sign ANYTHING.