I have posted Tenants in Foreclosed Properties. Myths and Reality It was about tenants taking advantage of the situation and stopping making payments to the landlord. Here another side to the story. It is about tenants, who learn that the property in pre-foreclosure, and walk away from the lease. Whether they learn it from the landlord or received a copy of the Notice of Default delivered by Sheriff.
There is often indignation involved. Tenants blame the landlord. They persuade themselves that this gives them the right to break the lease and leave at will.
For the tenant, who terminates the lease, there may be consequences. Pre-foreclosure process is not the reason to break the lease. There is nothing in our standard Florida lease approved by Florida BAR, that states that should the financial situation of the landlord change or he is in default with his mortgage, the tenant has the right to leave.
- But I am paying rent, how can he be in default?
Simply put, it is none of the tenants’ business. Again, there is nowhere in the lease stipulating that the landlord has to use the rent payments to pay for the mortgage. Actually, the tenants usually do not even know that there is a mortgage. It is not part of the lease.
But tenants tell me that they now do not feel safe, they are all anxious, they can’t stand the trouble (what trouble?) and they are leaving.
They are surprised that the landlord sues them. The landlord wants them to pay rent as agreed. They go to their attorney and learn that the landlord has the right to the rent for each month that it is vacant until either the expiration of the lease, or the time, when the property is re-rented, which in pre-foreclosure can’t be done as the minute there is Notice of Default, you can’t enter into a lease. It will not be a valid lease.
So, if the tenant left and there is another 7 months, they are facing the prospect of paying for the unit they left in indignation. But now they have another lease on their hands. You can’t win when it happens.
But you always win if you do not play games, and do not slamg the doors when you do not like something.
In cases where landlords are in foreclosure proceedings, too often tenants breach their leases not because they do not understand what they are doing, but rather because they do not expect their landlords turn to the law.
Too often the only rationale for the act is “Because I want to”. Many people got used to the nice idea of fooling with the banks, and they forget that their landlord is not a bank, but an individual, and breaching the leases hurt them.
Photo by kennejima via Flickr.com
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