[quote=captcha]Isn’t there a non-profit that is supposed to assist the tenants?
But don’t the tenants have to pay the rent, since the new owner has to honor the current lease until it expires (or 90 days)? My impression was that in reality banks don’t collect rent because they do not want to be landlords, not because the law forces them to forfeit.[/quote]
I actually went over this with a couple of different attorneys.
At a literal level, the tenants are not excused from rent.
However, collecting rent requires the voluntary adoption of a new rental agreement.
There is no requirement for the tenants to adopt such an agreement.
If they choose not to, then they can be served with a notice to quit.
A 90-day notice.
If the tenant pays rent, then they can be credited for rent they have paid.
In this case, they had paid rent on the 15th (their normal day) and the property was foreclosed on the 17th.
Further, if the landlord asserts that the tenants are bound by the old lease, then he is also bound to it.
That is a dumb idea because it can mean that the landlord owes them the deposit based on the terms of that lease.
Accepting rent creates this relationship.
So, again, there is no real way for the landlord to have it both ways.
Either they are landlords with tenants or they are successors in interest with holdover occupants.
And yes there are non-profits that help with this.
But I wanted them to have the benefit of a legal bulldog.
