I am currently renting a house through a property managment company in Dallas, Texas and have 2 months left on our lease. I always pay rent early. I just found out that the owner of the property is apparently not paying their mortgage and may be going into foreclosure. I do not have any formal notication yet nor does the property management company.

What are my options?

If the owner does foreclose will banks typically negotiate with the renter to maintain income on the propery?

Thanks for your advice.

Randy

Cvillecpm

Honor your lease, pay your rent, find another place and move at the end of your lease. You have no PROOF the mortgage is not paid and if you don't pay your rent, you risk being evicted and having your credit ruined.

woojer

I'd like to comment to "credit ruined". This may not at all be the case since there will either hve to be ajudgment against the Tenant that is reported by one or all credit agencies or the Landlord would report. In my expereince, it is more often than not there is no reporting.

Credit is rarely ruined over one, small non-payment incident, back off with all of that.

ScottGem

Yes, start looking for a new place. If you have not been officially notifed you probably have at least 2 months. Continue payiong your rent as always.

Generally a foreclosure cancels any leases. The creditor that forecloses generally does NOT want to be a landlord. They want to sell the house as quickly as possible. Selling with a tenant will be harder.

You should have enough time to find a new place.

Fr_Chuck

I will agree , you first have a legal contract that you are obligated to continue paying, who knows the owner may file chapter 13 and renew his loan, or the gosip you heard could be wrong.

At the end of your lease you can decide to stay or move.

Now if they do forclose it will take some time to do the forclosure so most likely you have two months still. But once they do forclose, the new owner on a foreclosure has no legal obligation to honor your lease.

And you can't really tell what the new owner will want to do. If the new owner is just wanting to sell it, they will want it empty to repaint, and remodel to sell for the highest price.

Cvillecpm

Woojer - As a subscriber to a credit reporting service, I can place negative comments on tenant/creditors credit report. The tenant/creditor can question the entry on the report and ALL I have to do is fill out a one page form that the rent is deliquent.

Yes, a recorded judgement goes onto the credit report as do "accounts" that go "to collection".

It amazes me that tenant think they can skip on their and then call me crying 6 months later when they want to buy a car and can't get financing.

Landlords are CREDITORS.

woojer

You are one of a few if you do report. Credit file disputes are simple matters and you and the reporting agency are under Federal and Statuotory laws, very complex ones, that that will require a heck of a lot more than a single piece of paper to meet their requirements if a creditor disputes your filing. If you do not verify and the reporting agency does not validate te debt with precision when dispted, a knowlegeable creditor will have your file (tradeline) easily deleted. You are not allowed to place negative "comments" only allowed to submit your information in proper form as per the credit reporting agency.

Recorded judgments do not automatically find their way into the creditor's report unless either the credit reporting agency (CRA) scans and finds that judgment in very particular form so that it recognizes who the judgemnt is against and which creditor's report to place it. This requires your attorney or you to be very explcit and detailed in filing the judgement with the approprate information.

If you do not believe me,then I suggest that you take a few months, yes months, and read here.....

CreditBoards.com - Credit Help, Credit Repair Tips, News, Forums

...as I have and you will see that not only are you incorrect, that if you are not exact, when faced with a tenant with knowledge of how the CRA process works, all your work will go for naught.

You do have one thing in your favor. 97.5% of tenants have no clue how the creit process works, how it can be worked in their favor either.

Credit, sadly, is a game, rules set by law, CRAs and FICO. If you know the rules, you can almost always find ways to clean out the most awful of credit reports and scores.

ScottGem

From where I sit both of you are correct. A landlord is a creditor and CAN file a report with a credit bureau if a tenant doesn't pay up.

Yes they have to be able to document and support their report in case of dispute. Any creditor has to. And yes most landlords don't do it, mostly because they don't have the resources.

woojer

All above is correct, no dispute from me.

What is and for evermore be incorrect is this statement:

"....if you don't pay your rent, you risk....having your credit ruined."

Simply, this type of bullying tactic by Original Creditors that we see every single hour on the Crediboards needs to be examined for exactly what it is. A threat, untrue and out of ethical bounds in any business transaction.

I do not for a minute advocate walking away from one's obligations nor will I advocate with my silence the indicated misuse of the credit reporting system to implant fear where truth should exist.

Tenants should pay, landlords should use every legal means to protect their property and their income. Neither should stoop to the use of malicious untruths to forward their goals.

ScottGem

Granted it may be a bullying tactic, but how much other leverage do landlords have? Why should it be incorrect, even wrong, if a tenant is overdue in paying their rent that this information shouldn't be noted in a credit report. I've gone thru periods of unemployment and tight money, but the one bill I never shirked on was for housing. If someone is late paying their housing bill, then I sure wouldn't want to lend them money.

P.S. You might want to delete the duplicate post.