Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Renter's rights

You are legally obligated to pay rent for the entire time period you actually occupy or are entitled to occupy the premises. Your current landlord owns the property until it is sold [to the bank] at the foreclosure sale, at which time you then owe rent to the buyer of the property. Unless you claim that the process has resulted in a constructive eviction [situation made it extremely difficult to continue to live there, such as a fire, loss of a utility, etc.], you obligation remains.

Obviously you are getting a benefit by living there so you have to pay for that benefit. You should sent right now a lettere tothe landlord with a copy to the lender stating to whom you are going to pay the rent and when, and if anyone has any objections they should contact you immedaitely. You should also state whether you want to continue to live there or not and that any deposits you gave the landlord have to go to the bank which must refund them per the language of your rental contract. You should demand of the bank to be informed what they intend to do as to your renting; normally the contract you made with the former landlord is entirely transferred to a buyer of the property. Bank claim they are exwempt from this law; they do not want to put the property on the market with a tenant in it. Normally they will pay you some money to move out.

If you like the house, you could consider buying it. The bank will eventually sell it for a price where if you can get a loan to buy the house the monthly payments on the loan will be less than your current rental payments. But you need to look carefully at such a transaction as you also have to pay taxes, insurance, repairs, a down payment, etc.