What are renters rights during foreclosure?
Submitted by martidarnall on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 9:26am.
My husband & I are renting a property in pre-foreclosure. The trustee auction date has been set for 8/8/08. How much time do we have as renters to vacate the property after the auction date?
Comments:
If you are in CA you now have to be given 60 days notice thanks to the recently passed SB1137. Otherwise it will depend on the state, but typically you will get notice, and the bank will offer you some cash to move and leave the house clean.
The following is probably not good legal advice, but if I had a deposit, I would stop paying rent for at least long enough to recover my deposit. If the home is lost in foreclosure, the new owner will likely have no obligation to repay your deposit. The one exception would be if you had a lease that was recorded against the property prior to the loan.
Aong this same line and topic...My daughter and I live with my father. His home has been foreclosed on according to his agents that had been trying to short sale. Do I count as a tenant? It has been a while but no one has contacted him/us. We are in CA and confused how long we have to find new residence. Times have become very hard for us. Any help is greatly appreciated.
You can certainly claim you are a tenant, which thanks to a new law in CA will require they give you 60 days notice on an eviction. Though they are unlikely to challenge your claim it would help if you had a rental agreement (search online for a form) and had actually paid some rent to your father.
That said, the bank will likely offer you some money to move quickly, allowing them to avoid the time and expense of an eviction. You can expect an offer of $1000 to $2500, and you can negotiate this (you'll likely get more for moving sooner). I'd strongly recommend preparing yourself to be ready to move quickly so you can accept this offer. You will have to rent soon, and the last thing potential landlords will want to see is an eviction on your record.
Our home was forclosed on May 29th and were notified by the bank ownered realitor that we needed to move out, this was on June 9th so we went out and found a new home. On June 18th there was a three day notice to quit the letter was dated 6/17/08 but not posted until 6/18/08, we moved out of the house on June 24th. During that time I spoke with the bank owned lender and told her that we where looking for a place to live but we were having trouble finding something in the school district and she stated no problem they will give you cash for keys. we cleaned the house and left it in move in condition On July 1,2008 I meet with the realator and gave her my keys, I asked her about the check and she stated that we should have been out of the house earlier so there is no money. How much sooner did they want us to move?
If those facts are correct and you communicated as you claimed then they simply took advantage of you. You should have kept the keys and told her to proceed with the eviction or get you a check. Keep in mind that doing cash-4-keys is extra work for the Realtor, and if you are standing there ready to hand them the keys anyway, why bother.
Given the verbal assurances and your reliance on those assurance you probably have a decent small court claim. Most small claims courts offer free legal assistance with filing the claim. Ask for the amount they promised, plus additional for the trouble.
my situation is a little different. My landlord stated in the beginning of the month the property was going into short sale. She offered the property to us but of course we dont have the funds for the down payment. So our plan is to move with my husbands parents for a while to pay off our bills, etc. and of course to save money. We want to move out as soon as we can. Considering the property is in short sale, does the 30 day notice still apply?? I feel like the landlord is just pocketing our rent anyway but she still wants the 30 days. Help :)
Any rental agreement you have still applies unless it explicity makes an exception for this situation, or there is an overriding state or federal law (I'm not aware of any). 30 days will go by quick, just give notice - and perhaps withhold the last payment temporarily to make sure they have the funds to return your deposit. If they do you may have to pay a late fee, and they may give you a negative rating to a future landlord, but that may be a worthwhile trade.
We are currently in a rent to own home. We were served and and unknown occupant for possesion due to non payment of assosiation dues now today I Just received a letter that our landlord has not been paying the rent and the mortgage company is starty foclosure process as well. What do I do? We are just about ready to purchase the home but we can not get a hold of the landlord to start the process they will not return our calls or letters, but you'ld bet they run strait to the bank with the checks I send!
Are my rights different with a rent to own lease? Can I contact the bank directly and ask to purchase the home for what is owed?
You may have some rights under your lease option agreement, but its not an area I have much experience in. I would contact an attorney. Especially if you've paid a premium for the purchase option.
We have been renting from "friends" with only a verbal agreement. We are in CA. They are now informing us that they are talking to a realtor about doing a short sale to see if it can be sold or it may go into foreclosure if not. Do we have any rights? Verbal agreement, no time limit on renting the home, no deposit was required, etc...
If the property is foreclosed upon the new owner will still be required to give you 60 days notices despite the lack of verbal agreement. Having done a lot of these evictions as an investor, I always found that the burden of proof was on me, and I have had judges make me give the longer notice even for adult kids who claimed to be renting from their parents. With no deposit you are in better shape then most. Given that your friends have stopped making the payment, and the house would now be very difficult for to rent anyway you might ask them to cut your rent given the hassle the foreclosure is going to put you through.
