Under CA law, you are required to use any rental paid towards your mortgage. As long as you have been doing that, you are not in violation of Ca law and they have no grounds to stop paying rent.

I don't agree that your verbal notice constitued an illegal eviction, but you did not have a right to break the lease.

Generally, you can do a 3-10 day pay or quit notice, depending on local laws. This gives them the specified amount of time to pay in full or vacate. If they have not left by the deadline, then you go to court for an eviction order. This generally involves a hearing, where your attempt to break the lease MAY work against you. If the judge grants you the eviction then he will issue an order foe them to vacate, if they don't you hire a sheriff to physcially remove them.

As stated, in a sale, the new owner has to honor the lease. In a foreclosure the lease terminates with the foreclosure.

ScottGem you say under California Law That any rent received must be used towards mortgage. Do you know what specific law this falls under? I am in a situation where I am in a 2 year lease, not up unitil February of 2010. The home is currently in Foreclosure, and has been in default since July 2008. So we have paid 8 months rent that were pocketed by the home owner. We have been working with the home owner through a property management company. We just received a notice from them that we need to be out by May 18th, and that we are to continue to pay rent until then. We are concerned about our security deposit, and all of our moving expenses. They are the ones breaking our lease. Do you know to what extent the property management can get involved at this point?

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

There is a stickynote at the top of this forum about paying rent in foreclosure that includes a cite for that statute. Just as you can't break the lease without cause, neither can they. If youy lease doesn't expire until 2010, they can't ask you to leave unless there is a lease violation. However, once the house is foreclosed on, the lease will be voided and you will have to get out. So maybe their breaking the lease is a blessing.

If they are violating the lease by asking you to vacate, then you can negotiate with them. Tell them you are willing to move early, but they need to reimburse you for moving costs and return your full deposit.

In California only, you are not required to pay rent if the house is in foreclosure, and in addition you can even ask and sue for a refund of rents paid during that period they were in default.

This is a newer law from last year.
No other state in the US has it

In California only, you are not required to pay rent if the house is in foreclosure, and in addition you can even ask and sue for a refund of rents paid during that period they were in default.

This is a newer law from last year.
No other state in the US has it
I don't think this is completely accurate. Scott and I did a lot of research and found a statute that says some of the above, but it only applies to properties owned by the landlord for one year or less and it says nothing about a refund of rent.

The sticky post concerning this law is at the top of the Real Estate Law forum.