Our lease began Feb. 1, 2011. We have had issues with things in this house that the homeowner will not fix without being threatened. The leasing agent is no help, she just brushes things off. Let me just say we have enough proof to have ended the lease in our favor. We also know the HOA dues have never been paid, we pay them with our rent. There have been many letters and notices, people taking pictures and asking who lives here in the past few months. I have told the agent that something was not right, she said it was okay, the homeowner told her they were refinancing. Well Friday we got a letter to occupant that the home is under foreclosure and going to auction on Nov. 29, 2011. The agent is saying stay here and continue to pay the rent to her, she will take care of it. She has proven to me to be distrustful right now. She says she has to get authorization from the homeowner to release our deposit. We are truly not sure what to do. We cannot afford an attorney. I have stage 4 colon cancer and on a limited income so things are tight. This house with all the issues has about broke us. With the heating/ac unit problems we are paying $400 every month and that is only partial. Not sure what to do. We need a every dime to find another place. The agent says she has nothing so we should stay here, she has houses but has every excuse why we cannot get them. We pay our rent on time and other bills, have had no issues, take care of the house and keep it clean. Please advise.

First, don't worry about the foreclosure. They have to give you 90 days to move.

Make sure the auction happens before you pay your December rent, then find out who the new owner is. They could decide to make the repairs and sign a new lease.

Agree, you will have 90 days at least ( the new owner may want to rent it also) Or the bank may take it back and want to keep you as a renter.

The day the house sales, ( you may want to go and see who buys it) then it is no longer the property of the old landlord and you no longer pay the renting agent.
You are to pay the new owner.

But also did the old owner OK you paying the HOA fees out of the rent, unless that is in the lease, it is not really your problem to pay them, that is the issue of the landlord, if they were to put a lien on the property, again that is not your issue.

Oh, no. We include the money for the dues in our rent, our rent is $1500 and the dues are an extra $50. They are not paying the dues. This is a fairly new home. We have had a flood which resulted in part of the house being unusable for 2 months, the heat system stays on constantly and there have been 4 different companies who the owner never paid with the same conclusion, the ducts have collapsed, owner refused to fix, left holes in the ceiling. We have mice, the house smells like rot, where the water was we think there may be mold, owner will not do anything. We cannot use one tub, all that comes out is rusty, smelly red brown water, owner will not fix. When we moved in they were supposed to clean, did not, we had to rent a shampooer because there dog left welcome mats every where. Need I say more, yet we continued doing our part. The auction is Nov. 29 but I doubt anyone buys the house. We surely want out of here. We have enough documented items to be able to leave. What we need to know is regardless of the auction results should we pay December rent and do we still have a right to our deposit?

I'm going to go against my normal advice here. I'm going to say don't pay the rent and put it into a separate account in case you get a vacate notice.

Then find a new place to live.

Well, we found a house to move into on Jan 1 so that is not the issue. I just want my deposit back. I feel we have enough grounds to get it back.

The reasons to get your deposit back are that you left the property in the same condition you found it. There is nothing on what problems you have suffered along the way. That being said, I think you should get your deposit back, but it will be from the new owners. And to be honest, it will probably mean you will have to go to court to get it. So I wouldn't entertain much hope.

That's another reason I agree with withholding the December rent.

One good thing is the homeowners does not have the deposit, the realtor has it. She has control over that. As for leaving it the way we moved in, not happening. When we moved in the house was nasty and dirty, with some holes and such. We fixed that and cleaned it, it is actually being left in better condition than we left it. The problem is the realtor wants us to stay until the new owner tells us to move, she wants us to continue to pay rent. She says the bank will take over the lease and fix things, I have never heard of this. They may be willing to take the money but will probably not fix things. I am a bit confused right now with all of this.

That should help. Then you stand a better chance of getting it back.

Actually, in this market, if the bank is forced to take it back because no one bids, they may decide to fix it and rent it until the market gets better.

There are many foreclosures around here and so far no bank has decided to do that, they just set empty. The repairs for this house are up into the thousands. They need to pull the walls, ceilings and strip out all the duct work and replace it. The downstairs floor needs to be taken out and replaced because they never put a drain in which is why we had a flood. The house could be found in violation of the local codes because of this and the floor is cement so it is a big job.