[cookie11797]

I have been renting a house for 4 months, the landlord has never given me a lease. The electric and water are also in his name. He will not send me the bills for these, just wants me to pay the amount he states. I was late this month due to leaving town for a death in the family, told landlord I would be late, he told me he wanted $300.00 by Saturday or he will shut off the power then he stated that he is going to let the bank foreclose on the house. Should I still pay this guy if I am going to be thrown out on my butt. I cannot get any foreclosure information, utility information because I am not the homeowner. What do I do?

[rockinmommy]

If you have no written lease then you need to refer to your state's landlord/tenant laws to determine what you and he are each bound by law to do. In the first post on this forum they are listed state-by-state. See what you can find there.

As far as late rent, unfortunately late is late. It doesn't really matter how valid the reason.

As for the utilities, it should state in your state's laws what he can/can't shut off and why. There is a lot the utility companies will NOT tell you if the bills are not in your name, but they will (at least in my experience based on hundreds of calls I've made to check utilities prior to purchasing properties, check on properties, etc.)tell you how much the utilities have been in prior months. If nothing else, call on the pretense of "I'm thinking about renting this place, and I want to see how much the utilities are running."

Finally, I find it hard to believe that the guy would just simply let the place go into foreclosure to spite you. He's either already way behind on his mortgage or is having some other kind of problems. A foreclosure would ruin his credit and I cannot believe he would let that happen unless he's already in dire straights. Is there more to the story?

Good luck.
Karla in TX