Posted on 06/18/2012 6:34:09 PM PDT by ducttape45
I need to get some advice on a housing issue and I hope there is a legal expect in FreeperLand that can help me.
Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, Public Law 111-22, effective date May 20, 2009, “sunsets” Dec. 31, 2012.
Good Answer.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Learn from your mistakes and difficulties in life and move on. Forget about looking in the rearview mirror and dwelling on the past and what I call the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” factor. It will get you nowhere. Life is not fair, so deal with it accordingly. You’ll be money ahead and have peace of mind.
My advice is to get on with it and find a new place to live now before you’re forced to. Don’t waste your time and money on lawyers trying to solve your problem. You’ll be poorer for it and you’d still have to move out.
This advice has served me well over my 64 years.
First of all, the laws regarding this issue are specific to Indiana. Second, I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favor using the terminology “month to month lease”. There is no such thing. Third, I am an ex-realtor in CA, but I would not deign to quote you IN law.
There may or may not be some kind of Federal law that prevents your eviction under the circumstances you describe. But a very important principle is that “the law does not apply itself”. If the law is applicable, it is up to you to hire an attorney to force the other side to comply with it. You don’t just get to say “hey, there’s this law that says I have to have 90 days notice of an intent to evict, so this eviction letter you just handed me is void.” Nope. You have to go to court to fight it, or go to court to obtain a temporary restraining order TRO and I don’t care how black and white your case might be. By the way...I just spent about $30,000 in legal fees getting a TRO. And that has utterly nothing to do with being in court to determine the merits of my fundamental complaint/accusation against the defendant. I estimate that will be $70,000 additional. I don’t expect a simple rental case to cost that much, but I will tell you one thing: Lawsuits are for losers. Individuals almost never have the funds to pursue a lawsuit.
You need local, real estate specific legal advice. It would not surprise me to find out that there are one or more tenant advocacy groups in your area that you could visit and consult with for free. If they say there is any sort of law which gives you some period of time during which you are immune from an eviction notice, get the code section number of that law.
If you *do* need to actually retain and hire an attorney to protect your rights, unless it can be done by one and only one letter on letterhead, and you cannot find out if that will be effective except by having him produce it and seeing what happens-—meaning you incur the bill anyway—the chances of that attorney submitting an invoice to you for legal services less than the rent you would have to pay for those 3 months of stay is just about zero. Ergo, in your position I would prepare to move.
“Second, I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favor using the terminology “month to month lease”. There is no such thing.”
WRONG.
IC 32-31-1-2
Creation of tenancy at will month to month
Sec. 2. A general tenancy in which the premises are occupied by the express or constructive consent of the landlord is considered to be a tenancy from month to month. However, this section does not apply to land used for agricultural purposes.
As added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.16.
You’ve been there 18 months, so you obviously like it there. I’d offer to buy it from the bank, should go pretty cheap, and should make your monthly expenses go down.
Based on the information you provided, you should have 30 days to vacate after the eviction notice, unless you have violated some aspect of the rental agreement, in which case you will have 10 days to vacate. A violation could be anything from failure to pay your rent on time to a failure to maintain the premises. Note that you might not agree with the cause for a 10 day notice. Landlord rights spelled out in the rental agreement transfer with ownership of the property.
Basically you are on borrowed time and unless you pre-paid rent, you are likely operating in a window of 10 to 30 days, depending on what was stated in the notice you recieved. It is unclear if that was an information notice that you would recieve an eviction notice, or if that was the eviction notice itself.
There is such a thing as month to month tenancy.
There such a thing as a lease, which can be for any period of time the landlord and tenant agree to.
I don’t get how your irrelevant piece of code proves me wrong and you right. There wouldn’t be the difference in terminology “tenancy at will” and “lease” if there wasn’t a legal difference. Many leases automatically and specifically convert to month-to-month tenancy should no lease extension be executed between L & T. That is a tenancy at will. I don’t know if the OP’s lease does that, as I haven’t read it. It could also automatically renew into a lease. But a “month to month lease” is a contradiction in terms.
What country do you live in?
Tenants have lmany rights under a lease. In some (mostly liberal) states, they're treated like royalty with the landlord getting the ass-end of most legal proceedings. Under nearly any circumstance, they very much do "need a reason to evict you" if "he/they want you off their property."
Every hear of contract law?
Also, leases, like most other leans or encumberances, nearly always transfer with the real property - not the owner.
It's one thing advertise your ignorance when you have no idea of the subject matter, it's another to do so when someone is seeking advice.
