we are renters: received 3 day notice to pay or quit on our home that is in foreclosure
we are renters. received 3 day notice to pay or quit taped to our door tonight, WHILE we were at home. We have received mail to this house to the attention of the owner stating that it is a Notice of Default; that mortgage payments have not been received since 12/1/2010; and that a total of over $11,000 is past due. We have had several things happen the past 3 or 4 months and we were hesistant to pay our April 1st rent as our owner is unreachable. Only a P O Box and the phone number goes directly into an answering machine at all times. Our owner has a security deposit from us of $3600 (our rent is $1800 p/month). We feel that our rent for the past 4 months has just been pocketed. We feel that we don't have a chance AT ALL of recovering our security deposit. Should we just let the 3 days beginning tomorrow pass and let it lead to an Unlawful Detainer suit that we will contest? Replies Greatly appreciated.
Hi Sandra,
As long as you are living in the property and getting the benefit of the residence as outlined in your rental/lease agreement then the rent is due and payable. The landlord, regardless of the current loan status, can evict you for non payment of rent. If you are on a month to month agreement then they can give you notice to move also. In most cases the deposit cannot be used as the last months rent. In your case you could give notice to move and let the landlord know you are using your deposit as your last months rent. If your landlord is truly using the foreclosure as part of an ongoing lawsuit and they fully intend to cure the loan and keep the property then they will probably be willing to pursue the eviction. You can let them know that it would be very difficult to re-rent a house that is in default. It sounds like you need to have a discussion with them and see if you can work this out.
You can certainly reach out to a housing counselor for advice however, if you have the benefit of living in the house you are renting then the rent is technically due.
Michelle is correct, but now that you have a 3 day notice, you need to answer it. Otherwise, the eviction will move very quickly. If nothing else, answering will buy you time and give you an opportunity to negotiate with the landlord.
our landlord won't communicate with us. the phone number goes into voicemail; the address is a P O Box. We know that a move is imminent (sp?). We just aren't ready with the 30-40 days that is will be if we don't pay April 1st rent; now that today is Day 1 of the 3-day notice. From what I googled last night; it seems as if Monday at midnight will be the expiration of a 3 day notice that was taped to door last night. It's even more weird that we were home last night and no attempt was made for personal service. I'm waiting to see if a notice arrives in todays mail. As is seems as if proper procedure is BOTH "nail & mail". Also, I'm waiting to hear from our gardener's wife, as when we make the deposit directly to the bank for our rent, we make a separate deposit for our monthly gardener fee of $80. Yesterday I was informed by our City Sanitation deparatment, that the owner has not made a trash pickup payment for 11 months. What a mess we are in. Sandra
thank you to all comments. We really don't have the $$ to hire a real estate attny, we are very grateful for the advice. We paid our rent yesterday into the checking account of our owner, as we have done from move-in. When the time comes for us to make our move; we won't pay those last 2 months as a way to recoup our $3600 deposit. PS- our home looks better than the day we moved in; we have place very few items on the wall and have a cleaning service every 3rd week. The grass was totally dead and we brought that back, too. I'm saying that just as a point of reference that we would by all means get our security deposit returned if this guy wasn't such a weirdo. Sandra
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Sandra, My email address is mauleace@comcast.net. Send me an email and I will take a look at what I can regarding the status of the foreclosure process.
