From the website this looks to be a common situation lately. I rent a house in California that is in foreclosure and is going up for "TTEE SALE" on 5/13/08. I don't have a written lease because one was never provided to me. We entered into an oral agreement with a written lease to follow but never was provided one. The landlord is demanding for me to pay the rent or he is going to give us a 30-day notice to get out. I don't know if he has any legal rights if the house isn't his anymore. The house is set to sell for a high amount so I doubt anybody will buy it on the 13th. Will the bank own the house if it doesn't sell on the 13th, if so then I shouldn't pay the rent?? I don't want to be immoral but I believe the owner is just trying to convince me that he is going to save the house and continue to give him money.

Yes you still have to pay him. The house is still his till the foreclosure is final. This is true in every state! Because the sale or decree hasn't happened, the property is still the owners and you do have to pay rent. After the foreclosure, the rent goes to the foreclosing lender or new owner. Since you have no lease you are at a lose. If you had a lease you may have been able to make him pay for any increase in rent during the lease period. You may also legally with hold rent if he neglects to keep the property in good working order, but I don't know if that will apply for you or not without the lease. Also, you will want to be careful with not paying the rent, because it will show up in future credit reports.

As long as he is the legal owner you have to pay him rent or be evicted. He might forestall the foreclosure up to the last minute. So if Rent was due on the first, then you should have paid it.

If the house is foreclosed on, then your tenancy is ended. How long you will have to move out depends on the new owners and the courts. You may not have very long.

Have you thought about making the owner an offer? If he's going to loseit in foreclosure, any amount he gets might be gravy.

I am sick of seeing "until the house is formally foreclosed on, the landlord is still the owner and you have to pay him rent". The simple fact of the matter is this: Rent is paid IN ADVANCE on the [first] of each month. It is a guarantee that you will have the property for the next 30 days or so. If you cannot guarantee that the tenant will not have the home for the next 30 days, then how can you charge rent. Say for instance you paid the rent on the pre-foreclosed property on the 1st of the month and then it sells on the 15th of the month and you have to get out on the 18th of the month. Do you really think that is fair to the tenant? No it is not and the law frowns on scumbag landlords that do this. Why should the tenant just be giving the irresponsible landlord money that they are not paying their mortgage with? I would refuse to give them another dime. If fact, I have. It was done to me once. I lost a $5,000.00 deposit and paid rent for a year before I found out that the landlord had not paid his mortgage since BEFORE I lived in the home. I fought this all the way in court. I am telling you, you do NOT have to pay rent to the scumbag. When you get the unlawful detainer papers on your door, respond to them and go to court. Get out as soon as you can. You already know you are not going to get your deposit back so save your money and move the hell out.

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Originally Posted by rmriche

I am sick of seeing "until the house is formally foreclosed on, the landlord is still the owner and you have to pay him rent". The simple fact of the matter is this: Rent is paid IN ADVANCE on the [first] of each month. It is a guarantee that you will have the property for the next 30 days or so. If you cannot guarantee that the tenant will not have the home for the next 30 days, then how can you charge rent. Say for instance you paid the rent on the pre-foreclosed property on the 1st of the month and then it sells on the 15th of the month and you have to get out on the 18th of the month. Do you really think that is fair to the tenant? No it is not and the law frowns on scumbag landlords that do this. Why should the tenant just be giving the irresponsible landlord money that they are not paying their mortgage with? I would refuse to give them another dime. If fact, I have. It was done to me once. I lost a $5,000.00 deposit and paid rent for a year before I found out that the landlord had not paid his mortgage since BEFORE I lived in the home. I fought this all the way in court. I am telling you, you do NOT have to pay rent to the scumbag. When you get the unlawful detainer papers on your door, respond to them and go to court. Get out as soon as you can. You already know you are not going to get your deposit back so save your money and move the hell out.

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Normally I would just remove this post since it was made to a 3 year old thread. But I'm going to respond since there are a number of incorrect points and bad advice here.

First, The ONLY correct thing you said is that rent is paid in advance. But the reason why you have to pay as long as the landlord is the owner is because the law says so. So your advice to NOT pay is advising people to violate the law and it risks them getting evicted.

A foreclosure can be forestalled right up until the auction starts. So even if the auction has been scheduled you don't know if the landlord can stop it. If you don't pay, the landlord can start eviction proceedings and might have you out before they lost the property.

No, I don't think it fair if the house sells on the 15th and the tenant has to be out on the 18th. But neither does the government, which is why the law was changed requiring the new owner to owner a lease and give the tenant a minimum of 90 days to vacate.

As for your claim that its illegal for landlords to not pay their mortgage while collecting rent. The only place I know of where the law frowns on that is California and then only under certain circumstances.

Yes the tenant does not "have" to pay rent on a property in foreclosure proceedings, but a tenant that does not do so, is violating their lease and not paying could get them quickly evicted.

Finally, you are very insulting to landlords, but you have no idea what may be going on. A large percentage of the time foreclosed rentals are not owned by landlords operating as a business, but people who moved to new homes but couldn't sell their old homes and tried renting until they could.

So the bottom line here is that a tenant has to honor their lease and that the law protects them from being taken advantage of in case of a foreclosure.