I know you lawyers hate it when you are wrong. Don’t take it so hard.
I’m not a lawyer. Am I wrong about that, too? Or is that another thing you think you know better?
You don’t pay rent;
You don’t live up to your end of the written or oral lease agreement
time for which you rented your dwelling is up, and the landlord wants you to move.
If you have a written lease, you have a right to stay in the residence until the end of the lease term, as long as you live up to your end of the lease. you do not have a written lease, in most circumstances the law considers you to have an oral month-to-month lease. Either you or your landlord can terminate the lease at the end of any month, for any reason or for no reason.
I don’t know anything about Indiana law, but an acquaintenance here in Oregon had a similar thing happen.
He was living in a 4-plex which was foreclosed. He stopped paying rent and just kept staying there, thinking he would get an eviction notice sooner or later.
Well, the eviction notice never came, but the foreclosing bank waited about 6 months and then offered him $2000 to move out.
I would start banking the rent instead of paying it, and wait for an offer from the bank. If they send you an eviction, call them up and say you need moving assistance. Sooner or later they will offer you money to just move out.
I don’t know anything about Indiana law, but an acquaintenance here in Oregon had a similar thing happen.
He was living in a 4-plex which was foreclosed. He stopped paying rent and just kept staying there, thinking he would get an eviction notice sooner or later.
Well, the eviction notice never came, but the foreclosing bank waited about 6 months and then offered him $2000 to move out.
I would start banking the rent instead of paying it, and wait for an offer from the bank. If they send you an eviction, call them up and say you need moving assistance. Sooner or later they will offer you money to just move out.
I don’t know anything about Indiana law, but an acquaintenance here in Oregon had a similar thing happen.
He was living in a 4-plex which was foreclosed. He stopped paying rent and just kept staying there, thinking he would get an eviction notice sooner or later.
Well, the eviction notice never came, but the foreclosing bank waited about 6 months and then offered him $2000 to move out.
I would start banking the rent instead of paying it, and wait for an offer from the bank. If they send you an eviction, call them up and say you need moving assistance. Sooner or later they will offer you money to just move out.
I just witnessed a case like this. Calling someone ignorant before you know the facts is just....well...ignorant.
If a bank or lender is foreclosing on your landlord’s property, the landlord owes money on the mortgage. The bank is trying to take your landlord’s property by foreclosure. If the bank wins the foreclosure, it will get title to the property, and your landlord will lose whatever rights he or she had in the property. Good chance you as the tenant will as well. The bank may either become the owner or the property may be sold at public auction to a new owner.
If you are the TENANT, you may receive a summons / complaint as well - you could be a DEFENDANT in the foreclosure proceeding. If you receive notice, read it and understand it. BE SURE TO FILE A RESPONSE. Protect what rights you may have as a tenant. LAWS VARY BY STATE and COURT JURISDICTION.
I would do exactly the same, though it would probably upset me at some level to live without knowing if said evict notice would come at any time. OTOH, 3-5-6 months of free rent ain’t chopped liver.
The laws on this issue are kind of iffy, and the circumstances of the rights of the apparent foreclosing authority are equally weird.
I mean...the story is, the prior “owner” was collecting rent and pocketing it, eg, not paying his mortgage. Fine. Except in very unusual circumstances there is nothing in the purchase agreement between foreclosing lender and borrower that assigns rents to the lender; the lender has no right to them. As far as the lender is concerned, whether the tenant is paying rent or not is absolutely meaningless. It is a zero, it means sub-nothing. Meanwhile, the lender, if the property went through MERS, there’s about a 60% chance that title is altogether goofy and cannot be proven to standards specified in the statute of frauds, in successor-in-interest terms. The lender may not have the note to prove they really own the property, it may have been sold and resold. So there is a significant chance that the lender cannot adequately prove he holds valid title to the property and thus he cannot prove he can legally foreclose! (I have no idea whether Indiana is a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure state)
But, as you said, without knowing any of that, a tenant has not the slightest obligation to pay rent to the lender. None.
A duplex with units owned by separate parties? Okay, it’s obviously a condo (unless you are confusing a duplex with a twin). Forget about the other unit, since it’s owned by a different party. Depending on the neighborhood, the bank that holds the mortgage on your unit may be interested in keeping somebody in there in order to prevent the copper and anything of value from being spirited away in the night.
My daughter was in the exact same situation and lived in the house rent-free for several months. One thing for sure - - don’t send any more money to the landlord.
Good luck.
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