In late March to early April of 2008 my family signed a 12 month lease at a house in Tucson, AZ. Not soon after we found out that the previous owners had not been paying there mortgage and that the home was being repo’d. On 9-29-08 the house was sold at auction and today we received a note on the door saying that we are going to be evicted .
Now, my question is, can this be legal? We still have at least 6 more months on our lease. I would also be glad to hear some suggestion on what actions I should take.
Thanks
another thing that might be helpful to know is that we aren’t renting from the previous owners we are renting from a property management bis.
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I am not sure what you want? You are renting so you just need to move out. You have not lost anything except the inconvenience, for which you could sue the owner, I suppose, but he doesn’t have any money by the sound of it. But I am confused by your question. How could the “previous owner” not been paying the mortgage and still be able to sell the house? You mean that the owner did not pay the mortgage, surely.
Yes, the legal owner of the property has the right to sell. The new owners to not have any obligation to continue a contract between you and the last owner. The contract you had is a month to month lease where you pay per month. There is no guarantee unless you paid a year in advance at which point you would be owed money back. You certainly could speak to a real estate or contract lawyer, but you really dont have much of a case. Wanting to stay is not a legit reason to get to stay. Sorry. With the economy the way it is, courts would also see this as another reason for a landlord to have to unload a property as an emergency.
Sorry, but these things are settled in the order they went on the record. The mortgage was recorded before the lease, so when the mortgage is foreclosed, the lease is automatically terminated. The only thing you can do at this point is try to sue your landlord for breach of contract and breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment, but it sounds like your landlord doesn’t have any money to compensate you.
PS: It doesn’t matter if you rented from the owner or a manager. It only matters which came first – the mortgage or the lease. If the lease came first, sale or foreclosure would not affect your rights (unless there was a subjugation term in the lease), but if the mortgage came first, once it is foreclosed, all leases that came after are automatically terminated.
The owner could not sell you more than he owned. Your remedy is against the owner who agreed to provide you with housing for a year and then failed to keep his end of the bargain. The lender has no contract with you and the owner had no ability to sell off the rights that belonged to the lender.
Unfortunately, your lease couldn’t force the bank from repossessing the home, and selling it at auction. The new owner is not required to honor the old owners lease.
The only thing you could do would be to try and sue the former owners for breaking the lease, but honestly, it’s going to be a waste of your time and money. They lost the home because they couldn’t afford to keep up the payments, and there’s nothing a court is going to do other than possibly fine them for breach of contract.
Sadly, the renter looses in this case. I hope you guys find something more secure to rent, but with the housing market in the mess it’s in, a lot of places are being repo’d and a lot of renters are in the same situation.
Good luck
Get hold of the Property management! They should have told you about the sale of the property when they put it up for auction! They have to give you a certain length of time to move! It is in a way legal for them to sell the place, but unethical NOT to warn you in advance, especially when you have signed a lease! Get hold of an attorney, and if the new owner comes knocking on your door, show him the lease you signed. If he is a decent man, he will give you enough time to find another place to live. Also, if you paid the property management people first and last months rent plus a cleaning fee, ask for some of that money back, OR tell them you will take them to court!!! Stand your ground, and don’t let these people intimidate you! Good luck on finding a another place, This is an inconvenience for you and your family, and quite unnecesary! Sock it to them! Personally, I would make them pay for the moving van too!
The other answers are correct. If you are worried about finding a new place, put pressure on the property managers to find you a good deal on a comparable property.
I manage property-would be willing to do a favor for someone this happened to.