it escapes me why you thought that you could stop paying rent just because the property was headed into foreclosure. You have a contract with the owner of the property and it is your legal obligation to continue paying rent for this property for as long as the contract is valid. The contract terminates the day he loses possession of the house (the day he forecloses), not a single day sooner.
It is not in anybody’s interest to evict you as long as you keep paying rent. They will need to resolve their financial conflict one way or another, and they’d rather do that with someone living in the house bringing a stream of money than with the house standing empty and gathering dust. If you get evicted, it will be hard for them to find a new tenant, given this muddy situation.
My recommendation:
* Try to get both mother and son in the same room and have them come to an agreement as far as who’s supposed to get paid.
* If you can’t, you should _probably_ be paying to the mother. If there is a valid Assignment of Rents and the owner did in fact go in default on his second mortgage, holder of the second mortgage (mother) gains the right to collect rent from you. What arguments does the owner offer against that?
* Offer to pay at least one month worth of rent if you can’t pay them everything you owe.
* Keep an eye on the proceedings. If things get to the point where the property is finally foreclosed upon, you will probably get evicted anyway, be prepared for that.
