Lender granted relief from Stay..I am still paying Landlord...

[renter314]

I do not have a problem paying for the rent, I have paid it for 4 years..my concern is the landlord stopped paying the mortgage (INVESTMENT property He got 100% loan) last October. The Lender Filed a default in Feb.and the Landlord also file Bankruptcy.
The Lender on August 20th was granted a Relief from stay and it was uncontested by the landlord.
Here is my concern,,he was hoping to be under the radar until it was forclosed on and still collect rent..Problem is he has my $2,000. security deposit, He lives in California, the property in mention is in Florida.. I KNOW he will not give me this back..I would like to stop paying him,..at least for 2 months until MY security money is back to me..need help. I am a single woman,..living month to month..I would rather pay the lender and NOT this loser..need guidance on timeframe,..what if Ido not pay and let him take me to court?

[ccsjoe]

check resources at [url removed] many tenant/landlord security deposit and foreclosure posts there. In addition you can ask attorneys questions. Reason I don't answer you directly is because I am familiar with CA law, not FL.

[renter314]

on this site because others with similar are here...

Really find this site helpful,...looking for some real help,..not another site to push me onto...pretty bummed about that bump...

[HakunaMatata]

Have you attempted to negotiate rental cost/terms directly with your landlord? From my understanding, you are contractually bound to lease terms and payments until the property deed is transferred. Federal legislation implemented in May 2009 seemingly extends this as leases survive foreclosure and deed transfers.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-30064.html

Your situation will be contingent upon your lease terms and length, your landlord's actions or inactions (ex/ redemption, cost concessions, etc), and the intentions of the potential new owner.

[HHM]

You take a risk by not paying rent. Even though the landlord stopped paying the mortgage, you are still contractually obligated to pay rent.

Most of the time, the owner has bigger problems then worrying about collecting rent from you. So the risk of eviction is low, but not zero. My guess is, you probably have a standard 30 day notice clause in your lease agreement. However, you should review your lease agreement and see what it says will happen if you stop making payments. The LL still maintains the right to evict you. As for how long that could take, not sure, I don't know CA land lord / tenant law.

Usually, when a LL files BK, the BK trustee will contact the tenants and have you direct the rent to him, or the lender will contact you at some point.

[renter314]

I have not had success with him responding..he is in California, I am in the property located in Florida.

How can he continue to collect rent if he also filed a bankruptcy?? would'nt this be a violation of some sort regarding income??
On 2 occassions in the past 3 months I have had lender reps try to change locks because he indicated in whatever documents that there were no tenants and no rental income...which is why he did not pay them......

[HakunaMatata]

Your landlord's BK doesn't affect your contract. BK doesn't prevent your landlord from keeping the property (although, it appears he has intentions of surrendering it). Even if the property is surrendered in BK, he isn't prevented from redeeming it in foreclosure.

There appear to be some interesting issues on your landlord's end. As HHM stated, oftentimes landlords have bigger issues to address than rent. If your landlord failed to provide accurate BK information (disclosing rental income) and described the house as vacant to the lender, he will have far bigger issues to contend with than your rent payments or pursuing eviction. You may want to use this as leverage in negotiating with him, you may want to contact the lender or Trustee, and you may benefit by contacting a local attorney to guide you.

[BCA2009]

Are you prepared to move out soon? If so, this is what I would. Not legal advice, just what I would do.

I would stop paying long enough to put the 2K into savings, then if you continue living there start paying rent again. Just skip enough months to save up your deposit money.

In florida, you don't want an eviction on your record, but there would be no record of you being late on payments as long as you moved out before you were evicted.

Based on what you are telling us about this landlord, he is not going to try to evict you for two months missed rent payments. He's got bigger fish to fry.

If a bankruptcy trustee were to contact you about paying the contractual rent payment, you would have the money in savings.

for what it's worth, that's what I'd do.

[renter314]

Thank you for all of your kind words. I have all documentation regarding the security deposit. I also make a deposit into his bank account every month so I have records of this too.
He has a "buddy" here in town who infact is the person who originally represented the property upon renting, I then just paid directly to the bank account.
This "buddy" served me a 3 day notice when I tested the waters and wrote a letter indication I was aware of the proceedings and my concerns. I indicated then that I would resume payment when I secured my return monies and even stated I would have proof of independent third party escrow...he was having none of that..He even served me on my GARAGE taping this embarrassing notice with blue painters tape for all to see. I shrunk back and paid him
That was 2 months ago
This Buddy knows the ropes as he too had an investment property and I looked up,..he took his tenants to court. they countered and received their monies back, however,..attorney at hand. I am ALONE and like I said, Struggling myself in a lousey market as a Realtor who has nothing closing...
Anyway, he went into the forclosed home he no longer owned ..after the locks were changed and removed items he said were "personal"...(HE told methis personally) as I called Him to state what my intentions were and when I told him I had a man wanting to change the locks, he so so what,..they did that to his property and he just went through a window and went in...so these people are into cashing out big ...one way or another.."the last hurrah" and because HE had been through it,..he is the mentoring to my situation for this landlord...