Landlord Died house in forcloser
Our landlord died and his boyfriend was left everything, I think. The boyfriend has admitted that he will be letting the property go in to foreclosure; he is already 4 months behind in the mortgage. Letters have started arriving from the bank. I have stopped paying the rent because we did not know who to pay it to now he wants the past rent and has admitted that he would not be using the money to bring the mortgage up to date. We are on a month to month there is no lease in place. I do not know what to do.
Re: Landlord Died house in forcloser
Once the property is foreclosed, contact the bank and see if you could work continuing your tenancy.
In the meantime, unless you’ve been notified in writing that you’re to pay the rent to the boyfriend, then you don’t know to whom you should pay it. You should make reasonable inquiry, though. I would suggest holding it separately in a bank account in case you can work out a deal with the bank, at which time it might want you to pay at least some of the back rent.
Robert F. Cohen
Law Office of Robert F. Cohen
P.O. Box 15896
San Francisco, CA 94115-0896
Re: Landlord Died house in forcloser
If the ‘boyfriend’ has proper paperwork justifying him collecting the rent, he is entitled to be paid. If not, put all the rent money in a separate bank savings account, so that when you’re sued for it, you’ll have it available to pay to the rightful owner, whenever that is decided. When the house is foreclosed, you’ll likely get tossed out unless you work out a deal with the lender or new owner to stay, so I suggest you start looking where to move.
Terry A. Nelson
Nelson & Lawless
18685 Main St., #175
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
Re: Landlord Died house in forcloser
First, since you are month-to-month, you aren’t really seriously harmed by the pending foreclosure; you could have been terminated on 30 or maybe 60 days notice anyway.
However, an interesting aspect of this is that the new owner may be guilty of rent skimming under Civil Code section 890(a)(1) which says “‘Rent skimming’ means using revenue received from the rental of a parcel of residential real property at any time during the first year period after acquiring that property without first applying the revenue or an equivalent amount to the payments due on all mortgages and deeds of trust encumbering that property.”
This law does not seem to distinguish acquisition by inheritance or require that the acquisition be by purchase. However, if you (or someone) doesn’t pay him some rent, there is no “revenue received” to satisfy that part of the definition of rent skimming.
Section 891(d) goes on to give certain rights and remedies to tenants who are victims of rent skimming.
Thus, it might be a good idea to fork over a month’s rent so you can claim victim status if he doesn’t apply it to the mortgage. You owe the rent to someome. Sometimes, the lender will send a notice to the tenant ordering that the rent be paid directly to the lender under the “assignment of rents” provision included in nearly every deed of trust.
Bryan Whipple
Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law
P O Box 318
Tomales, CA 94971-0318
Re: Landlord Died house in forcloser
I had another thought. It is also rent skimming for someone who is not entitled to collect the rent to do so. Civil Code 890(a)(2).
Bryan Whipple
Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law
P O Box 318
Tomales, CA 94971-0318