My situation is different. We are purchasing a home from an owner. It's not a short sale or foreclosure. Is the owner still required to give the tenant 60 days? I've been researching it and what I found is yes, Unless it's being sold to another person. Which this is. Thanks ;)
In California the standard notice for tenants is 30 days.
We just found out that the home we have been renting for almost two years is going into foreclosure. A flyer came to our address from HUD saying that foreclosure proceedings have begun on this home. So I went to our city's Recorder Office online and sure enough there it was, default filed Oct, 7th 2008. Our landlord has not even had the decency to call us and let us know. Also our lease ended months ago. She lives out of town and every month has promised to get down here to sign a new lease but she never shows up. What are our rights and do we still continue to pay rent being the house has gone into foreclosure and we have no valid lease at this time? I am curious why she has not informed us of the foreclosure. What's going to happen to our 1,600 dollar deposit? Thanks for any answers.
A lease is generally wiped out by the foreclosure so that makes little difference. I'd start by contacting the landlord. Let them know you are concered about your deposit and ask if they would be willing to place it with a 3rd party, like a property management company or an attorney so that you can be assured it will be returned IF you leave the home in good repair. If they aren't willing to do that, or otherwise gain comfort that your deposit will be returned you may want to consider withholding your last months rent after you've given notice - note that this probably bad legal advice as you have no right to withhold rent in anticipation of a problem but in practice it seems to be an effective way of insuring your aren't stuck without a deposit for your next rental.
Finally note that if you choose to stay through the foreclosure, the new buyer has to give you 60 days notice and may be willing to pay your around $2000 to move and leave the property clean.
A few days ago we discovered a notice on our garage that said "Notice of Trustee's Sale" and the house was going to auction as of 12/18/08. I contacted our property manager and let her know. She assured me that my deposit was safe, but I would need to move out by the auction date.
We thought it would be in our best interest to move out at the end of the month, so we can be resettled in time for the holiday's and not have to deal with moving right before the auction.
My question is; are we entitled to our entire deposit regardless of the state of house. Both my family and friends have said I shouldn't bother trying to do a move out clean, since it will not be rerented and a house sold at auction is sold "As-is"? I just don't want to risk our deposit if they don't think the house is clean enough.
No, you are absolutely not entitled to your deposit regardless of the state of the house. As far as your deal with your landlord nothing has changed. Unfortunately most rental agreements and leases fail to specify what happens in the event of foreclosure.
Three options in my opinion: 1) move, leave the house clean, get your deposit, 2) ask the landlord to return your deposit regardless of condition given the inconvenience they've put you through - if they agree get it in writing, 3) just wait it out, stop paying your landlord after the house is sold, and wait for the bank to approach you... they are usually willing to pay roughly $2k if you are willing to leave the house clean (not required though), and you might get some free rent in between.
My family and I are tenants, in San Diego Ca. The house we live in went through the foreclosure process. I received a Notice of Sale document, (civil code: 2924.8) stating we had 60 days, once we received notice from the new owner, after the date of sale to relocate. The house was scheduled to be sold October 1st, 2008, according to the Notice of Trustee's Sale document I received. Either the house wasn't sold or the sale didn't take place. The former owners moved back into the house, and are now asking to be payed rent. The former owners are anticipating to qualify for a program that would allow them to "retain" ownership of the property. This hasn't happened yet and the The property is currently listed as being Bank Owned. This all has to do with the Countrywide Mortgage fiasco and the subsequent take over by Bank of America.
Are they violating my rights by asking to be payed rent? If so, are they violating any laws? Bottom line: Should I pay them rent before they finalize the process with the bank to regain their property? They won't even receive the documents from the bank notifying them of eligibility of this program (if ever) until December 3rd.
If they still own the house then they are certainly entitled to rent, and if you do not pay they can evict you. What you need to do is verify whether or not the house was actually sold at trustee sale or not. You can do this on ForeclosureRadar.com, though if they still dispute it you will need to check and see if the trustees deed transferring ownership to the property was actually filed. Occaisionally a bank will overturn a sale after it happens - we do not track that.
The house was not sold at trustee sale. A search on the property using realtytrac.com shows the property as being "bank owned". It lists the buyrs name as: Pldc Inc.Pension Plan and the sellers name as: Forclosure Specialists. The "previous owner" of the house is neither of these.
If the site you mentioned show it as bank owned it is likely because a trustees deed was recorded. This would mean that it did sell at trustee sale... to the bank. If that is correct then the prior owner would have not have the right to collect rent after the date of the trustee sale unless the bank appointed them as their agent which is very unlikely.
Post new comment