If you are renting your living area, your landlord not paying his mortgage doesn’t mean that you can stop paying your own rent. No matter who owns the property, they could have you evicted if you do not make your payments. Foreclosure may, however, make it more difficult to figure out who to cover, and who to speak to concerning repairs and maintenance.
Identification
If a lender forecloses on your leasing flat, you have to know who you should pay rent to, the Nolo legal site says. After a lender advises a landlord in writing that he is in default on his mortgage, then it may direct you along with any other tenants to begin paying it your rent checks instead. In the event the lending company is dealing with a glut of foreclosures, then it might not inform you, in which case you might wind up paying the landlord after he is no longer the owner.
Factors
Even if the lender starts receiving your rent check, Nolo says, the landlord is still legally responsible for apartment maintenance. As he is no longer making money off the flat, it’s quite possible he will refuse. Normally, in that situation, tenants can pay for repairs and deduct the cost from their rent–but as the lender is not in control of maintenance, it may try having you evicted for nonpayment instead.
Time Frame
Following the foreclosure, the lender may sell your leasing home to someone else; if they can not sell it, Nolo says, the lender will need to hang onto it. If the lender or a new owner would like to evict you, federal law gives you 90 days to remain if you are renting by the month. If you have a lease, you can stay until the conclusion of the lease, unless the new owner plans to proceed; in that circumstance, you have 90 days. The law applies only if you kept up the rent, and if you signed your rent prior to the landlord received a notice of foreclosure.
Precautions
From time to time, the”New York Times” says , the landlord will contest the foreclosure, and tell you to continue paying him the rent, though the lender or the new owner insists they should find the money. The paper recommends that whichever side gets the legal paperwork demonstrating their ownership should find the money, but you should keep records of your payments.
Complications
If you’ve prepaid rent to the landlord to find a discount, then the lender demands rent for this period, the”Orange County Register” states, you might need to pay again. The federal law doesn’t have any exemptions protecting tenants who prepay from having to cover. One California judge says that tenants should pay the lender, then sue the landlord to return the prepayments.