My mother has a house in Florida, that she is trying to short-sale, it has been in foreclosure for 33 months now. She had to move back to Idaho to take care of her mother. When the real estate agent we found to do the short sale went to the residence to take pictures she found that someone was living in the home. They claim that they found the house listed "For Rent" on craigslist, and that they had been paying rent to some guy. When told that the house was not his to rent and that it was actually going up for short-sale and could be forclosued on any day now, the person living there said that my mother would have to evict her. All of the paper work for filing an eviction calls the people in the house the tenent (which they are not, they are squaters), and requires that we put down a price for "rent", which we can not do, because we have no lease with them and agreed on no rental amount.

My mother is disabled and is on a fixed income, I'm not sure what to do. Does any one have any answers for me?

Hello r:

There's only TWO things to do.. First off, call the cops.. They MAY throw them out as trespassers... But, probably not... Then you have to evict them - or your mom does. Get a limited power of attorney from her so that YOU can do the eviction...

excon

Call the police. Let them have first chance at sorting out the truth and getting proof that he is paying anyone rent, or is just a trespasser.

excon, sorry, I swear I saw no answers

This is a very common thing, someone went and broke in and changed the locks, most likely and then rented it to them. It is possible they even pay by western union or other method.

So 1. yes call the police , since someone has done a fraud.
Next you may have to evict them, but good news, you can actually sue them for all of the months they have lived there, since they were not paying the real owner.

So if you mention to the renters, that since they were not paying the owners, they now owe you for all of the rent due for all the months? They may want to move quickly