Q: Can i stop paying rent if i rent a forclosed home that went to auction and was repossed by the bank.
I rent a forclosed home with a 1 year lease agreemwnt that ends in oxt on july 7th the sheriff auctioned the house nobody beat the credit bid so the bank owns it again obviously i no longer gave to oay my previous landord or do I? Furthermore if the house is in a desirable area but in a state of disrepair and the prooerty has lots of grabage (previos tenets and o never got around to cleaning it up as i moved in middle of winter) this making the home and property worth considerably less than all the other homes in the area would the bank be willing to let me stay for a reduced rent or could i withhold rent all together and wait for a 90 day evction notice from said bank.
A:
First it is important to be quite sure that the house was actually auctioned. Receiving a notice of sheriff sale posted on the property with a date for the sale does not mean the sale actually happened. sales are often postponed or thhe owner files chapter 13 and brings the property out of foreclosure. So..call the sheriff if you have not already, or look online and verify that the sale actually occured.
Once the house is actually auctioned the owner is no longer entitled to rent. Although the lender could collect rent, if it is any normal lender they are not set up for being landlords and collecting rent so they will just send a realtor by to talk to you about when you can get out and they will generally offer you cash for keys if you clean the place up and get out within a certain amount of time. They generally will not accept rent and allow you to stay longer. Paying them will generally not affect the timeline in which they will try to get the property vacated. Most lenders aren't terribly aggressive, but I wouldn't expect more than 90-120 days at the most before they start looking at eviction if you don't accept the cash for keys and leave voluntarily.
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