tenant rights

My Question is I am leasing an apartment from a private owner and he is
going through foreclosure
with his morgage company of course by law the bank does not have to give me
any info how far along they are with the process and my landlord isn\'t
giving any info as well is there any form i would have o file with the
courthouse to keep me up to date with any information. so that I know how
long I have to save money in order to move?

[OHlandlord]

The best you can do is to contact the mortgage company and tell them you are renting the premises that is being foreclosed. In this case, they usually will tell you a timeline of the procedure and when they expect a sale to be made. When it is time for the sale, a notice should be sent to you or posted on your door. Once it is sold, you will be notified that you have 30 days to move out. Until then, if you have a lease, you must continue to pay rent until the house no longer belongs to the owner. If you are on a month to month, you may give notice and move out before this happens.

Next Question
I just received the documents stating that the house is in foreclosure in December and I really don't know how long the process take and I do have a 12 lease with my landlord. I've only been here 6 of the 12 months. My question is because the landlord is going through the foreclosure process and if i am able to get the money could I break the lease and move out without repercussion. Thank you by the way for helping me this far.

[OHlandlord]

You cannot break the lease for this. But the owner may allow you out of it since he knows it is likely he will lose the house. Ask him if you could leave early, or if you can stay rent free until you can move out. Some owners do allow this (especially if they are going to file BK, since any rent they receive is counted as an asset in the BK court). This will allow you to save money to move to a new place before the foreclosure sale.

You do have to continue paying him the rent as long as he is still the owner of the house (until it goes to auction) or until he gives you written notice that you can stop paying the rent. After the auction, you will probably have 30 more days to vacate. The length of time (and how quickly) foreclosure proceeds depends on your state. The one I looked up yesterday (in OH) took almost 6 months from when notice of foreclosure was filed by the mortgage company with the court to when the house actually sold at aution. So the tenants in that house would have had 7 months to move (6 months in the court system + 30 days notice to vacate). The time line may be faster in your state or slower. The mortgage company can tell you how long it usually takes or when it is scheduled for the court hearing to order the sale. Usually the sale takes place the next month after it is ordered for sale.

Keep in mind that some owners do actually manage to pull houses out of foreclosure too. They refinance the money owed or work out a payment schedule with the mortgage company. The foreclosure is then cancelled and they remain in possession of the property. If they later default on the new mortgage or payment plan, the mortage company will then refile the foreclosure and start over.