Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

You don't get to live rent free just because the owner is in foreclosure anymore than you get to live rent-free if the owner is selling his rental property to an new landlord. A foreclosure is nothing more than an involuntary sale to pay the debt. A lender has the right to collect rents instead of foreclosing, but you make no mention of not paying due to anything the lender said about wanting the rents.

You should go to the county recorder and find out if the property has actually sold yet. If not you owe rent to your landlord.. If so, find out when it was sold and arrange with the old and new owners to pay each of them pro rata for the time each owned the property.

The only exception to this is if your landlord bought the property recently, say in the last two years or less (I'd have to look up the exact time limit). In that case it is illegal to take rents and not pay the lender. It's called rent skimming. If your landlord bought the property recently, get back to us and we'll take another look at this.