They can and should. Just because the owner is having trouble making his payments and has a financial legal issue with his mother doesn’t alleviate you of your legal obligation to pay rent. Thats a pathetic opportunistic sort of behavior. If you have concerns about who to pay the rent to, put the money in an escrow account and tell both parties you’ll pay when you find out clearly to whom you would owe the rent. It sounds like without a foreclosure, you still owe your landlord, not his mother.
